Research Members and Their Research Activities

KISHIGAMI Nobuhiro: April 1, 2020 to Present Professor, Deputy Director General, Director of Information and Documentation Office, National Museum of Ethnology, and Professor (concurrent appointment), Graduate University for Advanced Studies; ～March 31, 2020 Executive Director, National Institutes for the Humanities and Professor (concurrent appointment), National Museum of Ethnology; Ph.D.
Research in the past: I have carried out several research projects of subsistence activities, social organization, socio/cultural change, use, management and distribution of marine resources in Inuit society of Canada since the mid-1980s. In addition to the Inuit study, I engaged in several research projects concerning Urban Inuit life in Montreal, culture of Koryak in Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia, and culture and historical change of Kwakwaka’wakw, Canada and whaling culture of Inupiat, Alaska from around 1990 to now. My field experience in the Arctic or other northern regions is beyond 35 years.
Research in the current project: I will study history, current status, and future of indigenous cultures along the Northwest Coast of North America from southern Alaska to Washington State of USA through Canada’s Pacific region. Especially, I focus on procurement, use, and distribution/sharing of food resources, social organizations, rituals, indigenous art of the Haida, Kwakwaka’wakw, and other nations of Canada. Also, I continue to study whaling culture of the Inupiat in Alaska.

KONDO Shiaki: Lecturer, Graduate School of Intercultural Studies, Kobe University; Ph.D.
Research in the past: In my dissertation fieldwork, I worked with people in Nikolai, Alaska, U.S.A. My interest was in anthropology of religion, and I studied human-animal relationship, hunting & fishing cultures, and the effects of Christianization there. Recently, my colleagues and I launched a research project titled “Relationship with Indigenous Peoples and Information Society.” Since then, I have been also interested in the use of social networking sites by Alaska Natives.
Research in the current project: In this project, I am hoping to conduct an ethnographic research on commercial hunting guides in the foothills of Alaska Range, in which Nikolai people have utilized to hunt caribou and Dall sheep since time immemorial. Another plan is to do short-term fieldwork and archival research on the history of Orthodoxy in Southwest Alaska.

IKUTA Hiroko: Kyushu University, International Student Center; Ph.D. (University of Aberdeen in Social Anthropology), M.A. (University of Alaska Fairbanks in Anthropology)
Research in the past: Before I came back to Japan five years ago, I was a senior social scientist at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, a state government research agency in the U.S. As a social scientist, I was a principle investigator for numerous research projects about subsistence hunting and fishing, regional sustainability, wildlife management, and indigenous cultures and traditions in the Arctic. I was also responsible for negotiating regulatory issues with the federal and tribal governments as a representative of the state government. My research focused on the effects of climate change and large-scale development, such as oil development and gold mining, on the environment, wildlife, and humans in the Arctic, required by the U.S. federal government and the State of Alaska. In the past 7 years, I published 15 government reports, all of which were peer reviewed by academics, sponsors, and researchers working for the U.S. government research institutions.
Research in the current project: Today, I continue to work on the impact of the large-scale development on the environment and humans in Alaska. In particular, I study off shore oil development and subsistence bowhead whaling among indigenous people in the Arctic, and the biggest gold mining development and subsistence fishing by indigenous people on the Kuskokwim River in Alaska. Also, I work on the joint project with researchers at Columbia University, Smithsonian Museum Arctic Studies in the U.S. and others, regarding documentation and digitization of endangered St. Lawrence Island Yupik indigenous dance and song.

TACHIKAWA Akihito: Professor, Mie University, Japan; Ph.D.
Research in the past: I have kept a persistent interest in cultures of the First Nations of the Northwest Coast of North America since I was first fascinated by their art works in the MOA (Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver) in 1992. Starting my academic career by studying totem poles and potlatches, I have conducted field research mainly in Campbell River, BC. since 1999, which includes a 12 month- research in 2000. During the research conducted in 2000, I focused on studying a relation between commercial salmon fishery and the indigenous fishermen, which resulted in my dissertation. I have since been studying the Indigenous people’s relation to economic activities such as fisheries, along with investigations into the capitalization of their societies, leadership, hospitality and several other related issues.
Research in the current project: In this project, I will continue to study food fishing and commercial fishing among Indigenous people of the Northwest Coast, the Kwakwaka’wakw in particular, and also analyze the effect of the climate change upon their fisheries and predict the future of such economic activities. I am also interested in new topics like; new enterprises started by the Indigenous people; factors of success/failure in such business enterprises and; the effect of the SNS on their enterprises.

TEZUKA Kaoru: Professor, Faculty of Humanities, Hokkai-Gakuen University, Japan; Ph.D.
Research in the past: Since the mid-1980s, I have conducted archaeology and ethnoarchaeology focusing on the land and resource utilization patterns of hunter-gatherers in the Arctic of Alaska and Canada. Since around 1990, I have been conducting research based on field surveys on the migration and adaptation to isolated island settings of peoples from the Jomon to the Ainu cultural periods in the Kuril Islands with scientists from USA and Russian Federation.
Research in the current project: I will study the relationship between people of the Northwest Coast, USA, and natural disasters such as Tsunami, and also the recovery process from natural disasters and its inheritance to the future generation. In addition, I will proceed with comparative research with isolated small-scale communities that have experienced natural disasters in Kuril Islands, Hokkaido and Tohoku, Japan.