Kinji Imanishi
Translated by Pamela J. Asquith, Heita Kawakatsu, Shusuke Yagi, and Hiroyuki Takasaki
Edited and Introduced by PJ Asquith.
RoutledgeCurzon 2002
FROM THE COVER
A Japanese View of Nature
Although Seibutsu no Sekai (The World of Living Things), the seminal 1941 work of
Kinji Imanishi, had an enormous impact in Japan, both on scholars and on the general
public, very little is known about it in the English-speaking world.
This book makes the complete text available in English for the first time and provides an
extensive introduction and notes to set the work in context. Imanishi's work, based on a
wide knowledge of science and the natural world, puts forward a distinctive view of
nature and how it should be studied. Ecologist, anthropologist, and founder of
primatology in Japan, Imanishi's first book is a philosophical biology that informs many
of his later ideas on species society, species recognition, culture in the animal world,
cooperation and habitat segregation in nature, the "life" of nonliving things and the
relationships between organisms and their environments.
Imanishi's work is of particular interest for contemporary discussions of units and levels
of selection in evolutionary biology and philosophy, and as a background to the
development of some contributions to ecology, primatology and human social evolution
theory in Japan. Imanishi's views are extremely interesting because he formulated an
approach to viewing nature that challenged the usual international ideas of the time, and
that foreshadows approaches to study of the biosphere that have currency today.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of figures viii
Note on the translators ix
Foreword (Hiroyuki Takasaki) xi
Foreword (Shusuke Yagi) xiii
Preface to the JAWS RoutledgeCurzon series xvii
Editor's preface xix
Acknowledgments xxiv
Note on Japanese names xxvii
Introduction xxix
Seibutsu no Sekai
The World of Living Things
by Kinji Imanishi li
Author's preface liii
1 Similarity and difference 1
2 On structure 9
3 On environment 21
4 On society 33
5 On history 61
List of terms in the original index 87
Bibliography of publications in Western languages 90
by Kinji Imanishi Index 92
FOREWORD
As if climbing a favorite mountain
This small book is worth reading many times. I read it in a paperback edition for the first
time when I was 17 years old. The pages of my first copy became too loose for easy
holding after reading it eight times in five years. Since then I have bought two additional
copies, and have ceased to count the number of times that I have read it. A copy
accompanied me on many fieldwork trips, and still does. Whenever I read it, in particular
high above the earth's surface on intercontinental flights, the opening passages impress
me anew. It is unbelievable that this book was written before we witnessed our blue
planet from space.
Among the works left by Imanishi, this book constitutes just a small portion. It occupies
only about one-third of the first volume of his Collected Works, which amount to 14
volumes. Ten volumes were published in 1974 while Imanishi was still an active writer,
and four supplementary volumes appeared in 1993 following his death in 1992. In other
words, this book comprises less than three per cent of all his printed works. However
short it may appear, it bears the essence of all of his work; so he placed it first in his
Collected Works. The opening three paragraphs in his own preface well explain the
reason for the enigma of the iridescence of this work. He wrote this as his "self-portrait"
to leave behind in case he died, which he thought was fairly likely in the war. Though
written by a biologist, this book does not read at all like a book of biology. It is, rather, a
book of philosophy written by a naturalist who was a thinker faithful to his own beliefs.
Imanishi was definitely not an unquestioning follower of established doctrines. He started
his career in biology as an entomologist. Dissatisfied in entomology, however, he turned
to ecology - the economics and sociology of living things. He wrote this book at this
stage in his life. After some more work in ecology, he turned to anthropology, a
converging point for comparative animal sociology. It was a natural consequence that he
became the founding father of primatology in Japan. His view of the world of living
things, which is perceived to have an infinitely nested structure, greatly influenced the
discovery of social structures in nonhuman primates by Japanese primatologists. Their
discovery of cultural behaviors is also traceable to his world view, which encourages
anthropomorphism when judged appropriate. Most important of all, to me, the path
indicated by this book eventually pulled me into anthropology and primatology. After
retirement he returned to evolution. He was an "Imanishian" evolutionist from the very
beginning, as is evident in this book. Throughout his life he was an alpinist, and left a
legacy of climbs in the glacier-covered Himalayas in Asia and Ruwenzoris in Africa, as
well as 1552 peaks in Japan. In short, he was always a pioneer, seeking challenges, and
brought extraordinary gifts to his endeavors.
On the Satsuma Peninsula in Kyushu, southernmost of the four main islands of Japan,
there is a dormant volcanic peak named Kaimondake. It is sometimes called "Satsuma-
Fuji" because of its resemblance to Mount Fuji. Although not so significant in height at
922 meters, it demands a few hours of hard climbing to reach the summit because the
path, which spirals steeply upward, starts near sea level. The climb is demanding, but the
view from the mountaintop is magnificent. Sometimes the summit may be covered with
cloud, and the view may seem fathomless in the woolly whiteness. To describe the
difficulty of the climb and the splendor of the view, the local people say, "If he who has
once climbed Kaimondake climbs it once again, he is a fool. But if he who has twice
climbed Kaimondake does not climb it once more, he is a fool doublefold." They mean
that Kaimondake is such a mountain that one who loves it should climb it again and
again.
Although this book is small, the reader will find it difficult to read in some places, but
after all he may find it worth reading. It is not a book to read to criticize, however, as it
was written as a "self-portrait." If the reader dislikes it, he should simply throw it away. It
is a matter of taste. If he likes it, he should just forget what is written in the ornamental
extras - the introduction and the translators' forewords - and read the text again and again
as if climbing a favorite mountain.
Hiroyuki Takasaki
Okayama, Japan
TRANSLATORS
Pamela J. Asquith is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Alberta, Canada.
She received a BA (Anthropology and Psychology) from York University, Canada and a
DPhil (Biological Anthropology) from Oxford University, England. Her research
interests are in the anthropology of science, comparative cultures of primatology, modern
Japanese views of nature and the archives of Kinji Imanishi. Hobbies include historical
biography and adventuring with her giant schnauzer, (TH) "Huxley".
Heita Kawakatsu is a Professor at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies,
Kyoto, Japan. He received a BA and MA (Economics and Economic History) from
Waseda University, Japan, and a DPhil (Economic History) from Oxford University,
England. His specialization is comparative socio-economic history and his research
interests are intra-Asian competition and British imperial history.
Shusuke Yagi is Associate Professor of Japanese and Asian Studies, Furman University,
USA. He received a BA from the International Christian University, Tokyo and a PhD
(Anthropology) from the University of Washington, USA. His fields of research interest
include transdisciplinary studies, modern Japanese literature and popular literature, non-
Western epistemology/ontology, and IT application to classroom teaching.
Hiroyuki Takasaki is Associate Professor in the Department of Biosphere-Geosphere
System Science at Okayama University of Science, Japan. He received his BSc and DSc
(Biological Anthropology) from Kyoto University, Japan. His research areas are
biological anthropology and primatology. His hobby is collecting and breeding butterflies
and beetles.
WHERE TO ORDER:
Ordering from the US
Taylor & Francis,
7625 Empire Drive
Florence, KY 41042
Tel: 1-800-634-7064
Fax: 1-800-248-4724
Email: cserve@routledge-ny.com
PRICE: $22.95 (Paperback) ISBN: 0-7007-1632-7
(Hardcover) ISBN: 0-7007-1631-9
Posted Date: 1-15-03
URL: http://www.primate.wisc.edu/pin/review/japview.html
Page last modified:
January 21, 2003
Maintained by the WPRC Library