Ikeno Seiichiro (池野成一郎)
Seiichiro IKENO (1866 - 1943) is a Japanese botanist. He was a pioneer of plant morphology and found the spermatozoid of cycads.
Career
He was born in a family of hatamoto (direct retainers of the bakufu, which is a form of Japanese feudal government headed by a shogun) in Surugadai, Edo. He studied in Kaisei Gakko (Kaisei School) and Daiichi High School (the first old-education-system high school), and enrolled in Department of Botany, the University of Tokyo, and he graduated from the university in 1890. The following year, he assumed a post of Associate Professor, Department of Agriculture, Imperial University, and also Professor of universities such as in Germany where he studied.
He supported Sakugoro HIRASE's study of ginkgo biloba, and Hirase found the spermatozoid of ginkgo biloba in 1896. Meanwhile, Ikeno found the spermatozoid of cycads, and he was awarded the Onshi Prize of The Japan Academy in 1912.
In 1927, he became a member of Imperial Academy.