Masao Kawai, an emeritus professor at Kyoto University, who leads the world in research on primates such as Japanese macaques and baboons and is also known for children's literature on the theme of nature, will be at his home in Tamba-Sasayama City, Hyogo Prefecture on the 14th due to aging. died.
I was 97 years old.
Masao Kawai was born in Hyogo prefecture in 1918, and while attending the Department of Animal Science at the Faculty of Science, Kyoto University, he joined Kinji Imanishi's research group, which is known as a pioneer in Japanese primate research.
In a survey conducted on Kojima in Miyazaki Prefecture, Mr. Kawai learned that Japanese macaques wash and clean with seawater and add salt when eating potatoes, and discovered that the learning results will be transmitted to other monkeys. It attracted a great deal of international attention as a monkey's cultural behavior.
Mr. Kawai has served as the director of the Japan Monkey Center and a professor and director of the Primate Research Institute of Kyoto University, and has conducted field surveys of gorillas and baboons in Africa.
On the other hand, he also wrote children's literature works such as "Geradahihi's Crest" under the pseudonym of Manto Kusayama, and especially played around with his younger brother Hayao Kawai, who was also a psychologist and the Commissioner for Cultural Affairs, in the nature of his hometown of Tamba Sasayama. The "Shonen Animal Magazine", which spells out the days, has become a long-selling product.
Mr. Kawai has appeared on many natural science programs on television, introduced the evolution of humankind and the ecology of wildlife with easy-to-understand explanations, and received the Broadcast Culture Award in 1990.
Mr. Juichi Yamagiwa "I showed you a cultural society other than human beings"
Juichi Yamagiwa, the same primate researcher as Masao Kawai who died, and former president of Kyoto University, visited Kawai's home in March of this year and was contacted by Kawai's family on the 14th. It means that he learned that he died in response to this.
About Mr. Kawai "One of the people who supported the early days of Japanese primate research that began in the 1940s with Kinji Imanishi and others. At a time when it was thought that animals without words had no culture, Japanese macaques By observing his behavior, he revealed that there is a social structure and proved that there is a cultural society other than humans. "
On top of that, he said, "In addition to succeeding in photographing wild mountain gorillas for the first time in the world, we investigated the behavior of old world monkeys by a method called telemetry, pioneered the behavior survey of animals using transmitters, and greatly contributed to the development of primatology. He was the one who was done. "