“I’ve read the legends of Conrad Gessner, and I want to be the Japanese version of him.”

Conrad Gessner was a sixteenth century scientist and author of many diverse writings, including his famous “Historia Animalium”. In early modern times, he was revered as a magnificent natural historian. After learning about Gessner, Kumagusu became obsessed with collecting plant specimens, and it was then that he bought his beloved dissecting microscope. When he learned from an amateur mycologist that Florida is a treasure trove of cryptogamic plants, or plants that reproduce with spores, he decided to head south.

We still have the special-order specimen collection trunk from this period of Kumagusu’s life. It looks rather fancy, doesn’t it? Packing many specimens into the trunk, he continued his journey from Florida to Cuba where he met Komajiro Kawamura, who was traveling as part of a circus company, and became an assistant to the elephant trainer. In his later years, he would talk about his time as part of the circus where he would earn trinkets from the women acrobats as thanks for reading the multi-lingual love letters they received, and for writing responses.

In 1892, after five years in America, Kumagusu traveled to England. We don’t know exactly why he chose to go to England, though. While in London, he visited the British Museum regularly and diligently copied travel journals and European studies on natural history. Those notes are kept here, called “London Extracts.” It’s believed that he could not only read English, French, German, and Spanish, but that he also had a good command of Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit, too.

One day, while reading the world’s most prominent science magazine Nature, he came across a particular letter to the editor that intrigued him. It was from someone named M.B.A., and read, “How have different communities constellations affected history? Can you provide proof of the relationships between people by comparing their constellations?”

This letter fired Kumagusu up. He picked up his pen with a resolution to “find the answer or die”, and wrote an English essay with the help of an old beat up English dictionary that he borrowed from a lady at his boarding house, which was missing everything after “Q”. That essay is on display here, titled “The Constellations of the Far East.” It was published in the October 5, 1893 edition of Nature. All of the information that Kumagusu memorized from the borrowed encyclopedia of his childhood came in handy for this essay. After this, he went on to write many more essays, arguing with some of the world’s leading scholars.

At the time, most Japanese exchange students in the West were playing catch up, as Asian civilizations were lagging behind the more advanced and modernized West. Natsume Soseki, who graduated from the Preparatory School of Tokyo University and went on to study in London, actually suffered from an inferiority complex because of it. Kumagusu, on the other hand, realized the beauty of Asia while he was in the midst of a European life. He believed Asia wouldn’t always be behind. Kumagusu often vehemently argued this point in his discussions.

Nevertheless, with more than ten essays published in nature, Kumagusu began to aspire to rid himself of the label of “Expert of the Far East”. He began to remove “Asia” and “Far East” from his essay titles, and use primarily western sources to write his arguments. Rather than draw distinctions between eastern and western culture, Kumagusu strived to find ways that the cultures could mingle.

Over his lifetime, Kumagusu wrote around 400 English essays, which is an incredible amount even compared to Japanese scholars today. His essays were featured in 51 volumes of Nature. Just based on the sheer number of articles written, there are few other scholars anywhere in the world who could compare to him, even today.