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Have you ever wondered why green tea tastes so bitter when 1steeped for too long? Thanks to Japanese educator and biochemist Michiyo Tsujimura, and her 2groundbreaking research into the nutritional benefits of green tea, science has the answers. Today’s Doodle celebrates Michiyo Tsujimura on her 133rd birthday.

Michiyo Tsujimura was born on this day in 1888 in Okegawa, Saitama Prefecture, Japan. She spent her early career teaching science. In 1920, she chased her dream of becoming a scientific researcher at3 Hokkaido Imperial University where she began to analyze the nutritional properties of Japanese 4silkworms.

1 浸す
2 画期的な
3 北海道帝国大学
4 カイコ

A few years later, Tsujimura transferred to Tokyo Imperial University and began researching the biochemistry of green tea alongside Dr. Umetaro Suzuki, famed for his discovery of vitamin B1. Their joint research revealed that green tea contained significant amounts of vitamin C−the first of many yet unknown 5molecular compounds in green tea that awaited under the microscope. In 1929, she isolated catechin−a bitter ingredient of tea. Then, the next year she isolated tannin, an even more bitter compound. These findings formed the foundation for her doctoral thesis, 6“On the Chemical Components of Green Tea” when she graduated as Japan’s first woman doctor of agriculture in 1932.

5 分子化合物
6 「緑茶の化学成分について」・・・博士論文　1932年東京帝国大学

Outside of her research, Dr. Tsujimura also made history as an educator when she became the first Dean of the Faculty of Home Economics at 7Tokyo Women’s Higher Normal School in 1950. Today, a stone memorial in honor of Dr.Tsujimura’s achievements can be found in her birthplace of Okegawa City.

Happy Birthday, Michiyo Tsujimura!

7 東京女子高等師範学校



辻村みちよ　(1888-1969)


今回のDoodleは緑茶の成分研究をし、女性として初めて農学博士になった辻村みちよの記念でした。