The Transformation of Organic Chemistry in Japan: From Majima Riko to the Third International Symposium on the Chemistry of Natural Products (2016)
The Period from 1930 to 1960 as a Turning Point of Chemistry in Japan Majima Riko (1874–1962), one of the first organic research chemists of Japan1, is widely known especially for his study of urushiol, the main component of Japanese lacquer tree sap. His research strategy involved studying the structure of the components of Japan’s local natural products using newly developed methods from Europe to catch up to and compete with chemists in more advanced countries in the West2. Majima’s approach became the primary research method employed by research organic chemists in Japan until the 1950s. After Fukui Ken-ichi received the Nobel Prize in chemistry in Japan in 1981, six Japanese chemists went on to receive the same award. Most of these scientists discovered and developed new methods or theories from the 1950s to the 1970s. This paper considers the Third IUPAC Symposium on the Chemistry of Natural Products in Kyoto in 1964, two years after Majima’s death, as indication of the transformation of organic chemistry in Japan. By analyzing the circumstances behind this symposium, the topics presented in the symposium, and its consequences in the 1960s, this paper will elucidate the major factors that influenced the transformation of organic chemistry research in Japan.
...MoreBook Masanori Kaji; Yasu Furukawa; Hiroaki Tanaka; Yoshiyuki Kikuchi (2016) Transformation of Chemistry from the 1920s to the 1960s.
Similar Citations
Article
Kaji, Masanori;
(2011)
The Role of Riko Majima in the Formation of the Research Tradition of Organic Chemistry in Japan
Article
Kubota, Takashi;
(2003)
Rikō Majima: Founder of Organic Chemistry in Japan, Part 1
Article
David E. Lewis;
(2022)
A Future History of Selectivity in Organic Chemistry: Whence, Where, and Whither?
Article
Goodwin, William;
(2013)
Sustaining a Controversy: The Non-classical Ion Debate
Book
Catherine M. Jackson;
(2023)
Molecular World: Making Modern Chemistry
Article
Itagaki, Eiji;
(2004)
Lecture on Organic Chemistry by a Netherland Medical Doctor, A. C. Holterman
Chapter
Noboru Hirota;
(2016)
Robert Mulliken and His Influence on Japanese Physical Chemistry
Chapter
Yoshiyuki Kikuchi;
(2016)
San-ichiro Mizushima and the Realignment of the International Relations of Japanese Chemistry
Book
Horiuchi, Annick;
(2010)
Japanese Mathematics in the Edo Period (1600--1868): A study of the works of Seki Takakazu (?--1708) and Takebe Katahiro (1664--1739)
Article
Stevenson, William R., III;
(2011)
Science, the South Pole, and the Japanese Expedition of 1910--1912
Book
Tomokazu Kogure;
(2021)
The History of Modern Astronomy in Japan
Article
Brooke, John Hedley;
(1987)
Methods and methodology in the development of organic chemistry
Article
Edwin Yates;
Andrew Yates;
(2016)
Johann Peter Griess Frs (1829–88): Victorian Brewer and Synthetic Dye Chemist
Article
Sarah Cummings;
Amy Robinson;
Martin Saltzman;
Carmen J. Giunta;
(2022)
HIST Centennial Memories Paul Raymond Jones (1930-2019)
Article
Jeffrey I. Seeman;
(2023)
The Back Story: KC, EJ, and Arbie. Three Generations of Eminent Synthetic Organic Chemists
Article
David E. Lewis;
(2019)
1860-1861: Magic years in the development of the structural theory of organic chemistry
Article
Kaspar F. Burri;
Richard J. Friary;
(2019)
A school for synthesis: R. B. Woodward and the Woodward Research Institute remembered
Article
Jeffrey I. Seeman;
(2019)
The back story: Koji Nakanishi (May 11, 1925-March 28, 2019), magician supreme.
Article
Jeffrey I. Seeman;
(2020)
The back story: Sir Jack Baldwin, FRS
Article
Joop A. Peters;
Herman van Bekkum;
(2021)
Pioneering Molecular Models for Cycloalkanes by Derx in Böeseken's Laboratory at Delft, A Century Ago
化学史研究 [Kagakushi kenkyū; Journal of the Japanese Society for the History of Chemistry]
Ambix: Journal of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry
British Journal for the Philosophy of Science
Endeavour: Review of the Progress of Science
Notes and Records: The Royal Society Journal of the History of Science
Be the first to comment!