The is a special technique to make microblades, proposed by Japanese scholar Yoshizaki in 1961, based on his finds in some

Upper Palaeolithic The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. Very broadly, it dates to between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago (the beginning of the Holocene), according to some theories coin ...

sites in

Hokkaido is Japan's second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by the undersea railway Seikan Tunnel. The lar ...

, Japan, which date from c. 13,000 bp. The name comes from the , on the right bank of which the Palaeolithic sites were discovered. To make microblades by this technique, a large biface is made into a

core Core or cores may refer to: Science and technology * Core (anatomy), everything except the appendages * Core (manufacturing), used in casting and molding * Core (optical fiber), the signal-carrying portion of an optical fiber * Core, the centra ...

which looks like a tall carinated scraper. Then one lateral edge of the bifacial core is removed, producing at first a triangular spall. After, more edge removals will produce ski spalls of parallel surfaces. This technique was also used from

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, ...

Kamchatka Peninsula The Kamchatka Peninsula (russian: полуостров Камчатка, Poluostrov Kamchatka, ) is a peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of about . The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the peninsula's eastern and w ...

during the later Pleistocene.

References

* 江坂輝爾, 芹沢長介, 坂詰秀一, 『新日本考古学小辞典』（2005）p416 * 千葉英一, 吉崎昌一, 横山英介, 「湧別技法」『考古学ジャーナル』（1984）p229 {{Prehistoric technology, state=expanded Lithics Archaeology of Japan