Wood Anatomy in Japan Since Its Early Beginnings

Abstract

The history of wood anatomy in Japan, which goes back to 1882, is reviewed, based on a comprehensive literature study. In the early phase most publications dealt with descriptive wood anatomy and identification, while later publications are highly diversified. The beginning of Japanese wood anatomy coincided with the publication of Nakamura's PhD thesis in Munich on the wood anatomical properties and identification of Japanese softwood species. In subsequent decades, several wood anatomists have made studies in Nakamura's footsteps on the Japanese soft- and hardwood species, in the tradition of the German school of comparative plant anatomy. In the first half of the 20th century, the development of wood anatomy in Japan is dominated by the work of Fujioka, Kanehira, Kawai, Yamabayashi and their collaborators and students. In this period there was a growing interest in timber species from abroad. In the second half of the 20th century, activities have steadily increased with a growing number of wood anatomists. Electron microscopic studies on wood began in the Government Forest Experiment Station in the nineteen-fifties, led by Harada, who later continued his research and teaching at Kyoto University. Other centres of wood ultrastructural research soon followed. A large number of research reports and books has been published on the wood anatomy of tropical species. This is because of the influx on the market of a huge volume of imported logs from a great number of lesser-known tropical species since the mid nineteen-sixties. Names of Fujioka and Kanehira are found in the list of the IAWA founders and since the foundation of IAWA the participation of Japanese wood anatomists has seen an upward tendency.