biology

Kono Yasui

Kono Yasui is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Kono Yasui rather than just read about it. In short: Kono Yasui (保井コノ, Yasui Kono; 16 February 1880 – 24 March 1971) was a Japanese biologist and cytologist. In 1927, she became the first Japanese woman to receive a doctoral degree in science.

Key takeaways

Kono Yasui belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Kono Yasui to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Kono Yasui from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Kono Yasui (保井コノ, Yasui Kono; 16 February 1880 – 24 March 1971) was a Japanese biologist and cytologist. In 1927, she became the first Japanese woman to receive a doctoral degree in science. She received a Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon and was awarded an Order of the Precious Crown Third Class for her academic accomplishments and leadership in women’s education in Japan.

Early life and education Yasui was born in the village of Sanbonmatsu in Kagawa Prefecture in 1880, to the owner of a shipping business. She was the eldest of nine siblings and was raised by parents who valued and emphasized education. When she was moving from lower elementary to higher elementary school, her father persuaded her to read Encouragement of Learning, a highly influential book written by the philosopher and educator Yukichi Fukuzawa. Throughout her early education, she excelled in her studies, and was particularly gifted in science and mathematics. She graduated from Kagawa Prefecture Normal School in 1898 and the Division of Science at the Women's Higher Normal School in 1902. She taught at Gifu Girls' Higher School and Kanda Girls' School until 1905, when a graduate course was established at the Women's Higher Normal School. She was the first woman to enter the course with a major in science research; she focused on zoology and botany. She published a paper about the Weberian apparatus of carp fish in Zoological Science in 1905, becoming the first woman published in the journal. Her research on the aquatic fern Salvinia natans was published in the Journal of Plant Sciences and the British journal Annals of Botany, marking the first publication of a Japanese woman's research in a foreign journal. She completed the graduate program at Women's Higher Normal School in 1907 and became an assistant professor at the school.

Academic career When Yasui was endorsed by Kiichi Mitake to the Japanese Ministry of Education to study in Germany, they refused to give her permission because of their belief that “a woman cannot achieve much in science.” After being endorsed again by Fujii Kenjirō, the professor at University of Tokyo, she was only allowed on the condition that she listed "home economics research" alongside "scientific research" on her application and that she agreed not to marry and instead commit herself to her research. She traveled to Germany and the United States in 1914 to perform cytological research at the University of Chicago. She travelled to Harvard University in 1915, where she conducted research on coal under Professor E. C. Jeffrey. She returned to Japan in June 1916 and continued researching coal at Tokyo Imperial University (now the University of Tokyo) until 1927. She taught genetics there from 1918 to 1939, and was made a professor at the Women's Higher Normal School in Tokyo in 1919. She completed her doctoral thesis, "Studies on the structure of lignite, brown coal, and bituminous coal in Japan", in 1927, becoming the first woman in Japan to complete a doctorate in science. In 1929, Yasui founded the cytology journal Cytologia. From 1924 onwards, she researched the genetics of poppies, corn and Tradescantia species, and in 1945 she began a survey of plants that had been affected by nuclear fallout after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. When Ochanomizu University was established under its current name in 1949, Yasui was appointed professor. She retired in 1952, becoming a professor emerita. By 1957 she had published a total of 99 scientific papers.

Legacy Kono Yasui accomplished a lot of firsts during her life and career as a biologist and cytologist. Her career lasted from the late Meiji period, through the Taisho (1912-1926), to the early Showa period (1926-1989). During this time, women were strongly oppressed in Japan and were all but outlawed from working in research and academia. She was the first Japanese woman to publish an academic paper in an international journal. Most notably, she was the first Japanese woman to receive a doctoral degree in science, and she did so at a university that did not accept female students until almost 20 years later. During her time as a teacher at Tokyo Women’s Higher Normal School, she was very strict and did not treat her students as “girls.” Outside of the laboratory and classroom, however, she was known to be kind to her juniors and students alike. She heavily valued and contributed to the advancement of women’s education in Japan. After World War II, Yasui worked to establish a national university for women. These efforts were successful, as she played a pivotal role in the transformation of Tokyo Women’s Higher Normal School to Ochanomizu University in 1949. She also donated the money received as gifts for her retirement to the Tokyo Women’s Higher Normal School as the “Yasui-Kuroda Scholarship,” which continues to provide educational opportunities for young female researchers today. Kono Yasui’s life has served as a guide and shining example to a whole generation of young women scientists.

Timeline Source: (1880) February 16, Born in Kagawa Prefecture (1898) Graduates from Kagawa Prefecture Normal School (age 18) (1902) Graduates from Women’s Higher Normal School Division of Science (age 22) (1905) Published first paper, “Weber’s Organ of Carp Fish,” in the Journal “Zoological Science.” (1907) Completes graduate work at Women’s Higher Normal School, becomes assistant professor there (age 27) (1914) Began studying cytology at the University of Chicago (1915) Began studying coal at Harvard University (1927) Published doctoral thesis, becoming first Japanese woman to receive doctorate (age 47) (1929) Started the cytology journal, “Cytologia” (1949) Becomes professor at Ochanomizu University (age 69) (1952) Retires and becomes professor emeritus at Ochanomizu University (age 72) (1955) Receives a Medal with Purple Ribbon for her academic accomplishments (age 75) (1965) Receives the Order of the Precious Crown, Third Class (age 85) (1971) March 24, passes away at her home in Tokyo (age 91)

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Kono Yasui

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Kono Yasui claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Kono Yasui before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Kono Yasui ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Kono Yasui

In research: Kono Yasui appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Kono Yasui in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Kono Yasui is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1880 births, 1971 deaths, 20th-century Japanese biologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Kono Yasui outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Kono Yasui in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Kono Yasui means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Kono Yasui out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Kono Yasui in simple terms?

Why does Kono Yasui matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Kono Yasui?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Kono Yasui.