| Isao Ijima | |
| Native Name: | 飯島魁 |
| Birth Date: | July 24, 1861 |
| Native Name Lang: | ja |
| Employer: | Tokyo Imperial University |
| Known For: | Founder of Parasitology |
| Alma Mater: | Imperial University, Tokyo |
was a Japanese zoologist known for his studies of sponges (Porifera) — including his circumscription of the genus Staurocalyptus — leeches (Hirudinea), flatworms (Turbellaria), birds, and fish.[1] [2] Professor of Zoology at Tokyo Imperial University, he is considered the founder of parasitology in Japan and was the first President of the Ornithological Society of Japan.[1] Taxa named in his honour include Ijima's sea snake[3] and Ijima's leaf warbler.[4] [5]
Born in Hamamatsu in 1861 into a samurai family of Hamamatsu Domain, at the age of fifteen he entered the Kaisei Gakkō [ja] school in Tokyo, before enrolling as a student in the Science College at the Imperial University, Tokyo in 1878.[1] [2] There he studied under Edward Sylvester Morse and Charles Otis Whitman.[2] In 1879, together with, both having previously received training from and assisted Morse in his exploration of the Ōmori Shell Mounds, Ijima excavated the Okadaira Shell Mound; this is credited with being the first modern archaeological survey conducted solely by Japanese.[6] [7] [8] Upon graduation in 1881, as one of three from the first cohort in the Department of Zoology, he became an assistant in the College.[1] [2] The next year he went to Germany to study zoology at the University of Leipzig, where he spent three years working under the direction of Doctor Rudolf Leuckart; he was awarded his Ph.D. in 1884.[1]
Returning to Japan in 1886, at the age of 25 he was appointed Professor of Zoology at the Imperial University, Tokyo, where he remained until his death.[1] [2] In 1893, with the description of Parus owstoni (now Sittiparus owstoni or Owston's tit), he became the first zoologist from Japan to describe a bird.[9] [10] In 1903, he was involved in the establishment of and in 1904 he was appointed the second director of the Misaki Marine Biological Station [ja].[2] [11] In 1912, he was the founding president of the Ornithological Society of Japan.[2] In 1918, he published his influential .[2] [12] In his personal life, Ijima enjoyed hunting, shooting, fishing, wine, and smoking a pipe.[1] He died in 1921.[1]