“Snowflakes are letters sent from heaven.” Today's #histSTM lunchtime read: What a letter from physicist Nakaya Ukichiro (creator of the 1st artificial snow) in @NDLJP_en's collections reveals about science & politics in 1940s Japan. https://t.co/J4N97jNPPR https://t.co/3wiyUwjlbR

The article "Minakata Kumagusu’s letters to Shirai Mitsutaro" tells us of the friendship between two scholars who shared interests in biology and herbology as well as the conservation of nature. https://t.co/A6E2XAWUMy https://t.co/A9M8ufIeqB

Doi Toshitsura (1789-1848), the lord of the Koga Domain, continued his observations of snowflakes from his teen years and produced two volumes of Sekka zusetsu, books of snowflake illustrations. https://t.co/YdxsO9ErZJ https://t.co/3e0VbFaNJq

NAKAYA Ukichiro was a Japanese physicist who created the world’s first artificial snow. Learn more about him and his contemporaries during the final days of the Pacific War in “Traveling through the fog—A letter from Nakaya Ukichiro.” https://t.co/ZbH6YUg1BJ https://t.co/ige34O3bSn

"Shibukawa Shunkai’s letters: A life dedicated to the Jokyo calendar", a newsletter article on the work of Shibukawa Shunkai (b. 1639) - first official astronomer of the Tokugawa Shogunate, Japan @NDLJP_en https://t.co/uFhFr4kUHw https://t.co/205mgVdq1Y

(At right) View from the Asakusa Astronomical Observatory, used by the Tenmongata of the Edo shogunate for astronomical observation; at center is a "Kontengi" (armillary sphere); woodblock print by Katsushika Hokusai in "Fugaku-hyakkei" (1834/5) @NDLJP_en https://t.co/Ctw5MYrwLR https://t.co/QU1KoHq5hs