Agricultural chemist. In 1881, he entered Komaba Agricultural School (later the Imperial University of Tokyo College of Agriculture) and studied under German agricultural chemist Oskar Kellner. He married SHIMIZU Shikin, a writer, in 1892. He went to study abroad in Germany in 1895, and became a professor at the Imperial University of Tokyo College of Agriculture in 1900 after returning to Japan. From 1920 to 1928, he was President of the Imperial University of Tokyo. During his tenure as an assistant professor, he investigated and proved the cause of the pollution at the Asio Copper Mine. After the Great Kanto Earthquake, he devoted himself to the reconstruction of the Imperial University of Tokyo. He also made achievements in fermentation chemistry research.