110 | December 2021 www.facs.website nonbenzenoid aromatic chemistry. Nozoe was a prime example of Majima’s research style of tackling local products contributing to the creation of a universal scientific discipline. Kuroda Chika: Pioneer Woman Chemist in Twentieth Century Japan An early student of Majima in organic and natural product chemistry at Tohoku, Kuroda Chika 黑田チカ (1884-1968) became a pioneer woman chemist in early Twentieth Century Japan. Kuroda Chika was born in Saga, Kyushu Island in 1884. Her father, Heihachi, made sure that his children, including his daughters, were well educated. In 1902, aged 18, she entered the Division of Science, Women’s Higher Normal School (Joshi Kōtō Shihan Gakkō or Jokōshi), where she graduated in 1906. She was invited as a teacher to Fukui Normal School where she spent one year, training teachers. In 1907-1909 she completed the graduate course at the Women’s Higher Normal School and became assistant professor at Tokyo Women’s Higher Normal School.52 Kuroda was one of the first two women who studied at the recently established Tohoku Imperial University in Sendai, north of Tokyo. In 1913 she passed the entrance examination after Nagai, who was a champion of women’s education in Japan, recommended that she apply. A director at the Ministry of Education sent a critical letter to the president of Tohoku Imperial University against letting women start their education there, pointing out that it had not happened previously. However, Kuroda Chika was allowed to continue her studies and graduated in 1916.53 It is important to note here that the issue of hindrance of women participation in science was not unique to Japan.54 Studies on women in science in Japan and the global context of this issue were published by Otsubo Sumiko,55 Kodate Kashiko and Kodate Naonori,56 and Ogawa Mariko.57 An introductory Japanese book on the history of chemistry includes a chapter on gender and the history of chemistry featuring Marie-Anne Lavoisier (17581936), Marie Curie (1867-1934), and Kuroda.58 Kuroda’s case is therefore a part of the longterm and worldwide phenomenon awaiting full scrutiny. The study of natural dyes had a long history in Japan.59 Majima Rikō, who started modern organic chemistry studies in Japan, focused on plants; Kuroda Chika, his student, continued and deepened the chemical studies of plant dyes.60 In 1918 she was the first woman to publish the results of her research “On the Pigment of Purple Root,” an important fabric-dyeing material, and presented her findings in front of the assembly of Tokyo Chemical Society.61 In 1918 she became a full professor at Tokyo Women’s Higher Normal School. Figure 9. Kuroda Chika at RIKEN, 1924. Kindly provided and permitted to use by Ochanomizu University History Museum. During 1921-1923 Kuroda was at Oxford University in England, sent there by the Ministry of Education, and continued research work in the laboratory of William Henry Perkin Jr. (1860-1929), with a letter of recommendation from Sakurai who had been acquainted with Perkin.62 In her memories she tells how she enjoyed her time in Oxford and the Perkin family’s hospitality. During summer vacation she traveled to Switzerland, climbed the Jungfrau Mountain, and visited Italy. After returning to Japan Kuroda reentered Tokyo Women’s Higher Normal School. However, the earthquake of September 1923 destroyed the buildings of that school. Majima offered her a commissioned position in the recently established RIKEN, the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research founded in 1917. There Kuroda continued her research and published her research results titled “About the structure of safflower pigment” (1929) that was her doctoral thesis. In 1929, at 45 years old Kuroda Chika received the title Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) from Tohoku Imperial University. She received the first Majima Award from the Chemical Society of Japan in 1936. In 1949 Kuroda Chika became professor of the newly established Ochanomizu University, formerly Jokōshi. In dozens of articles, she described detailed processes for isolation, crystallization, as well as synthesis, and determination of the structure of the dyes extracted from plants and a sea animal that were traditionally used in Japan. In 1936 she concluded that many of those substances were derivatives of anthocyanin. Robert Robinson (1886-1975), Nobel chemistry laureate in 1947, cited her research in 1955.63 In her memoirs written in 1957 Kuroda acknowledged and included photos of those scientists from whom she learned: Majima, W. H. Perkin Jr., Arthur George Perkin (1861-1937, Perkin Jr.’s younger brother) and Robinson. It should be realized that Kuroda Chika’s research and achievements were on topics similar to those of the leading organic chemists in England, though there was far less support for laboratory facilities in Japan, and less recognition of her work. She continued part time research and teaching as a professor emeritus after her retirement in 1952. Kuroda Chika started her memoirs by writing “Since I’ve learned about the endless world of academic study and the joy of walking that path, I was just drawn to the joy of discovering something I hadn’t seen yet; and before I knew it, I had reached the age of 72. I am grateful that I still have enough energy to continue my research. At the end of last year, the research on substances in onion skin that act against high blood pressure which I had been working on for a long time, finally came to fruition, and it was made the blood pressure medicine ‘Keltin C’; I am incredibly happy that it will be useful to many people, it will be my honor.”64 In 1959 (aged 75) Kuroda Chika received the Medal with Purple Ribbon and in 1965 she received the Order of the Precious Crown. Together with her friend the first woman biologist Yasui Kono 保井コノ (1880 –1971) they established a prize for young students that is awarded annually. Kuroda Chika died in Fukuoka City in Kyushu on 8 November 1968 at 84 years of age. Her memory is cherished in Japan as a pioneering woman chemist. The “Kyoto School” and the First Japanese Nobel Laureate in Chemistry This short article on the history of chemistry in Japan ends with Fukui Kenichi 福井謙一 (1918-98), who became the first Japanese Nobel Laureate in Chemistry in 1981 for his pathbreaking quantum mechanical theory on the course of chemical reactions, the frontier orbital theory. An interesting point about his career and work is that, despite the highly theoretical character of his research, Fukui was trained at and affiliated to the Faculty of Engineering, not Science, of Kyoto (Imperial)65 University. This is best understood by considering the fact that Fukui was a member of the “Kyoto school” of chemistry, established by industrial chemist Kita Gen-itsu 喜多源逸 (1883-1952) and thoroughly studied by historian of chemistry Furukawa Yasu, on whose works this section is based.66 The Kyoto school epitomized how the traditions of pure and applied chemistry in Japan, outlined above, converged in the twentieth century. Kita was born in Nara Prefecture and graduated from the Department of Applied Chemistry, College of Engineering, Tokyo Imperial University in 1906.67 His original research field was fermentation, especially
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