Kinji Imanishi
今西錦司
Born(1902-01-06)6 January 1902
 Japan Kyoto
Died15 June 1992(1992-06-15) (aged 90)
 Japan Kyoto
Nationality Japan Japan
Alma materKyoto Imperial University
Known forTheory of Habitat segregation
Imanishi Group
AwardsAsahi Prize
Person of Cultural Merit
Scientific career
Fieldsecology
anthropology
ThesisMayfly from the Japanese mountain streams (1939)
Doctoral studentsJunichiro Itani
Masao Kawai
Kinji Imanishi
Japanese name
Kanji今西 錦司
Hiraganaいまにしきんじ

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 

Early life and education

Kinji Imanishi was born and raised in Kyoto, Japan.

He majored in biology and was awarded Doctor of Science in 1939 from Kyoto Imperial University. His doctoral dissertation was titled "Nihonkeiryu-San Kageroumoku" (日本渓流産蜉蝣目, Mayfly from the Japanese mountain streams).[2]

Research

Imanishi and his students did foundational research on the behavior and social life of semi-wild horses[3] and later of macaques,[4][5][6][7] identifying individuals and making detailed observations on them over generations.[8] This has led to important insights into animal culture.[9] Imanishi introduced the Japanese term kaluchua[10] which was later translated by Masao Kawai and others to refer to socially learned behaviors as "pre-culture".[11][12][13][14]

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.[15] 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.[15]

Honours

From the Japanese Wikipedia

Publications

References

  1. ^ a b Matsuzawa, Tetsuro; Yamagiwa, Juichi (2018). "Primatology: the beginning". Primates. 59 (4): 313–326. doi:10.1007/s10329-018-0672-9. PMID 29982936. S2CID 254157644.
  2. ^ Imanishi, Kinji (1939-12-06). 日本渓流産蜉蝣目 [Mayfly from the Japanese mountain streams] (Doctor of Science thesis) (in Japanese). Kyoto Imperial University.
  3. ^ Imanishi, Kinji (1953). "Social life of semi-wild horses in Toimisaki. II: Horses in their winter-quarters". The Annual of Animal Psychology. 3: 11–31. doi:10.2502/janip1944.3.11.
  4. ^ Imanishi, Kinji (1957). "Identification: A process of enculturation in the subhuman society of Macaca fuscata". Primates. 1 (1): 1–29. doi:10.1007/bf01667196. S2CID 30040660.
  5. ^ Imanishi, Kinji (1957). "Learned behavior of Japanese monkeys". Japanese Journal of Ethnology. 21 (3): 185–189. doi:10.14890/minkennewseries.21.3_185.
  6. ^ Imanishi, Kinji (1957). "Social behavior in japanese monkeys, Macaca fuscata". Psychologia. 1 (1): 47–54. doi:10.2117/psysoc.1957.47.
  7. ^ Imanishi, Kinji (1960). "Social organization of subhuman primates in their natural habitat". Current Anthropology. 1 (5–6): 393–407. doi:10.1086/200134. JSTOR 2739503. S2CID 144492691.
  8. ^ Yamagiwa, Juichi (2014). "The Legacy of Kinji Imanishi" (PDF). Kyoto University Research Activities. 3 (4): 4–6.
  9. ^ de Waal, Frans B. M. (2003). "Silent invasion: Imanishi's primatology and cultural bias in science". Animal Cognition. 6 (4): 293–299. doi:10.1007/s10071-003-0197-4. PMID 14551801. S2CID 45665875.
  10. ^ Nakamura, Michio; Nishida, Toshisada (2006). "Subtle behavioral variation in wild chimpanzees, with special reference to Imanishi's concept of kaluchua". Primates. 47 (1): 35–42. doi:10.1007/s10329-005-0142-z. hdl:2433/173372. PMID 16132167. S2CID 7924413.
  11. ^ Pagnotta, Murillo (2014). "On the controversy over non-human culture: The reasons for disagreement and possible directions toward consensus". Behavioural Processes. 109: 95–100. doi:10.1016/j.beproc.2014.04.008. ISSN 0376-6357. PMID 24780845. S2CID 29632261.
  12. ^ Nakamichi, Masayuki (2021). "Professor Masao Kawai, a pioneer and leading scholar in primatology and writer of animal stories for children". Primates. 62 (5): 677–695. doi:10.1007/s10329-021-00938-2. PMID 34427809. S2CID 237280652.
  13. ^ Crair, Ben; Pożoga, Maciek (January 2021). "What Japan's Wild Snow Monkeys Can Teach Us About Animal Culture". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2022-03-27.
  14. ^ Hirata, Satoshi; Watanabe, Kunio; Kawai, Masao (2009). ""Sweet potato washing" revisited". In Matsuzawa, Tetsuro (ed.). Primate Origins of Human Cognition and Behavior. Tokyo: Springer. pp. 487–508. doi:10.1007/978-4-431-09423-4_24. ISBN 978-4-431-09423-4.
  15. ^ a b Asquith, Pamela J. (2019). "Imanishi, Kinji (1902–1992)". The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology: 1–3. doi:10.1002/9781405165518.wbeosi018.pub2. ISBN 9781405124331. S2CID 243011576.
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