Hatsushige Otsuka, an emeritus professor at Meiji University who has been involved in the excavation of many archaeological sites, died of pneumonia at a medical institution in Chiba Prefecture on the 21st.
He was 95 years old.
Hatsushige Otsuka was born in Tokyo, and while enrolled at Meiji University, became interested in archeology and joined the research team at the Toro site in Shizuoka prefecture.
As a member of the research team, he took the opportunity to be involved in a groundbreaking discovery that proved that rice cultivation existed in the Yayoi period, and he went on to the path of archeology in earnest, and served as a professor at the Faculty of Letters, Meiji University. ..
Mr. Otsuka has been involved in the excavation of many archaeological sites and burial mounds all over the country, and the results of numerous excavations such as the Torazuka burial mound in Ibaraki Prefecture, where a mural painting was found in a horizontal stone chamber, which is rare in eastern Japan, have been used in postwar archeology. It had a big impact.
He has also served as chairman of the Japanese Archaeological Association and director of the Yamanashi Prefectural Archaeological Museum, and has focused on promoting archeology and training young people.
According to his family, Mr. Otsuka was hospitalized at a medical institution in Chiba prefecture, but died of pneumonia on the 21st.
He was 95 years old.