Edward Sylvester Morse
An American came to Japan in July of 1877 ten years after the collapse of the Tokugawa syogunate which had ruled for three hundred years .At that time it took 17 days from San Francisco to Yokohama in a steamboat.
His name is Edward Sylvester Morse, 39 year old zoologist who taught at Bowdoin College (1871-1874) His purpose of visiting Japan was to collect brachiopod. He opened a marine biological station on a small island of Enoshima near Kamakura 10 miles southwest of Tokyo and gathered about 40 species of brachiopod with the help of Japanese zoological students and the fishermen. The small temporary laboratory is the birthplace of the marine zoology of Japan.
Now there is Morse Square with a monument to commemorate him in the island.
For his stay in Enoshima Island they asked him to lecture at Tokyo University and he was appointed the first professor of the zoology of the Science Department.
A couple of days after reaching Yokohama, he happened to discover Shell Mounds of Omori, Tokyo which consisted of shells of edible mollusks and other refuse marking the site of a prehistoric human habitation. Before coming to Japan, Morse had discovered several shell mounds in Florida. He noticed the place a shell mound from inside the train on his way to Tokyo from Yokohama. He gathered the remains including strangely-shaped earthenware and bones, and posed problems to the archaeology, anthropology and zoology of that time. In 1875,15 years after
・/FONT>On Origin of Species・/FONT> being published by Charles Darwin, Morse introduced the evolutionary theories in New York for the first time and two years later, did the theories at the university.He visited Japan three times in his life and traveled all over Japan. He was interested in earthenware, photo and articles of fork art.
Boston Museum is well known by its collection of Japanese fine art. His vast collections are housed in the Museum and Peabody Museum.
The book
・/FONT>Japan Day by Day・/FONT> described his experiences during his stay in Japan from the viewpoint of a zoologist, he wrote about the Japanese simple life and national character.It is reported that the old zoologist looked back to the happy past in his stay in Japan with nostalgia until his death in December of 1925.
We can't see Shell of Mounds of Omori without remembering E.S. Morse, zoologist who contributed to the progress of Japan natural science. He is one of the unforgettable scientists to Japan.
