Tribute to Professor Keiichi Tanaka, a scientist and an artist.

We are gathered in Toronto, today, to render homage to Prof. Keiichi TANAKA, one of the most outstanding electron microscopists of our times. There are occasions, such as this, when the peers select one of their own to pay a tribute on their behalf, to a person who distinguished himself, in a certain field, by the continuous excellence of his lasting contributions. Actually, I feel more honor by having been asked to be the spokesman than the honor to be bestowed upon Prof. TANAKA, when we consider the value of his achievements and contributions to our professional body of knowledge. As I congratulate Prof. TANAKA, whom the electron microscopists of the entire world wish to render tribute, I thank Prof. Pietro M. MOTTA, from the University of Rome, and Prof. Tsuneo FUJITA, from the University of Niigata, for the privilege they extended to me to be their interpreter. It is customary, in these events, to start the eulogy with a biographical sketch, in this case too short to give an idea of Prof. TANAKA'S personality and academic life. I will attempt to fulfil my pleasant task to emphasize the merits of Prof. TANAKA's brilliant career but within the restriction of the limited time available, it is doubtful that I will succeed. I was able to prepare my speech with the assistance of Prof. FUJITA and of Dr. T. INOUE, Associate Professor in Prof. TANAKA'S institution, who were very kind in providing me with valuable bibliographic material. At this point I need to underline their optimism and their extraordinary faith in my linguistic ability, as both sent me extensive literature in Japanese, with which I am not yet familiar. Fortunately there were many illustrations and since "according to an oriental proverb, a picture is worth 10,000 words", I am going to use both. In addition to information in my possession, I managed to amass so many data on my dear friend Prof. TANAKA that it would take longer than the entire symposium, to do justice to the honoree. Keiichi TANAKA was born on March 10, 1926, in Tottori, Japan, the same city that was the birthplace of one of my teachers of electron microscopy, Dr. H. Stanley BENNETT, the son of American missionaries, who planned to join us today, but was unable to be here because of health problems. Considering that BENNETT is one of the pioneers of biological electron microscopy and that TANAKA led this field to an almost insuperable level, Tottori deserves to be recognized as the "nest of electron microscopy excellence". We all know that the Sun rises in the Orient and as its light shines daily on Earth, I could make a parallelism and state that TANAKA, as one of the Suns, illuminates the field of subcellular structure with electron microscopy, with his scientific and artistic mind, with beams of electrons of his instruments and with a subtle sense of humor. As a disciple of BEN NETT, FAWCETT and PALADE, for electron microscopy, I feel compelled to also emphasize their contributions, and could add, in a jocular vein, that Western civilization even provided one of its own, BENNETT, to be born in, Tottori! The young TANAKA graduated from the School of Medicine of Tottori University in 1954 and received the degree of doctor of Medical science in 1959. In 1955 he was appointed assistant professor, in 1959 associate professor and in 1965 professor in the Department of Anatomy of his alma matey, from where he retired in March 1991. He went to study polarization microscopy of biological materials, from September 1963 to July 1964, in the Department of Zoology, with Prof. W. J. SCHMIDT, at the Justus Liebig University, in Giessen, Germany. From April 1983 to May 1986, he was Councilor of Tottori University and from May 1984 to May 1986 he was Dean of the School of Medicine of the same