was a Japanese botanist and orchidologist. He died in Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

During his short life, Dr. Fukuyama described over a hundred new species of orchids from Micronesia

Micronesia

Micronesia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising thousands of small islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It is distinct from Melanesia to the south, and Polynesia to the east. The Philippines lie to the west, and Indonesia to the southwest....

, the Ryukyus

Ryukyu Islands

The , also known as the , is a chain of islands in the western Pacific, on the eastern limit of the East China Sea and to the southwest of the island of Kyushu in Japan. From about 1829 until the mid 20th century, they were alternately called Luchu, Loochoo, or Lewchew, akin to the Mandarin...

 and Taiwan. Most of the type specimens he collected were housed in his personal herbarium

Herbarium

In botany, a herbarium – sometimes known by the Anglicized term herbar – is a collection of preserved plant specimens. These specimens may be whole plants or plant parts: these will usually be in a dried form, mounted on a sheet, but depending upon the material may also be kept in...

 (Herb. Orch. Fuk.), located in Taiwan, and were previously believed to have been lost amid the upheaval in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 following the close of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. Fortunately, however, most of Fukuyama's type materials of Taiwan orchids were rediscovered, in the course of sifting through the botanical collection of one Dr. Genkei Masamune

Genkei Masamune

was a Japanese botanist, who worked in Formosa and then, after World War II, Taiwan. He was noted for his comprehensive botanical indexes of Borneo and Taiwan, as well as for the identification of large numbers of new species.-Selected publications:...

, which Masamune had bequeathed to the herbarium of the Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Natural History (KPM) upon his death in 1993. Although it is not entirely clear as to why he had them, it is known that Fukuyama had been Masamune's pupil.

Among the materials found were Fukuyama's original manuscripts of Studia Orchidacearum Japonicarum, Vols. XI thru XIII.

Sources