Shibata, Yuji

The author would like to introduce Yuji Shibata (1882-1980), the second son of Keisho Shibata (1849 or 1950-1910) and the younger brother of Keita (1877-1949) at the end of this section. 

Spectrophotometric studies in Japan has a long tradition since Yuji Shibata, a coworker of A. Werner, came back from Switzerland in 1913. The spectroscopic method for the determination of the composition of complexes formed in solution, which is now referred to as Job s method, was really reponed by Shibata much earlier than Job. Studies on the spectrophotometric series (1938-1939) by Tuchida is one of the most imponant achievement in spectroscopic studies made in Japan in this period. 

After Werner s death in 1919, there was little activity in the field of stereochemistry of coordination compounds. An exception is found in the work of Yuji Shibata, who had been one of Werner s students, and who continued with excellent stereochemical work when he returned to Japan. His work on the enzyme-like activity of cobalt complexes furnishes especially interesting examples of stereoselectivity and of the catalytic action of such compounds (6). T. P. McCutcheon and V. L. King, Americans who had done their theses on stereochemical topics under Werner s guidance, did not continue in that field. King, who actually performed the first resolution of an asymmetric complex ( 7), went into industrial work. McCutcheon became a member of the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania and did research on complex compounds, but not on their stereochemistry. 

The history of coordination chemistry in Japan is briefly presented. Yuji Shibata, founder of coordination chemistry in Japan studied extensively the absorption spectra of complexes of various metals from 1915 to 1917 after returning from Europe. His researches also included the spectro-chemical detection of complex formation in solution, coagulation of arsenic sulfide sols by complex cations, and catalytic oxidation and reduction by metal complexes in solution. Ryutaro Tsuchida published the "spectrochemical series" in 1938 based on the results of his measurements of absorption spectra of cobalt complexes. One of the most remarkable results after World War II is the determination of absolute configurations of cobalt complexes using X-rays in 1954 by Y. Saito and his coworkers. 

In this review the history of coordination chemistry in Japan is briefly presented beginning with Yuji Shibata(l882-1980), the only Japanese co-worker of Alfi-ed Werner s. The period covered is from 1910 to the 1960s, about 50 years. 

Works of Other Researchers. Before 1930 studies on coordination chemistry in Japan were almost exclusively concentrated in Yuji Shibata s laboratory, and only a few reports from other laboratories were published. For instance, Satoyasu limori (1885-1982), who later became the founder of radiochemistry in Japan, studied the replacement of CN- groups in the hexacyanoferrate(III) ion with water in 1915 (38) and photochemical reactions of cyano complexes of platinum and nickel and photochemical cells in 1918 (39). 

In 1930 the Department of Chemistry was established in Osaka University, and Ryutaro Tsuchida( 1903-1962) was appointed the professor of inorganic chemistry. Also Taku Uemura(l893-1980) began the research on coordination chemistry at the Tokyo Institute of Technology at nearly the same time. Both men were former co-workers of Yuji Shibata s. Thus young coordination chemists graduated from these newly established laboratories, and the numbers of published research papers gradually increased. 

Five years later, in 1967, the 10th ICCC was held in Japan at Tokyo and Nikko with Yuji Shibata as the President and the present author as the General Secretary of the Organizing Committee, respectively. Many foreign coordination chemists participated in this ICCC, including John C. Bailar, Jr., Fred Basolo, Ronald... 

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