Post-WWII Japanese Archaeology and the Foundingof the Japanese Archaeological Association in 1948
ISHIKAWA Hideshi1(translation by SASAKI Ken’ichi2)
ABSTRACTThis paper describes the historical context in which the foundation of the JapaneseArchaeological Association took place and considers some implications of the event thatinﬂuenced the trajectory of the subsequent development of Japanese archaeology.
KEYWORDS: Japanese archaeological association, Toro site, history of archaeology, World War 2*Throughout this paper, Japanese names are given according to the Japanese system; i.e. familyname ﬁrst, given name second.

1.

Introduction

In this paper, I discuss the contributions of this Association to the ﬁeld of Japanesearchaeology soon after the Second World War ended and the background to the foundingof this Association in 1948.
The Japanese Archaeological Association is a learned society that represents the ﬁeldof archaeology in Japan. Joining the association requires scholarly qualiﬁcation. At
present, the membership exceeds 4,000. The Association accepts and has accumulated
results of research conducted by members, publicizes the results in collaboration withthree other learned societies dedicated to Asian archaeology, takes actions to preserve
important archaeological sites that have been investigated, and supports various activities
to rescue and protect cultural heritages that have been damaged by earthquake disasters.

1 School of Arts and Letters, Meiji University, 1–1 Kanda-Surugadai, Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo 101–8301,

Japan (hideshi@meiji.ac.jp)
2 School of Arts and Letters, Meiji University, 1–1 Kanda-Surugadai, Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo 101–8301,
Japan (ksasaki@meiji.ac.jp)
Category: Review Article (solicited) Received: 25 October 2016
JAPANESE JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY 4 (2017): 165–170

ISHIKAWA Hideshi

2. Founding the Japanese Archaeological Association andPromoting Collaborative Researchesa.

Purpose of the founding (Fujita 1948)

The Japanese Archaeological Association was founded on April 2, 1948. Two thousand
eighteen will mark the seventieth anniversary. The constitution of the Association wasalso enacted on the same day. Article 2 of the Association constitution states its aim as
follows: “Archaeologists in Japan should collaborate in archaeological research.”
Prior to the WWII, there were a few archaeologists who were members of research
institutions, such as universities. Most of archaeological investigations and researches
were carried out by individual scholars and a few institutions. Learned societies atthat time included the Anthropological Society of Nippon, Archaeological Society ofNippon, and Tokyo Archaeological Society. While the former two societies maintained
their headquarters in the Anthropology Dept. of the Tokyo Imperial University and theTokyo Imperial Museum respectively, the Tokyo Archaeological Society was purely
private. With the notable exception of the Tokyo Archaeological Society that solicited
collaborative researches of its members, members of the learned societies at that time
basically joined the societies to read journals.

b. Archaeological investigations at the Toro site (Japanese ArchaeologicalAssociation 1949, 1954)

The move toward the founding of the Japanese Archaeological Association was triggeredby the archaeological excavations at the Toro Yayoi Period settlement and rice paddy site.
In 1947, Ad Hoc Committee for the Toro Site Investigations was organized, and large
scale, interdisciplinary investigations took place.
The committee was headed by the authority in archaeology, and the authorities inhistory and ethnology served as advisors to the committee. The committee members
consisted of archaeologists from the Tokyo National Museum, the National Ministry ofEducation and Culture, and six universities in Tokyo, namely the University of Tokyo,
Meiji University, Kokugakuin University, Waseda University, and Tokyo Women’sUniversity. In order to investigate an agricultural community located in low, wetland,
the committee members also included specialists in history, sociology, geology,architecture, zoology, botany, and conservation science, all of whom participated inﬁeldwork. Furthermore, administrative ofﬁcers of the national, prefectural, and municipal
governments were also members.
Fieldwork at the Toro site for the ﬁrst year in 1947 was mainly supported by agrant-in-aid for scientiﬁc research that Professor Gotō Shuichii received from theNational Ministry of Education and Culture. Gotō was an archaeologist and at that© Japanese Archaeological Association

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time an adjunct professor of the Meiji University. At that time, however, the Minister ofEducation and Culture pointed out that it should be inappropriate to spend government’s
fund for a voluntary group, such as Ad Hoc Committee for the Toro Site Investigations,and a recipient should be an appropriate learned society. This led to the founding theJapanese Archaeological Association in April, 1948. From the second year of the Torosite investigations, the ﬁeldwork was conducted by an ad hoc committee of the JapaneseArchaeological Association.
The excavations of the Toro site revealed various aspects of a community subsisting
on wet rice cultivation during the Yayoi Period. Newspapers and radio news repeatedly
reported on-going results of the ﬁeldwork. This considerably raised the national interest
in ancient history of Japan, and Japanese people still maintain this high interest inancient history.

c.

