Isao Ijima

Born in Hamamatsu in 1861 into a samurai family of Hamamatsu Domain, at the age of fifteen he entered the Kaisei Gakkō school [ja] in Tokyo, before enrolling as a student in the Science College at the Imperial University, Tokyo in 1878.^[1][2] There he studied under Edward Sylvester Morse and Charles Otis Whitman.^[2] In 1879, together with Sasaki Chūjirō [ja], both having previously received training from and assisted Morse in his exploration of the Ōmori Shell Mounds, Ijima excavated the Okadaira Shell Mound; this is credited with being the first modern archaeological survey conducted solely by Japanese.^[6][7][8] Upon graduation in 1881, as one of three from the first cohort in the Department of Zoology, he became an assistant in the College.^[1][2] The next year he went to Germany to study zoology at the University of Leipzig, where he spent three years working under the direction of Doctor Rudolf Leuckart; he was awarded his Ph.D. in 1884.^[1]

Returning to Japan in 1886, at the age of 25 he was appointed Professor of Zoology at the Imperial University, Tokyo, where he remained until his death.^[1][2] In 1893, with the description of Parus owstoni (now Sittiparus owstoni or Owston's tit), he became the first zoologist from Japan to describe a bird.^{[9]: 276 [10]} In 1903, he was involved in the establishment of Sakai Aquarium [ja] and in 1904 he was appointed the second director of the Misaki Marine Biological Station [ja].^[2][11] In 1912, he was the founding president of the Ornithological Society of Japan.^[2] In 1918, he published his influential A Manual of Zoology (動物学提要, Dōbutsu-gaku Teiyō).^[2][12] In his personal life, Ijima enjoyed hunting, shooting, fishing, wine, and smoking a pipe.^[1] He died in 1921.^[1]

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• Eponyms of Isao Ijima