Photo/Illutration Tomitaro Makino (Provided by the Kochi Prefectural Makino Botanical Garden)

Botanist Tomitaro Makino (1862-1957) lived on a low salary.

To make room for his colossal, ever-growing collection of books, however, he would sometimes move into a large, high-rent home, only to find before long that he couldn’t afford it and start looking for another house, according to one of his daughters.

Makino eventually settled down in Tokyo’s present-day Nerima Ward, where his study has been reproduced on the property, now a garden, and opened to the public from this month.

The books on display don’t even make up 10 percent of his total collection of about 45,000 volumes, but bookshelves occupy all the walls, and books and botanical specimens are piled high on the tatami floor.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that Makino’s library contains not only botanical reference books of all kinds, but also practically every book from around the world--from copies of “Manyoshu” (The Anthology of Ten Thousand Leaves) to works by foreign authors.

Makino was said to be in the habit of collecting multiple botanical specimens of the same plant “in order to see if there was any individual transmutation.” I understand he saw books in the same light: Every time a new edition of a book came out, he just had to buy it. That’s quite an obsession, I must say.

Makino was about 20 years old when he wrote his 15-point reminders on how to live his life, one of which was, “Books must be extensively read.” By that, he meant never to be stingy when buying books on botany. He also warned against blindly believing what a book says.

Perhaps because he dropped out of elementary school and relied on self-education, Makino was like a sponge absorbing knowledge from books, while valuing what he saw with his own eyes of the plants and flowers in the fields. He opened up a new world based on knowledge and experience, and that is what true learning should be.

April 24, his birthday, is celebrated in Japan as “Botany Day.” Having described himself as the “spirit of plants and trees,” Makino scaled his mountainous collection of books by challenging every copy.

The image recalls a single flower blooming atop a mountain.

--The Asahi Shimbun, April 25

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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