Formosa－A Heretical Botanist Bunzo Hayata

University Museum, The University of Tokyo

Finished

Bunzo Hayata（1874－1934）was a botanist born in Niigata Prefecture. He was teaching at the University of Tokyo from 1904 until his death. He devoted to study on plants on Mt. Fuji, in Taiwan, and in SE Asia. He is especially well known as the "father of botany in Taiwan", naming more than 1600 Taiwanese plants as new species. He studied not only for orthodox taxonomy, but also proposing unique theories, such as 'Succession Theory' for plant communities, 'Dynamic System' for plant systematics, and 'Stele Theory' for internal structure of plants. However, his ideas were not acceptable by the major scholars and academic communities in Japan at that time.

This special exhibition presents the "heretical botanist" Hayata's life and works with materials he collected and his literature, and takes into account his ideas suggesting to the modern biology.
"FORMOSA" means not only for the name of Taiwan, but also for "beautiful" in Portuguese. The word would be suitable for introducing Hayata.

Schedule

Apr 24 (Thu) 2025-Sep 5 (Fri) 2025