Elizabeth Cady Stanton
87% Profile Match
Photo-Kunst-Atelier T. Ariga, Tokyo, undated; reproduced by the National Diet Library, Japan, Portraits of Modern Japanese Historical Figures. · Studio portrait photograph of Kitasato Shibasaburo as an older man, bearing the stamp of Photo-Kunst-Atelier T. Ariga, Tokyo, reproduced in the National Diet Library's online exhibition 'Portraits of Modern Japanese Historical Figures' (image 0259_1, 816 x 1063). The Library's usage notice states that every portrait image in the exhibition is one whose copyright term has expired and that no application is needed to reuse it, including commercially. Date of the sitting is not stated; he died in 1931. Used at its original size, not upscaled. · Public domain (copyright term expired; National Diet Library usage notice)
scientist · 19th Century
Kitasato Shibasaburo
1853–1931
Known For
medicalscientific
Not yet included in personality matching — the documented evidence doesn't yet cover enough of the personality model. Everything else on this page is fully available.
Trait Constellation
Key Achievements
In Robert Koch's Berlin laboratory he achieved the first pure culture of the tetanus bacillus in 1889 and, with Emil von Behring, published the 1890 paper on diphtheria and tetanus immunity that became the basis of serum therapy.
In 1894 he went to Hong Kong and reported a plague bacillus; Alexandre Yersin reported one within days, and the priority between them remains a documented dispute in which Yersin's findings gained wider acceptance.
He founded the Kitasato Institute in 1914, became first dean of the Keio University medical school, and trained researchers at his institute such as Kiyoshi Shiga and Hideyo Noguchi.
Moments That Reveal Them
When pure cultures of tetanus were thought impossible, he devised an apparatus that used hydrogen to drive out oxygen and a sealable dish, and in 1889 obtained the first pure culture.
This is consistent with a researcher who built his own apparatus when existing methods failed. Resourcefulness
In Hong Kong in June 1894 he reported a plague bacillus through the physician James Lowson and The Lancet, and a later historian relays that his description differed from Yersin's in four major respects.
This is consistent with a rigorous laboratory worker whose fast field report left a disputed result. Analytical Rigour
Turning Points
After the government moved his institute to the Ministry of Education in 1914, he founded the Kitasato Institute and most of his team joined him.
This is consistent with a scientist who rebuilt a research institution of his own and kept his team around him. Leadership Drive
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Sources
- Kitasato Shibasaburō (Q442225) -- verified live via the Wikidata API (2026-10-26): English label 'Kitasato Shibasaburō', description 'Japanese bacteriologist, immunologist', Korean label '기타자토 시바사부로', born 1853-01-29, died 1931-06-13, citizenship Japan, P18 images 'Kitasato Shibasaburo.jpg' and 'Shibasaburō Kitasato 1910.jpg'. Orientation only; not used as support for any row.
- National Diet Library (Japan), 'Portraits of Modern Japanese Historical Figures: Kitasato Shibasaburo' (entry text) and the NDL feature 'People who worked to overcome infectious diseases', read in full (in Japanese). CANONICAL SIGNIFICANCE SOURCE: the entry describes him as a bacteriologist who studied under Koch from 1886, achieved the culture of the tetanus bacillus in 1889, directed the Institute for Infectious Diseases after returning in 1892 and founded a new institute in 1915 after the dispute over the government transfer of the old one; the feature says the serum therapy he established in Germany is highly regarded and carried forward in today's vaccines and antibody drugs, that Nagayo Sensai and Fukuzawa Yukichi supported him, and that Shiga Kiyoshi and Noguchi Hideyo worked at his institute. Institutional reference text written by library staff; read in Japanese by the agent.
- Nobuo Okui, 'Shibasaburo Kitasato (1853-1931): Pioneer of Japanese Medicine and Global Immunology Innovator' (Cureus, 31 August 2024), read in full: Berlin work under Koch, the 1889 first pure culture of the tetanus bacillus with a hydrogen apparatus and a sealable dish he devised, the 1890 paper with Behring, the 1894 Hong Kong plague bacillus report and the note that it differed from Yersin's and that Yersin's findings gained wider acceptance, the 1892 institute funded with Fukuzawa's support, the 1914 Kitasato Institute, the Keio medical school dean post, his stated research principles, and his mentoring of Shiga, Hata and Noguchi. Admiring profile by a Japanese dental-school historian, with photographs supplied by the Kitasato Institute museum; the Behring-side accounts are complementary.
- The Victorian Web, 'Shibasaburo Kitasato' (bacteriology biography page), read in full: his Kumamoto and Tokyo training, the 1889 papers on culturing the anaerobic bacteria of black leg and tetanus, the 1890 co-authored paper with Behring (Behring on diphtheria, Kitasato on tetanus), the 1894 plague work in Hong Kong where Yersin independently found the same bacterium within days and the episode was first generally hailed as simultaneous discovery, the 1901 Nobel nomination for tetanus antitoxin and the plague bacillus, the 1914 institute dispute, and later posts and honours. Encyclopaedic secondary biography that cites Bibel and Chen and notes a later account favouring Yersin's priority; a minor date discrepancy with Okui (Japan Medical Association presidency) is why no such year is stated.
- NobelPrize.org, 'Emil von Behring - Biographical' (Nobel Lectures, Physiology or Medicine 1901-1921), read in full for the joint work: 'In 1890 Behring and S. Kitasato published their discovery' that graduated doses of sterilised broth cultures of diphtheria or tetanus bacilli made animals produce toxin-neutralising substances (antitoxins). Award-body text that names Kitasato only once and credits the 1901 prize to Behring; consistent with the existing Behring record.
- Stefan H. E. Kaufmann, 'Remembering Emil von Behring: from Tetanus Treatment to Antibody Cooperation with Phagocytes' (mBio editorial, 2017), read in full for the Kitasato partnership: at Koch's institute Behring teamed up with Kitasato, who was experienced in culturing anaerobic tetanus bacilli, to run the experiments published in the paper on toxin-destroying activity in serum. Specialist historian-immunologist; independent of the Japanese tributes and the most critical of Behring.
- Ka-wai Fan, 'The "Two Camps" Competition: the 1894 Hong Kong Plague in Two English Medical Journals' (Medicina Historica, 2022), read in full: Kitasato arrived in Hong Kong on 12 June 1894 and Yersin on 15 June, both claimed the plague bacillus and Kitasato claimed earlier, James Lowson wired Kitasato's result to The Lancet, The Lancet backed Kitasato while the British Medical Journal backed Yersin and Cantlie, the cited view of Bibel and Chen that Kitasato's description was similar to Yersin's with four major differences, and the cited view of Solomon that Lowson pushed Kitasato to publish too quickly with an imprecise description. Independent historian's analysis that deliberately does not rule on who was first; the source of the counter-voice for the plague priority dispute. Bibel and Chen (Bacteriological Reviews, 1976) was found but only its abstract page could be opened, so its conclusions are used only as relayed by Fan.
- National Diet Library (Japan), 'Portraits of Modern Japanese Historical Figures' entry for Kitasato Shibasaburo (image 0259_1) and the site's usage notice, checked for the portrait only.