Cultivators: Kono Yasui

Kono Yasui (1880-1971) was a Japanese biologist and cytologist who became the first Japanese woman to receive a doctoral degree in science. Her academic and scientific career defied gender norms of the time and made important advancements in genetics.

For Further Reading: 

• How a Pioneering Botanist Broke Down Japan’s Gender Barriers | Smithsonian
• Kono Yasui 1880-1971 japan's first woman doctor of science

This month, we’re talking about cultivators — women who nurtured, cross-pollinated, experimented, or went to great lengths to better understand and protect the natural world.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hello. I'm Edie Allard, a senior brand studio producer at
Wonder Media Network, and I'm so excited to be hosting
this episode of Womanica. This month, we're talking about cultivators,
women who nurtured, cross pollinated, experimented, or went to great
lengths to better understand and protect the nature around them.

(00:27):
Within every plant, there is a world, and within a
small village in Kugawa Prefecture, Japan, there was a woman
who dedicated her whole career to studying those worlds. Spiderwort,
castor beans, per simmons, and poppies were among the many
species that this Womanniquin examined. She was not just interested

(00:50):
in what grew from the ground beneath her, but also
how she could break new ground and create new paths
forward for women in science. Today we are learning the
life and legacy of Kono. Yasui. Kono was born in
the small village of san Bonmatsu, Japan, in eighteen eighty.
Her parents owned a shipping business in the Kagawa Prefecture,

(01:13):
a port area in the northeast of Shikoku, Japan's smallest
main island. Kono grew up in the Meiji period in Japan,
a time marked by rapid modernization and education reform, girls
attended separate schools from boys. Rather than learning about science
or math, women were funneled into becoming housewives and mothers.

(01:33):
At the time, prefectures were not required to offer secondary
education to girls. The message was clear, but Kono's parents
were progressive for the time. They valued reading and education,
laying the groundwork for Kono's emerging brilliance. Kono's father gifted
her a copy of Encouragement of Learning, a book that
advocated for gender equality in education. Kono was an elementary

(01:57):
school when she digested this dense philosophic text, but the
words obviously had an impact. Scaling the rungs of her
educational journey. She moved on to the Kagawa Prefecture Normal School,
where she discovered her passion for mathematics and science. Nurturing
this passion, Kono attended university in Tokyo, where she declared
a major in science. She graduated from university in nineteen

(02:22):
oh two and was soon after selected to enroll in
the school's new research department. She studied under an influential professor,
Tomotaro Iwakawa. He encouraged her to study the bone makeup
of a carpfish. In nineteen oh six, she published her
first research findings in the Japanese Journal of Zoology. This
achievement made Kono the first woman to ever publish in

(02:45):
a Japanese science journal. Following this achievement, Tomotaro suggested that
she study the embryology of the leech, but Kono wasn't
interested in that at all. She responded to her professor
by sharing that she in fact hated leeches. Instead, she
wanted to study plant biology, so she embarked on her

(03:06):
own independent research into the study of plant cells, also
known as citology. This decision changed the course of Kno's life.
In nineteen oh nine, the Japanese Journal of Botany published
her research on aquatic ferns. Her paper landed in the
hands of Kichi Miyake, a professor at the Tokyo Imperial
University Faculty of Agriculture. He was impressed by Kno's findings

(03:28):
and thorough research. He offered Kono the opportunity to study
cytology under his mentorship, and she of course accepted. In
no time, Kona was in the lab cutting thin sections
of plant tissue under a microscope and creating her own
scientific instruments to measure things like how much water had
evaporated from a plant. She crafted and refined her research

(03:50):
paper on aquatic ferns, rounding it out with one hundred
and nineteen precise drawings. Her paper was published in a
British journal, making her the first Japanese woman to ever
publish in a foreign professional journal. But there was a
dark shadow following the string of Cono's accomplishments. There were
scientists who protested her publications simply because of her gender.

(04:12):
When a professor asked her to write a physics textbook
for high school age girls, she did, but the Ministry
of Education rejected the book at face value under the
assumption that it couldn't have been written by a woman.
In a similar vein, Cono was barred by the ministry
from conducting studies abroad under the pretense that women were
not likely to achieve any valuable scientific discoveries. These innumerable

(04:36):
hurdles did not stop Cono from working for what she deserved.
She did everything she could to keep moving. After receiving
support from a male professor at the same university, she
was finally approved to study in the United States in
nineteen fourteen. She began her studies at the University of Chicago,
where she studied botany. Then she moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts,

(04:58):
where she learned under a Harvard professor who was revolutionizing
cytological research. His methods allowed for the microscopic study of coal.
He advised Kono to return to Japan to implement this
new technique on Japanese coal. She began researching and teaching.
After long days teaching all day and working with students,
Kono headed to her night occupation, coal research. She would

(05:22):
stay in the lab late into the night, examining coal
under the microscope. She traveled to minds all around Japan
collecting coal samples for her studies. She would lower herself
thirty meters or more into a coal pit, using a
woven rope basket to propel herself down. It was dirty
and dangerous work. Even Kno's mother implored her to stop

(05:43):
the coal missions, but if it was in the name
of research, Kno would not let anything, not even her
own mother, get in the way. Kono spent ten years
on the study. She learned how cell membranes underwent the
carbonization process, discover during six ancient plant species in the process.
Her research was a massive undertaking and eventually led her

(06:06):
to earn a PhD in science from Tokyo Imperial University
in nineteen twenty seven. She was, of course, the first
woman to earn this degree. When she accepted the honor,
she expressed that she never sought fame or status, but
simply quote plotted along the path of her own choosing,
and her path did not end there. In the wake

(06:29):
of her achievement, she founded her own science journal, Cytologia
in nineteen twenty nine. She became the business manager and
accountant for the publication. Her scientific work and research continued
to evolve and expand to new species. She published more
than ninety research papers during her lifetime. At seventy five
years old, Kno was recognized by the Emperor of Japan

(06:51):
for her academic contributions. For many years, Cono lived with
her younger sister in Tokyo. Kono retired from teaching in
nineteen fifty two and was kept company by her microscope
from dawn to dusk daily. It was said that when
people came to visit her during these years, she would
greet her visitors with delicious sweets and cups of specialty tea.

(07:13):
In nineteen sixty two she became bedridden, but of course
her bedside table held scholarly journals in English language newspapers.
She passed away in nineteen seventy one at the age
of ninety one. Kono Yasueek grew from seed to bud
to blossom, and it all began with words of encouragement.

(07:33):
She blazed her path across decades, and when the ground
beneath her gave out, she found another way. All month,
we're talking about cultivators. For more information, find us on
Facebook and Instagram at Wamanica Podcast. Thanks to co creators
Jenny and Liz Kaplan for letting me guest host talk

(07:55):
to you on Monday,