1929
In Kyoto I met the famous cytogeneticist Kihara, [1] an extremely productive worker within the field of wheat genetics, whose work has led to discoveries of first-class importance. …
The history of the earth is recorded in the layers of its crust;
the history of all organisms is inscribed in the chromosomes.
Hitoshi Kihara, 1946
When in Kyoto I had also an opportunity to study the large collection of rice, collected from all over the world by Professor Kato. It was evident that the maximum diversity of forms and varieties were concentrated not in Japan or in China, but in India. I was also able to observe peculiar crops of an arrowhead [Sagittaria trifolia L.], grown for its diseased, globular rhizomes. When not diseased the stalks themselves are not edible. When affected they become juicier, acquire a special taste and appear to be one of the common species, eaten by both the Chinese and the Japanese peoples.
- Hitoshi Kihara discovered the origins of the D genome in wheat, and was perhaps the most important taxonomist of wheat in his day. Astonishingly, there is no Wikipedia page for him, but an obituary reveals that he also captained Japan’s Winter Olympics squad in 1960 and 1964. See also James Crow’s appreciation. [↩]
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