Jokichi Takamine was born on November 3, 1854 in Takaoka City but spent most of his childhood in Kanazawa.  His father, Seiichi, was a physician.  His mother, Yukiko, came from a family that owned a sake brewery.  From an early age, Jokichi showed an aptitude for languages and science and he was encouraged by his father to pursue western scientific interests.  At the age of 12 he began the study of “foreign science” in Nagasaki; at 16 he was admitted to the medical school in Osaka; at 18 he transferred to a program in chemistry at the College of Science and Engineering in Tokyo; at 24 he was selected by the government to study technology at the University in Glasgow.  While in Scotland he perfected his English, studied the industrial revolution and specialized in the practice of fertilizer manufacturing.  Then he returned home to Japan and took a job with the newly established Japanese Department of Agriculture and Commerce.  The goal was to apply western technology to Japanese products.  However, his stay in Japan was short.  In 1884, he was sent to the USA to be a co-commissioner of the Cotton Exposition held in New Orleans, Louisiana.  While in New Orleans he rented a French Quarter apartment from a retired Union Officer, Colonel Ebenezer Hitch and befriended a young journalist named Lafcadio Hearn, who later emigrated to Japan and achieved fame as a writer.  He also continued his research into fertilizer powders and more significantly, fell in love with his landlord’s daughter, Caroline Field Hitch.  Before returning to Japan at the end of the Cotton Exposition, Takamine proposed marriage to Caroline, promising to return as soon as he had established himself financially.  Good to his word, after having been appointed Acting Chief of the newly organized Japanese Bureau of Patents and Trade Marks, he was back to the USA within two years.