Collaborative research and investigations

The excavations at the Toro site ended in 1950, four years since 1947. In 1951, Ad HocCommittee of Integrated Research into the Yayoi Culture was organized within theAssociation. Twenty-one Yayoi Period sites from Kyushu in the west to Aichi Prefecture
in central Japan were excavated in the following eight years. Archaeologists from allover Japan cooperated with each other and participated in these excavations (Sugihara1960, 1961).
In the 1950’s, ten such ad hoc committees were organized within the Association.
These committees were dedicated to research and investigations into archaeologicalsites of the Jomon Period, Yayoi Period, Kofun Period, and early historic period, as
well as surveying the status quo of Japanese archaeology, adopting rules related toarchaeological studies, and compiling a dictionary of archaeology. I must admit that
all these committees did not achieve the goals initially stated, but all of them werecollaborative projects.
Indeed, founding the Japanese Archaeological Association made it possible for local
archaeologists to collaborate in research and excavations with other archaeologists. It
was not simply a matter of membership, but the Association succeeded in bringing inarchaeologists from all over Japan. I consider this as the most important achievementof the Association. This style of collaborative research was also adopted by the nationalgovernment.

d. Enacting the Law of the Protection of Cultural Properties andarchaeological investigations conducted by the national government

A serious accident occurred in 1949, soon after the Japanese Archaeological Association
became active. The Image Hall and the mural paintings of the Hōryūji Buddhist Temple© Japanese Archaeological Association

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ISHIKAWA Hideshi

burned down. Hōryūji is famous for the oldest surviving wooden architecture in theworld. This serious accident encouraged the national legislature to adopt the Law ofProtection of Cultural Properties in 1950. Under this law, rules related to archaeologicalexcavations were codiﬁed. Prior to 1950, anybody could excavate archaeological sites.
Once the law was adopted, people must ﬁle a petition for an excavation with the nationalgovernment. If considered inappropriate, the national government can deny the petition
or stop the excavation.
It was also codiﬁed that the national government could also conduct archaeologicalexcavations, if necessary. Under this code, the Commission for the Cultural Properties
Protection was organized as an extra-ministerial board. The commission conductedexcavations of the Yoshigo Jomon Shell Midden site in Aichi Prefecture, Ōyu Jomonstone circle site in Akita Prefecture of northeastern Japan, and Muryōkōin Heian Period
Buddhist temple site in Iwate Prefecture of northeastern Japan. These projects are called“national excavations” (Tsuboi 2009).
The commission, however, did not maintain staff to conduct excavations, andtherefore, as in the case of ad hoc committees of the association, archaeologists fromall over Japan collaborated in ﬁeldwork. In 1952, the national government established
an institution to systematically and continuously conduct archaeological excavations
and investigations. The institution is the Nara National Research Institute for CulturalProperties. The founding of the Japanese Archaeological Association and its system
dedicated to archaeological investigations eventually led to the establishment of systems
that organized archaeological investigations all over Japan.

3.

Background to the founding of this Associationa.

Involvement of the Ministry of Education and Culture

At present, the Japanese Archaeological Association is an incorporated, non-governmentalorganization. Does this mean that archaeologists in the late 1940’s organized the JAA on
their own initiative? I notice some facts that suggest that the founding was initiated by
the Ministry of Education and Culture.
A move toward the founding of JAA started on August 28, 1946. On this day, Inumaru
Hideo, the head of the Scientiﬁc Research Dept. Bureau of Education of the Ministry
met Harada Yoshito, the President of the Archaeological Society of Nippon [Japan] andGotō Shuichi, the Representative of the Japan Society for Ancient Culture and also an
adjunct professor of the Meiji University, and discussed a proposal for the establishmentof the National Institute for Empirical History. In November, 1946, young archaeologists
gathered in the Ministry of Education and Culture building, and exchanged their ideas
about “nature of learned societies in the future Japan.”© Japanese Archaeological Association

