was a Japanese civil servant and naturalist. Born to a doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Iida, Shinano Province, Tanaka studied

pharmacognosy Pharmacognosy is the study of medicinal plants and other natural substances as sources of drugs. The American Society of Pharmacognosy defines pharmacognosy as "the study of the physical, chemical, biochemical, and biological properties of drug ...

in his youth with Keisuke Ito. In 1861 he moved to

Edo Edo ( ja, , , "bay-entrance" or "estuary"), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a ''jōkamachi'' (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the ''de facto'' capital of ...

and joined the ''Bansho Shirabesho'' (Office for the Investigation of Foreign Documents) the following year. In this job, he worked on the documentation of local produce. He was part of the Japanese delegation at the 1867 ''Exposition Universelle'' in Paris, where he exhibited a number of entomological specimens; this journey also gave him the opportunity to learn about Western museum

curation Curation may refer to: Activities * Content curation, the collection and sorting of information * Data curation, management activities required to maintain research data * Digital curation, the preservation and maintenance of digital assets * Evi ...

. After the Meiji Restoration, the

Japanese Civil Service The Japanese civil service employs over three million employees, with the Japan Self-Defense Forces, with 247,000 personnel, being the biggest branch. In the post-war period, this figure has been even higher, but the privatization of a large numbe ...

was reorganised. Within the ''Daigaku'' (later the Ministry of Education) Tanaka joined the Bureau of Local Products, and then moved to the Museums Bureau in 1871. A decade later, his services were sought by the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce to oversee the menagerie attached to the National Museum of Natural History; Tanaka took advantage of the opportunity to create

Ueno Zoo The is a zoo, managed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, and located in Taitō, Tokyo, Japan. It is Japan's oldest zoo, opened on March 20, 1882. It is served by Ueno Station, Keisei Ueno Station and Nezu Station, with convenient access fro ...

. Opened in 1882, it was Japan's first zoological park. The creation of the zoo resulted in Tanaka's promotion to Director-General of the Natural History Bureau, however he received little ministerial support for his botanical and zoological planning and resigned from the post the following year. In 1878 he helped to set up a school of agriculture in

Komaba is a residential neighborhood in the northern area of Meguro, Tokyo, Japan. Consisting of four districts, the neighborhood has a population of 6,847. The neighborhood is known as a center for education being the location of a number of selec ...

(which later became the University of Tokyo's Faculty of Agriculture) and in subsequent years was responsible for the founding of several societies, including the ''Dainippon Nokai'' ("Greater Japan Agricultural Society"), the ''Dainippon Sanrinkai'' ("Greater Japan Forestry Society") and the ''Dainippon Suisankai'' ("Greater Japan Fisheries Society"). He also published several books on botany and agriculture. In 1890 he was elevated to the House of Peers and in 1915 he was granted the title of ''danshaku'' (baron). Tanaka died in 1916. The '' Saxifragaceae'' species ''

Tanakaea radicans ''Tanakaea radicans'', the Japanese foam flower, is a species of flowering plant in the Saxifrage family, and is the sole species in the genus ''Tanakaea''. It is native to central Honshu and Shikoku in Japan, and to southern Sichuan in south-cen ...

'' is named after him.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tanaka, Yoshio Japanese civil servants 1838 births 1916 deaths 20th-century Japanese botanists Japanese naturalists Members of the House of Peers (Japan) People from Iida, Nagano 19th-century Japanese botanists