Hamao Umezawa
Japanese microbiologist (1914–1986)
Hamao Umezawa (梅沢 浜夫, Umezawa Hamao; October 1, 1914 – December 25, 1986) was a Japanese scientist who discovered several antimicrobial agents and enzyme inhibitors.
Umezawa was born in Obama City, Fukui Prefecture, as the second son in a family of seven children. After graduating from Musashi Junior and Senior High School, he entered the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Medicine in 1933, and completed his medical degree in 1937. After serving in the Japanese army during World War II, Umezawa did work on tuberculosis which led to his discovery, in 1955, of the aminoglycoside antibiotic kanamycin. By this stage Umezawa was heading the Institute of Microbial Chemistry in Tokyo where his main focus was antimicrobial agents manufactured through fermentation processes. In 1963, he discovered the anticancer drug bleomycin, and in 1965 he discovered kasugamycin, a compound useful in combating rice molds.
His elder brother, Sumio Umezawa, was a chemist who had sometimes assisted in his work. He was married to Mieko Ishizaki on December 2, 1944; they had two sons.
Umezawa died of pneumonia on December 25, 1986. The Hamao Umezawa Memorial Museum in Setagaya, Tokyo was named in his honor.
“Hamao Umezawa” enters the record as japanese microbiologist (1914–1986). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Hamao, Umezawa and Japanese can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 13, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q822666. VIAF identifies the subject as 85244791. The Library of Congress control number is n80013242. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1914, 1986, 1933 and 1937.
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This entry incorporates text from “Hamao Umezawa” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.