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Notes
- 1.
In our standard Japanese language, “science” 科学 (kagaku) and “chemistry” 化学 (kagaku) are pronounced identically. This is confusing, but it is not a rare exception; there are many words in Japanese that have different meanings and characters but are pronounced identically. The original Chinese words would be clearly distinguishable in speech because of their different intonations, but the intonations were lost completely when the characters were brought to Japan. For this reason, to refer to “science, not chemistry” we say “natural science” (schizen kagaku) and to refer “chemistry, not science” we say “study of ‘miracles’” (bekegaku).
- 2.
Professor Herrigel was an eminent German philosopher, who taught first in Heidelberg and later in Erlangen for many years. He stayed in Sendai (the central city in northeast Honshu) for more than five years (1924–1929), teaching philosophy and classical languages (mainly Latin and Greek) at Tohoku University. As he was very interested in mysticism, he and his wife wanted to learn about traditional Japanese spiritual life, particularly Zen, by studying Japanese arts. They both started studying archery, and his wife studied flower arrangement and brush painting as well. With the help of a Japanese professor, he received intensive training under the strict guidance of a great master, Kenzo Awa. Owing to his incredible struggle and devotion, he was finally given the fifth grade in archery. His first booklet [8] was based on a speech made before the Germany–Japan Society in Berlin in 1936. After World War II, he published a completely revised and extended version describing his remarkable experience in Sendai 20 years before and his deep philosophical insight into archery and Zen [9].
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Acknowledgment
The author is grateful to Dr. Jon T. Hougen, National Institute of Standards and Technology, for his helpful comments on the original manuscript.
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Kuchitsu, K. (2015). Training of a Molecular Scientist, East and West. In: Hargittai, B., Hargittai, I. (eds) Culture of Chemistry. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7565-2_28
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