was a Japanese

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

and painter. Born into a

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...

family in

Fukui is a Japanese name meaning "fortunate" or sometimes "one who is from the Fukui prefecture". It may refer to: Places * Fukui Domain, a part of the Japanese han system during the Edo period * Fukui Prefecture, a prefecture of Japan located in ...

, Hirase discovered the spermatozoids of the

ginkgo ''Ginkgo'' is a genus of non-flowering seed plants. The scientific name is also used as the English name. The order to which it belongs, Ginkgoales, first appeared in the Permian, 270 million years ago, and is now the only living genus within ...

in January 1894, before Seiichiro Ikeno discovered the spermatozoids of the

cycad Cycads are seed plants that typically have a stout and woody (ligneous) trunk (botany), trunk with a crown (botany), crown of large, hard, stiff, evergreen and (usually) pinnate leaves. The species are dioecious, that is, individual plants o ...

. He is a laureate of the

Imperial Prize of the Japan Academy The is a prestigious honor conferred to two of the recipients of the Japan Academy Prize. Overviews It is awarded in two categories: humanities and natural sciences. The Emperor and Empress visit the awarding ceremony and present a vase to ...

(1912).

Works

Selections regarding ''Ginkgo biloba'': * 1894a. Fecundation period of ''Ginkgo biloba''. (In Japanese) Bot. Mag., Tokyo 8: 7-9. * 1894b. Notes on the attraction-spheres in the pollen-cells of ''Ginkgo biloba''. (In Japanese) Bot. Mag., Tokyo 8: 359-60; 361 -364. * 1895a. Etudes sur le ''Ginkgo biloba'' (note pröliminaire). Bot. Mag.,Tokyo 9: 239-240. * 1895b. Etudes sur la föcondation et l´embryogönie du ''Ginkge biloba'' (1). J. Coll Sci. imp. Univ. Tokyo 8: 307-3 22. * 1896a. Spermatozoid of ''Ginkgo biloba''. (In Japanese) Bot. Mag., Tokyo 10:171. * 1896b. On the spermatozoid of Ginkgo. (In Japanese) . Bot. Mag., Tokyo 10: 325-328. * 1897. Untersuchungen über das Verhalten des Pollens von ''Ginkgo biloba''. Bot. Zbl. 49: 33-35. * 1898. Etudes sur la fécondation et l´embryogénie du ''Ginkgo biloba'' (second mémoire). J. Coll. Sei. imp. Univ. Tokyo 12: 103-149.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hirase, Sakugoro 19th-century Japanese botanists 1856 births 1925 deaths 20th-century Japanese botanists