Report on the 83rd Annual Meeting of the JapaneseArchaeological AssociationNI’IRO Izumi1ABSTRACTThis short essay reports the proceedings and some highlights of the 83rd Annual Meeting of theJapanese Archaeological Association, held on May 27 and 28, 2017, at Taisho University.
KEYWORDS: 83rd Annual Meeting, Japanese Archaeological Association

The 83rd General Meeting of the Japanese Archaeological Association (2017) was heldon the 27th (Saturday) and 28th (Sunday) of May at Taisho University. Founded in 1926,
Taisho University’s ethos is based on a synthesis of the three denominations of Buddhism
and its four main schools in Japan. The university buildings, which feature plenty ofwindows, have a bright and open feel. The general meeting, the ﬁrst ever held in thisuniversity, proceeded smoothly, thanks to the efforts of around 80 alumni and students
acting under the leadership of Tadashi Midoshima, chairman of the executive committee.
On the 27th, the general meeting, lectures, and the ﬁrst session were held in theworship hall (Building 8), and then a social gathering took place in Odaijikido hall.
On the 28th, there were oral presentations in Buildings 5 and 7 (three venues). Also, in
Building 5, there were separate sessions (three venues): a poster session, a high school
poster session, and a book exchange. A cumulative total of 1,426 people took part, 380
on the 27th (309 members and 71 non-members) and 1,046 on the 28th (685 members and361 non-members). As of March 31st, 2017, the association has 4,091 members. During
the previous ﬁscal year, 15 members passed away and 60 left the association.
The general meeting commenced at 10:00 a.m. on the 27th, with a silent tribute toKiyotari Tsuboi and the 14 other members who had passed away. Association president
Akio Tanigawa gave an opening address and then outlined various matters concerning
the association as well as the policies the association would take with respect to thesematters. These included the association’s support of and cooperation in the 8th World
Archaeological Congress held in Kyoto last year, its support of recovery work following
last year’s earthquake in Kumamoto, commemorative events to mark the 70th anniversaryof the association’s foundation, and the establishment of a disaster response committee.
After this, Tadashi Midoshima gave a welcome speech, mentioning that Tadashi Saito
1 Committee Member (General Affairs), The Japanese Arcaheological Association, 4th Floor, 5–15–5Hirai, Edogawa Ward, Tokyo 132–0035, Japan (jjarch@archaeology.jp)
Category: Report (solicited) Received: 31 July 2017

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taught at Taisho University for 14 years and that there is an exhibition on his work:‘Japanese Archaeology as Seen in Letters: From the Collection of Tadashi Saito.’ The
MC then announced that the general meeting fulﬁlled the designated requirements andmentioned that President Tanigawa would act as chairman, pursuant to the association’sarticles of association. Taking the chair, President Tanigawa nominated a vice-chairman
and a secretary and then commenced the proceedings.
First up on the agenda was the announcement, approval, and awarding of the 7thJapanese Archaeologgical Association Prize. The association’s selection committeeannounced that they had nominated Satoru Hirose’s research, ‘The formation of royalauthority in ancient times and the production of burial mound ﬁgurines’ for the grandprize. They then announced that the association had nominated for the encouragement
prize Nobuhiko Kamijo’s research, ‘Shelling and grinding technology in the Jomon
period.’ The nominations were then approved by the board of trustees, and the prizes
were awarded. Next on the agenda was the announcement and approval of membership
qualiﬁcation review. The head of the membership qualiﬁcation review committeeannounced that 51 applicants had passed the review process, and he then issued hisapproval of the applicants. The new members promptly took the stage, and Yayoi Hisasue(from Osaka Prefecture) gave a speech on behalf of all the new members, describing
their aspirations as members.
Next, the association’s undertakings during the ﬁscal year 2016 (general meeting,public seminars, board of trustees, annual reports and bulletin, etc.) were reported. There
then followed a succession of reports from individual committees: the imperial tombs
report, the reports of the research environment review committee, the PR committee,
the international exchanges committee, the social science and history textbooks review
committee, the committee for the protection of buried cultural properties, the specialcommittee for responding to the Tohoku Earthquake Disaster, the special committee
for responding to the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake, the committee for revising rules andguidelines, the future vision subcommittee, and the committee for reviewing culturalproperty issues. The special committee for responding to the Tohoku Earthquake Disasterannounced that it would wind up its ﬁve years of activities after publishing the ‘Reportof the Special Committee for Responding to the Tohoku Earthquake Disaster.’ The
committee for revising rules and guidelines announced that it had reviewed the rules forsupporting members and the guidelines concerning copyright. There were then reportson the business plan and budget for the ﬁscal year 2017 and on the commemorative
events to mark the association’s 70th anniversary.
The meeting then proceeded to the next item: matters for deliberation. The director in
charge of ﬁnancial affairs gave brieﬁngs on the ﬁnancial statements for the ﬁscal year
2016 (balance sheet and statement of net assets variation) and the special ﬁnancial report© Japanese Archaeological Association

