The British Botanist Who Assisted Japan’s Seaweed Industry in Reviving

Numerous people come yearly in southern Japan at a seaside shrine to pay tribute to a British botanist who is credited for revitalizing the country’s key seaweed business despite the fact that he never set foot there. To assist launch its cultivation on a large scale, Kathleen Drew-Baker produced ground-breaking findings regarding the reproduction of “nori” seaweed, the crispy dried sheets that ring sushi rolls.

When small-scale producers were struggling to keep up with demand following World War II, her research at the University of Manchester helped Japan to increase output.

However, she did much of her important work as an unpaid research fellow after losing her academic position after getting married due to the university’s then-existing policy against hiring married women.

Although Drew-Baker passed away in 1957, her legacy endures in Kumamoto’s Uto, one of Japan’s major nori-growing locations.

Each April, dozens of local fishermen congregate in the lush grounds of a shrine by the sea, where a stone plinth has an embossed metal plate of her face. Also present are scientists and history aficionados.

A Shinto priest “gives thanks” to Drew-Baker during the ceremony, according to the event’s organizer, Fumiichi Yamamoto, 86. There are also large Japanese and British flags flown at the event.

After the war, “when people were struggling with food shortages,” he added, “seaweed producers were happy and grateful” for the capacity to cultivate more nori seaweed.

The crop has been grown in Japan for 500 years and has been gathered from its shoreline for generations.

In addition to being used in sushi, it is a crucial component of the Japanese snack meal “onigiri” rice balls and is used to decorate bowls of ramen and other traditional foods.

The seaweed, however, is infamously delicate and is quickly wiped off by typhoons and pollutants.

Regarding laver, another term for nori, Drew-Baker published a seminal research in the academic journal Nature in 1949. The crop, which is used to make the traditional delicacy known as laverbread, grows off the coast of Wales.

The nori life cycle wasn’t extensively recognized at the time, according to Yamamoto.

The study revealed novel insights on how the plant penetrates seashells to release new spores.

A professor at Kyushu University was contacted by Drew-Baker, who “sent over an academic paper to him with a question: isn’t Japanese seaweed like this too?” said he.

The experimentation with employing oyster shells to support the growth of the marine plant was then started by Japanese scientists and nori producers.

“It was a success,” said Yamamoto, the memorial event’s 50-year organizer and the son of a seaweed merchant.

Currently, “nori is one of Japan’s essential foods.”