is a Japanese anthropologist who is best known for his ethnographic work on

shamanism Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a Spirit world (Spiritualism), spirit world through Altered state of consciousness, altered states of consciousness, such as tranc ...

and ethnic identity among Mongol

Buryats The Buryats ( bua, Буряад, Buryaad; mn, Буриад, Buriad) are a Mongolic peoples, Mongolic ethnic group native to southeastern Siberia who speak the Buryat language. They are one of the two largest indigenous groups in Siberia, the oth ...

, which has won multiple awards. Currently he is Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology and Mongolian Studies in the National Museum of Ethnology (a.k.a. Minpaku) in Osaka. Working for 15 years in the School of Human Cultures at the

University of Shiga Prefecture is a public university in Hikone, Shiga, Japan. The predecessor of the school was founded in 1950, and it was chartered as a university in 1995. The nickname of the university is "Kendai". The first university president was Hidaka Toshitaka ( ...

Hikone 280px, Hikone City Hall is a city located in Shiga Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 111,958 in 49066 households and a population density of 570 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Hikone i ...

, he joined the Minpaku on April Ist in 2020. Between April 2004 and September 2005 he was a research fellow at the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka and between October 2011 and March 2012 he was a visiting scholar a
Mongolia and Inner Asian Studies Unit
in the Department of Social Anthropology at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

in the UK. Shimamura originally studied law at

Waseda University , abbreviated as , is a private university, private research university in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as the ''Tōkyō Senmon Gakkō'' by Ōkuma Shigenobu, the school was formally renamed Waseda University in 1902. The university has numerou ...

(1988-1993), but after visiting

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...

with a film crew he decided to return to that country in 1995 and begin his studies as an anthropologist. He completed a master's degree in Ethnology at the

National University of Mongolia The National University of Mongolia ( mn, Монгол Улсын Их Сургууль, ''Mongol Ulsyn Ikh Surguuli'', abbreviated ''NUM'' or ''MUIS'') is a public university primarily located in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Established in 1942, it is ...

in Ulaanbaatar in 1998, being the first person from Japan to do so. Returning to Japan after living in Mongolia for 6 years, Shimamura completed his Ph.D. in March 2004 at The Graduate University for Advanced Studies (SOKENDAI) in

Hayama 260px, Morito Beach is a town located in Kanagawa Prefecture, on central Honshū, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 32,961 and a population density of 1900 persons per km². The total area of the town is . Since 1894, the Japan ...

Kanagawa Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-densest at . Its geographic area of makes it fifth-smallest. Kana ...

. His dissertation research was later published as a book, first in Japanese (in 2011) and then later in English under the title
The Roots Seekers: Shamanism and Ethnicity Among the Mongol Buryats
' (2014). Shimamura's book, and the ethnographic research it was based upon, has earned him four major national awards in Japan. In November 2013 he won the Japan Consortium for Area Studies (JCAS)Award. In February 2014 it was announced that he had won a JSPS Prize from the

Japan Society for the Promotion of Science The is an Independent Administrative Institution in Japan, established for the purpose of contributing to the advancement of science in all fields of the natural and social sciences and the humanities.JSPSweb page History The Japan Society for ...

. In October 2014 the Daido Life Encouragement Prize for Area Studies from the Daido Life Foundation. In April 2016 he received the SOKENDAI Scientist Award from his alma mater, the Graduate University for Advanced Studies.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shimamura, Ippei 1969 births Living people Japanese anthropologists