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concerning donations for the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake. The auditor then presented
the audit report and announced that the accounts were lawful and proper. Following
a question-and-answer session, the ﬁnancial statements were approved. The meetingthen deliberated and subsequently approved the establishment of a disaster-response
committee and the reappointment of the secretariat. The disaster-response committee
will serve as a standing committee for the purpose of facilitating swift and ﬂexible
responses to disasters. There being no further matters to discuss, the general meeting
was brought to a close.
A commemorative lecture meeting was held from 2:00 p.m. on the same day.
Following an opening speech by President Tanigawa and another by Taisho University
president Kanobuo Otsuka, Hideichi Sakazume (professor emeritus at Risho Universityand former lecturer at Taisho University) delivered a lecture titled ‘Tadashi Saito andthe history of Japanese archaeology.’ The ﬁrst session commenced at the same location
at 3:10 p.m., the theme of which was ‘Inheriting and Developing the History of JapaneseArchaeology: Focusing on the Research Challenges Left by Tadashi Saito.’ There wereﬁve presentations on this theme. After these presentations, the attendees moved toOdaijikido hall, where a social gathering was held.
On the morning and afternoon of the 28th, there were oral presentations at three
separate venues. There were a total of 31 presentations: 11 at the ﬁrst venue, 10 atthe second, and 10 at the third. A total of ﬁve sessions were held during the day. The
second session consisted of four research presentations under the theme ‘Exploring
Papua New Guinea’s Ethnography for Insights into the Formation of Jomon Pottery.’Six research presentations made up the third session, which was titled ‘Surveying andResearching the Shiraho Saonetabaru Cave Ruins’ (the session was jointly held with theassociation’s osteoarchaeology study group). The location for this session was packed tothe rafters, due, in part, to a timely press release. The fourth session was ‘Underwater
Heritage and Archaeology: Trends and Outlook’ and it consisted of ﬁve researchpresentations. The ﬁfth session was comprised of four research presentations under
the theme ‘Internationalizing Japanese Archaeology: Meaning, Signiﬁcance, Method,’a theme decided by the association’s English language bulletin publishing committee.
The theme for the sixth session was ‘The Damage to Cultural Heritage Caused by the2016 Kumamoto Earthquake and the Issues Associated with the Restoration Thereof,’a theme decided by the association’s special committee for responding to the 2016
Kumamoto Earthquake. This theme consisted of four research presentations, which
focused on reports from the disaster-stricken areas and which brought home once again
the seriousness of the damage to cultural heritage.
For the poster session, there were 24 presentations. The presenters delivered their
explanations of the posters from 1 to 2 p.m. As for the high school poster session, which© Japanese Archaeological Association47

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the association had started in the previous year, there were nine presentations deliveredby students from several prefectures, including Miyagi and Fukuoka, and the session
was well attended. From 1 p.m., the students delivered their explanations and then a prize
ceremony was held. The grand prize was won by Rikuto Morisaki of Tokushima Bunri
High School for his presentation ‘Considering the Takajizo in Indigo Production Areas,’and by Masateru Haruguchi from the history club of Fukuoka Prefectural Itoshima HighSchool for his presentation ‘A Survey of the Fire Beacon Platforms of a Volcano.’ Themerit award went to Moeko Kobayashi and Yui Amami, both from the history study
club of Saitama Prefectural Inaguen Sogo High School, for their presentation ‘Snake-likeIronware Excavated from Shogunyama Tomb in Gyoda City, Saitama Prefecture, andHorse Figurines Fitted with Snake-like Ironware Excavated from Sakamaki Tomb 14.’
Beneﬁting from favourable weather, the general meeting was well attended and thetwo days were a great success. Much of this success is attributable to the tremendous
support of Taisho University and the devoted efforts of the general meeting executive
committee and the students. I would like to express my appreciation to these individuals.

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