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.

Early life and education

Kinji Imanishi was born and raised in

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin, Keihanshin metropolitan area along wi ...

, 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).

Research

Imanishi and his students did foundational research on the behavior and social life of semi-wild horses and later of

macaques The macaques () constitute a genus (''Macaca'') of gregarious Old World monkeys of the subfamily Cercopithecinae. The 23 species of macaques inhabit ranges throughout Asia, North Africa, and (in one instance) Gibraltar. Macaques are principal ...

, identifying individuals and making detailed observations on them over generations. This has led to important insights into

animal culture Animal culture can be defined as the ability of non-human animals to learn and transmit behaviors through processes of social or cultural learning. Culture is increasingly seen as a process, involving the social transmittance of behavior among p ...

. Imanishi introduced the Japanese term ''kaluchua'' which was later translated by

Masao Kawai was a Japanese primatologist, who introduced the concept of '' kyōkan'' as a means of studying primates Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lori ...

and others to refer to socially learned behaviors as "pre-culture". In 1957, Imanishi founded the journal Primates, which is the oldest and longest-running international primatology journal in the world. Imanishi's concept of ''species society'' is central to his views of the interconnectedness of things in nature. 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.

Honours

''From the Japanese Wikipedia'' * Asahi Prize (1968) * Person of Cultural Merit (3 November 1972) *

Order of Culture The is a Japanese order, established on February 11, 1937. The order has one class only, and may be awarded to men and women for contributions to Japan's art, literature, science, technology, or anything related to culture in general; recipient ...

(3 November 1979) *Grand Cordon of the Order of the Sacred Treasure (15 June 1992; posthumous) (Second Class: 29 April 1972)

Publications

* Imanishi, Kinji (1941): ''Seibutsu no Sekai'' (生物の世界). Kōbundō ** Imanishi, Kinji (2002) ''The World of Living Things'' * Imanishi, Kinji (1966): Ningen Shakai no Keisei (人間社会の形成). NHK Books * Imanishi, Kinji (1970): Watashi no Shinkaron (私の進化論). NHK Books * Imanishi, Kinji (198p): Shutaisei no Shinkaron (主体性の進化論). Chūkō Shinsho

References

1902 births 1992 deaths 20th-century Japanese zoologists Japanese mammalogists Kyoto University faculty Kyoto University alumni Primatologists Recipients of the Order of Culture Recipients of the Order of the Sacred Treasure, 2nd class {{Anthropologist-stub