Born in Takaoka-cho, Hyūga Province (present-day Miyazaki Prefecture) as the son of a samurai retainer to the Satsuma domain, Takaki Kanehiro studied Chinese medicine as a youth and served as a medic in the Boshin War.

[1] In 1883 Takaki learned of a high incidence of beriberi among cadets on a training mission from Japan to Hawaii, via New Zealand and South America that lasted for 9 months.

Takaki made a petition to Emperor Meiji to fund an experiment with an improved diet for the seamen that included more barley, meat, milk, bread and vegetables.

[3] Although Takaki clearly established that the cause was due to nutritional issues, this conflicted with the prevailing idea among medical scientists that beriberi was an infectious disease.

[4] In 1905, Takaki was ennobled with the title of danshaku (baron) under the kazoku peerage system for his contribution of eliminating beriberi from the Imperial Japanese Navy, and also awarded the Order of the Rising Sun (first class).