Kinji Imanishi
Kinji Imanishi | |
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今西錦司 | |
Born | Japan Kyoto | 6 January 1902
Died | 15 June 1992 Japan Kyoto | (aged 90)
Nationality | Japan Japan |
Alma mater | Kyoto Imperial University |
Known for | Theory of Habitat segregation Imanishi Group |
Awards | Asahi Prize Person of Cultural Merit |
Scientific career | |
Fields | ecology anthropology |
Thesis | Mayfly from the Japanese mountain streams (1939) |
Doctoral students | Junichiro Itani Masao Kawai |
Kinji Imanishi | |||||||||||
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Japanese name | |||||||||||
Kanji | 今西 錦司 | ||||||||||
Hiragana | いまにしきんじ | ||||||||||
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Kinji Imanishi (今西 錦司, Imanishi Kinji, January 6, 1902 – June 15, 1992) was a Japanese ecologist and anthropologist. He was the founder of Kyoto University's Primate Research Institute and, together with Junichiro Itani, is considered one of the founders of Japanese primatology.[1]: 314
Biography
Early life and education
Kinji Imanishi was born and raised in Kyoto. He studied at the Third High School from 1920 to 1925. He joined the mountaineering club for students and made friends with Takeo Kuwabara, Eizaburo Nishibori, etc. He entered Kyoto Imperial University in April 1925. He belonged to the School of Agriculture and measured biology. After getting the BA degree, he entered graduate school at the same university.
As a biologist (before the Pacific War)
Kinji became the special lecturer of his alma mater in March 1933.[2] Kinji and Kani Tokichi (可児 藤吉)[3] were interested in the ecological difference between insects which depend on the parts of a river. They built a theory of ecological niche. In 1928, he received his Doctor of Science. The title of his doctoral dissertation was "Mayflies in Japanese mountain streams" (日本渓流産蜉蝣目).[4] He joined as a member of the Mongolian expedition of Kyoto Imperial University in the same year, where he demonstrated the skill of mountaineering and survival from his high school days.
He was appointed researcher at the Institute for Life Sciences of Asia, under the jurisdiction of East Asia Development Board, in 1929. As a researcher, he traveled in Pohnpei ilands for research. Next, he went on an expedition to the northern area of Greater Khingan in May 1941 (until July 1941). When the Northwest Research Institute[5] was established in Spring 1944, he assumed the president.[6]
After the War
He was back to a lecturer at Kyoto University, School of Agriculture. He belonged the Kyoto University Research Centre for the Cultural Sciences from August 1950. He led the Manaslu expedition in 1952. Next, he led the Scientific expedition of Karakorum-Hindu Kush from 1955.[7]
In 1956, he built the
After the retirement of Kyoto University, he was a professor at Okayama University (May 1965-May 1966). From June 1966, he served the fourth [[Principal (academia)]|principal] of Gifu University (until June 1973). Kinji's long-cherished desire attained in 1967, Primate Research Institute was founded in 1967.
He loved mountain climbing all his life,[10] and was the chairman of Japanese Alpine Club from 1973 to 1976.
Contribution of research
Imanishi and his students did foundational research on the behavior and social life of semi-wild horses
In 1957, Imanishi founded the journal Primates, which is the oldest and longest-running international primatology journal in the world.[1]: 313
Imanishi's concept of species society is central to his views of the interconnectedness of things in nature.[23] The world of species has been viewed as a social phenomenon, in which various individuals are continually contributing to the maintenance and perpetuation of the species society to which they belong.[23]
Honours
- Asahi Prize (1968)
- Person of Cultural Merit (3 November 1972)
- Order of Culture (3 November 1979)
- Grand Cordon of the Order of the Sacred Treasure
- (Second Class: 29 April 1972)
- (15 June 1992; posthumous)
Publications
His works were compiled as "complete works of Kinji Imanishi" 今西錦司全集(thirteen-volumes).
Books (Japanese)
- "The World of Living Things" 生物の世界 (Koubundō弘文堂, 1941)
- "Building of the human societies" 人間社会の形成" (NHK Publishing, Inc., 1966).
- "My contemplation to theory of evolution" 私の進化論 (NHK Publishing, Inc., 1970)
- "Subjective evolution" 主体性の進化論 (Chuokoron-Shinsha, 1980)
Translated book
- The World of Living Things (ISBN 0-7007-1632-7
- Comment la nature fait science: Entretiens, souvenirs et intuitions (2023), in French. ISBN 978-2-381140-353.[24]
Intervew
- NHK archives: Imanishi Kinji(1902-1992) Live as pioneer
Reference about Kinji Imanishi
- "Kinji Imanishi and 60 years of Japanese primatology" Current Biology Vol. 18 (14). Tetsuro Matsuzawa, William C. McGrew, 2008.[25]
References
- ^ S2CID 254157644.
- ^ He was promoted to formal lecturer in May 1936.
- ^ Under the Pacific War, he went to the front as a soldier and died in Mount Tapochau by the Battle of Saipan in 1944.
- ^ CiNii(dissertation)
- ^ This institute was within the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Greater East Asia. The member was Akira Fujieda(Dunhuangologie), Tadao Umesao(anthropology), etc.
- ^ Saito Kiyoaki, 2013, About Field Science: Make the Northwest Research Institute the Origin.Himalayan study monographs14:130-139.
- ^ Archive of academic sources, Kyoto university.
- ^ After 2022, it was the Center for the Evolutionary Origins of Human Behavior.
- ^ Archive of the research team (National Museum of Ethnology)
- ^ Youtube (Mountain claiming of Kinji Imanishi)
- .
- S2CID 30040660.
- .
- .
- S2CID 144492691.
- ^ Yamagiwa, Juichi (2014). "The Legacy of Kinji Imanishi" (PDF). Kyoto University Research Activities. 3 (4): 4–6.
- S2CID 45665875.
- S2CID 7924413.
- S2CID 29632261.
- S2CID 237280652.
- ^ Crair, Ben; Pożoga, Maciek (January 2021). "What Japan's Wild Snow Monkeys Can Teach Us About Animal Culture". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2022-03-27.
- ISBN 978-4-431-09423-4.
- ^ S2CID 243011576.
- ^ topophile
- ^ Current BiologyVol. 18 (14)