Why Did Dr. Tomitaro Makino Possess A Pocket Dictionary of the English and Japanese Language (sic) , First Edition and Secondand Revised Edition ?

Abstract

In Makino Library (on the grounds of Kochi Prefecture's Makino Botanical Garden), the writer made a close examination of a first-edition copy of A Pocket Dictionary of the English and Japanese Language (sic) . The copy of that rare book is one of only seventeen still in existence, out of the two hundred copies printed in the Edo era in 1862. Dr. Tomitaro Makino, a worldfamous botanist, possessed a first edition of the Dictionary, and also had six copies of the Dictionary. Why did he have so many copies of the Dictionary and how did he use them in his study of botany?
In the preface for the second edition of theDictionary, the composer HORIKOSI KAMENOSKAY (sic) said that the first edition contained a number of errors regarding the Japanese and Chinese names of Plants, Animals and Minerals that needed to be corrected and that he had done so with the kind assistance of his learned friends YANAGAWA SUNSAM (sic), TANAKA YOSIWO (sic) & others.
When Dr. Makino was a young man, he visited Dr. Yoshio Tanaka, a noted naturalist, and Dr. Tanaka remained one of Dr. Makino's most important mentors throughout his life. No doubt Dr. Makino frequently consulted the second edition of the Dictionary to help him choose the exact equivalent in Japanese terms when he was writing An Illustrated Flora of Japan.
This report is based on the paper read by the writer at the regular monthly meeting on November 2, 2002.