[1] He was born in Odawara and grew up in Yokohama.
After graduating from the former Niigata High School, he graduated from Tokyo Imperial University in 1944 and studied Plant taxonomy of since his research in the laboratory of Shoji Honda.
Beginning in 1954, he taught at the University of Tokyo, and in 1972, he became been a professor at the Botanical Garden attached to the University of Tokyo.
He studied the taxa Scrophulariaceae and Ericaceae.
From 1987 to 1988, he was the chairman of the Japanese Society of Plant Taxonomy.