Agricultural chemist. In 1889, he entered the Tokyo School of Agriculture and Forestry. In 1901, he studied at the University of Berlin in Germany. After returning to Japan, he worked as a professor at the Morioka High School of Agriculture and Forestry, and in 1907 he assumed a professorship at the Imperial University of Tokyo College of Agriculture. In 1917, when RIKEN（Institute of Physical and Chemical Research）was established, he assumed a position as senior researcher. He was appointed as the first president of the Agricultural Chemical Society of Japan in 1924. While researching the cause of beriberi, he succeeded in extracting vitamin B1 from rice bran and named it aberisaure（later renamed oryzanin）. A pioneer in vitamin research. He received the Order of Culture in 1943.