Umesao Tadao

Umesao Tadao ( Japanese 梅 棹 忠 夫 ; born June 13, 1920 in Kyoto ; died July 3, 2010 in Suita ( Osaka Prefecture )) was a Japanese ethnologist.

Live and act

Umesao Tadao graduated from the Faculty of Science at Kyoto University in 1943 . Since he had studied animal ecology at the same university, he took part in the 1944 expedition to the Great Hinggan Mountains under the leadership of Imanishi Kinji , which explored northeast China and Inner Mongolia.

In 1949 he was appointed assistant professor at Osaka City University . In 1955 he joined the Karakoram - Hindu Kush expedition of the University of Kyoto, which examined the Moghol ethnic group in Afghanistan. So gradually turned to cultural anthropology. His “Report on the Moghol Tribe” (モ ゴ ー ル 族 探 ​​検 ​​記, Moghol-zoku tanken-ki) from 1956, which summarizes the results, became a bestseller.

In 1957 he published an "Introduction to the Concept of the Ecological History of Civilizations" (文明 の 生態 史 観 序 説, Bummei no seinō-shikan josetsu), which expanded the conventional Western European view. In 1965 he became an associate professor at Kyoto University , and in 1969 professor there. It is thanks to his efforts that the National Museum of Ethnology was founded, of which he became the first director in 1974. In 1986 he gradually lost his sight, but remained a director until 1993.

Other books are “Exploration of Japan” (日本 探 検, Nihon tank; 1960), “Technology of an intelligent production” (知 的 生産 の 技術, Chiteki seisan no gijutsu: 1969) and “Culture of information” (情報 の 文明 学, Jōhō no bummei-gaku). His collected writings were published in 22 volumes from 1989 to 1993.

Umesao received the Asahi Prize in 1987 and the Ordre des Palmes Académiques in 1988. In 1991 he was honored as a person with special cultural merits and was awarded the Order of Culture in 1994. In 1999 he received the Order of the Holy Treasure , 1st class.

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• Biography Umesao

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Umesao is the family name, Tadao the first name.