Dr Sinske Hattori was born on 10 August 1915 in Nichinan, Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan, he studied botany at Tokyo Imperial University and completed his studies there before beginning a career devoted largely to the taxonomy of liverworts.
In 1946, the Hattori Botanical Laboratory was established in Nichinan, southern Kyushu, with financial support derived from the estate and forestry interests of his father, Shinji Hattori. Sinske Hattori became its first director and played the central role in developing it into an internationally recognized centre for bryological research. The Laboratory concentrated particularly on the taxonomy and distribution of Japanese and Asian bryophytes and later also included lichenological research.
Hattori’s own research focused especially on liverwort taxonomy, with a major emphasis on the family Frullaniaceae. He published extensively on Frullania and other hepatic groups and contributed greatly to the knowledge of the liverwort flora of Japan and other regions of Asia and the Pacific. He also prepared and edited the Hepaticae Japonicae Exsiccatae, an important series of reference specimens distributed to herbaria.
An equally important part of his legacy was the development of the Journal of the Hattori Botanical Laboratory, first published in 1947. Hattori served as its editor from its foundation, and the journal rapidly developed from a mainly Japanese publication into an international journal publishing bryological and lichenological research from around the world. By 1971, the Laboratory herbarium already held more than 200,000 specimens, about half of them originating outside Japan, illustrating the international scope the institution had acquired under his direction.
Hattori also contributed substantially to the international organization of bryology. He served as a member and chairman of the International Committee for the Nomenclature of Bryophytes and was President of the Bryological Society of Japan in 1978–1979. He was elected an honorary member of the American Bryological and Lichenological Society in 1955 and of the British Bryological Society in 1980.
His scientific achievements were recognized by several major distinctions in Japan. He received the Medal with Purple Ribbon in 1970, the Asahi Prize in 1977, and the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Third Class, in 1985. He was made an Honorary Citizen of Nichinan in 1990.
Sinske Hattori died on 12 May 1992, aged 76. Through both his own taxonomic research and his leadership of the Hattori Botanical Laboratory, he had a lasting influence on the development of bryology in Japan and internationally.