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POST-WWII JAPANESE ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE FOUNDING OF THE JAPANESE ARCHAEOLOGICAL ASSOCIATIONAt this gathering, however, the participants formulated a plan to investigate the Torosite, more than discussing the nature of learned societies. They decided that Gotō would
apply for a Grant-in-aid for Scientiﬁc Research to the Ministry in March, 1947, and thatthey would organize an ad hoc committee for the Toro site investigations. In the summer,
1947, an archaeological excavation of the Toro site took place.
It is very important to note that during the excavation the Minister of Educationand Culture, Morito Tatsuo, made a request that a nation-wide research organizationin archaeology be organized in order to continue the Toro site investigations on theGrant-in-aid for Scientiﬁc Research for the following years. From December, 1947 on,discussion on the establishment of the JAA became more and more active. During thistime, Umehara Sueji, professor of archaeology at the Kyoto University, joined this groupof discussion. It was Hideo Inumaru, then the head of the Humanities Research Dept. ofthe Ministry who always led the discussion. In April, 1948, the Japanese Archaeological
Association was ﬁnally established (Sugihara 1948).

b.

Re-organization of pre-World War II leaned societies

Those who participated in discussion on the founding of the Japanese Archaeological
Association were very inﬂuential archaeologists, most of whom had been members oflearned societies before the Second World War. For example, Harada Yoshito, Umehara
Sueji, and Ikeuchi Hiroshi were leading members of the Far Eastern ArchaeologicalSociety that systematically conducted archaeological investigations in the northeasternpart of China before the Second World War. As aforementioned, Gotō Shuichi whorepresented the Japan Society for Ancient Culture that had been directed by the national
government to unite three non-governmental archaeological societies before the SecondWorld War. Finally, Ishida Mosaku who had been a curator of the national museum since
the pre-World War II ear. I would suggest that in a sense the Japanese Archaeological
Association was a result of re-organizing and uniting learned societies that had been
active before the Second World War.
It is also noteworthy that the ﬁrst president of the Japanese Archaeological Association
was Fujita Ryōsaku who had been a professor of archaeology at the Seoul Imperial
University under Japanese occupation. Fujita at that time only held part-time teaching
appointment at two universities and did not hold a permanent professorship. At thetime of nominating the president, those who participated in discussion on the foundingof the Japanese Archaeological Association could not agree whether a professor at theUniversity of Tokyo or the Kyoto University should be the president. Accordingly, ascholar of a neutral position was elected. That was Fujita.

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ISHIKAWA Hideshi

4. ConclusionAs mentioned earlier, the founding of the Japanese Archaeological Association in1948 made it possible for archaeologists to collaborate with one another. This was amarked distinction from the pre-Second World War era when archaeological researches
and investigations were conducted individually. This is indeed the most important
contribution of the Association in the post-Second World War period. The Association
has also played the major role in formulating rules that govern archaeological excavations
and the protection and preservation of archaeological sites.
In this paper, I have introduced my insights that the Ministry of Education andCulture initiated the establishment of the Association and that learned societies prior
to the Second World War were re-organized into the Association. Very few of us pay
attention to these aspects. However, I consider it very important to recognize these facts
in contemporary history. Based on these recognitions, we as members of an independentscholarly association should promote activities that are relevant to the contemporarysociety.

References
Fujita, R. 1948. Overview, in The Japanese Archaeological Association (ed.) Archaeologia
Japonica 1: 3-17. Tokyo: The Japanese Archaeological Association. [in Japanese]
Japanese Archaeologist Association (ed.) 1949. Toro: A Report on the excavation of the ToroSite, Vol. 1. Tokyo: Mainichi Newspapers.* [in Japanese]
Japanese Archaeologist Association (ed.) 1954. Toro: A Report on the excavation of the ToroSite, Vol. 2. Tokyo: Mainichi Newspapers.* [in Japanese]
Sugihara, S. 1948. Gakkai shosoku (News of the Academic Community of Archaeology).
Kōkogaku Shūkan 1: 30–31. [in Japanese]
Sugihara, S. (ed.) 1960. Nihon noko-bunka no seisei (The Origin and Growth of Agrarian
Cultures in Japan), Vol. 2 (Plates). Tokyo: Tokyodo. [in Japanese]
Sugihara, S. (ed.) 1961. Nihon noko-bunka no seisei (The Origin and Growth of Agrarian
Cultures in Japan), Vol. 1 (Text). Tokyo: Tokyodo.
Tsuboi, K. 2009. Preface. in National Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan (ed.) Shiseki
Suematus haiji ato (Suematsu Ancient Buddhist Temple Site in Ishikawa Prefectureof Central Japan: A Historic Site: Reports of Excavations of Underground Cultural
Heritages, No.8): i-v. Tokyo: National Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan.
*In the original publication data as a part of its English summary, the authors are listed as:Special Committee on Research of Toro sites© Japanese Archaeological Association170