(1) Outline of photographs

The Department of Archaeology and Tokoro Research Laboratory, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, University of Tokyo, stores the records, including photographs, about the archaeological research that Kazuchika Komai carried out in Hokkaido. Of these, the photographs taken in the archaeological research conducted across Hokkaido from 1949 to 1956 and at the Ojironai Shell Mound in 1958 have been investigated, digitized by scanning, and made publicly available on this website.

As a result of the work of arranging these photographs up to 2020, the details and the number of applicable materials were clarified as shown below. However, since the organization of all the photographs has not finished, it is possible that there are further relevant items stored in the Department of Archaeology and Tokoro Research Laboratory.

• A. Glass photographic plates, cabinet size (12×16.5 ㎝), 11 boxes, 115 plates (stone circle), stored in the Tokoro Research Laboratory
• B. Glass photographic plates, cabinet size (12×16.5 ㎝), 9 boxes, 99 plates (stone circle), stored in the Department of Archaeology
• C. Film positives (35 mm, slide mount), 133 frames (stone circle and Ojironai Shell Mound), stored in the Tokoro Research Laboratory
• D. Glass photographic plates, cabinet size (12×16.4㎝), 9 boxes, 80 plates (Ojironai Shell Mound, and the archaeological research around Kushiro), stored in the Tokoro Research Laboratory

All materials from groups A to D were digitized in this project. Of these, groups A to C, except ①–⑥ as detailed below, are classified site by site and publicly available on this website. The photographs of the Ojironai Shell Mound of Group C and all of Group D (the Ojironai Shell Mound and the archaeological research around Kushiro) will also be released in the near future. Fifty-nine plates of Group A, 53 plates of Group B, and 42 frames of Group C are publicly available on this site, comprising 154 items in total.

Of groups A to C, some items, detailed below, are not available on this site.

• ① Photographs with blurred or indistinct images. These may be due to photographic failures or problems with the development of plates and films.
• ② Photographs of artifacts (except photographs taken during excavation of artifacts), survey drawings, and publications.
• ③ Group photographs of people
• ④ Photographs whose subject is unclear
• ⑤ Overlapping photographs
• ⑥ Photographs of scenery, people, and items not directly related to the sites reported by Komai

(2) How to refer this website

The information in the table about each photograph is as follows.

Web content number

The new reference numbers on this website were given to the applicable photographs according to archaeological site.

Photographed year

We estimated each photograph’s year not only through the notes written on the box storing the photographic items (glass plates/films/prints) but also by comparing the objects in the photographs and the records of the investigation. In cases where some items were difficult to date, “？” has been added to the end of the date of the estimated photographic year.

Plate number in the reports

These materials include the photographs that have already been published in the books and the papers written by Komai. The titles of books, treatises, and plate numbers published are noted. Some photographs published twice are omitted. The photographs with ※ were not taken from exactly same angle and at exactly same time as the photographs in the excavation reports.

Originals, box numbers, and notes

These materials include the cabinet size (12×16.5 ㎝), glass plates, and the 35 mm color and black/white film positives (stored in slide mounts). The plates were stored in paper boxes for selling, and the films were stored in slide file sheets (20 frames per sheet).

“Box number” shows two kinds of number, namely, the reference number of the paper box or the sheet containing the photographic materials and the number of each item stored there. For instance, “H49_004” refers to the fourth item contained in box No. 49, which was stored in the Department of Archaeology in Hongo. The absence of an initial letter indicates Group A, the glass plates stored in the Tokoro Research Laboratory. The initial letters H/S indicate Group B, the glass plates, which were stored in the Department of Archaeology until 2020 and Group C, the 35 mm film positives.

“Notes” are transcribed information written on the paper boxes or the slide mounts containing the photographic materials. However, there was occasionally a discrepancy between the description on the paper box and the contents.

(3) Photographs with location unknown

Among the plates of the stone circle published in Otoe (Komai 1959), 18 of the original plates could be found among the photographic materials in this project. The other originals, equivalent to 80 percent of all plates in excavation reports, could not be found, however. Although these originals were probably lost before the start of the project, the reason and background are not clear.

(4) Details until release

The photographic materials released at this website were originally stored in the Department of Archaeology. Of these materials, Group A and D glass plates and Group C 35 mm film positives were transferred to the Tokoro Research Laboratory in the summer of 2001 with photographic materials such as glass plates and prints from the Moyoro Shell Mound. Shortly after the transfer, Hiroshi Utagawa undertook the organization of these materials, including the contact printing of plates, comparing these items and the plates in the report already published.

It was planned that these materials would be digitized as part of the academic project “Promotion of international regional/social collaboration in the humanities” registered under the UTokyo Future Society Initiative from 2019. Kumaki, who took over Utagawa’s work, carried out the digitizing of photographic materials such as glass plates and film positives and identifying these materials, which included Group B glass plates stored in the Department of Archaeology. This is how 154 photographs were made publicly available on this website by the end of fiscal 2020.

Glass photographic plates of Group B, which have been stored in the Department of Archaeology, will be transferred to the Tokoro Research Laboratory at the end of fiscal 2020. Thereafter, all the original, digitized data and registers for the photographs will be stored at the Tokoro Research Laboratory.

(5) Production of this website

This website was created by the staff identified below.

Participants in the archaeological research

Personal names in English are omitted. Please refer to the Japanese page.

Organization of photographs

Toshiaki Kumaki, Hiroshi Utagawa, Miki Yamane, Daigo Natsuki, Mai Suzuki, Keishi Kudo, and Xiso-hui Yang

Students attending the intensive lecture “Research Methods for Archaeological Materials” at the Graduate School of 2019

Participants in hands-on activities at the University of Tokyo of 2019

Commentary writing and metadata analysis

Toshiaki Kumaki

English translation

Mai Suzuki

Cooperation (Japanese syllabary order; honorifics omitted)

Takehiko Ishikawa, Naoaki Ishikawa, Takuro Segawa, Teruji Toyohara, Nagisa Nakatsuka, Tsunao Nishiwaki, Masahiro Fukuda, and Daichi Yamato

Otaru City Board of Education

Kitami City Board of Education

The Department of Archaeology, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, The University of Tokyo

Division of Museum Affairs and Cultural Properties, Office of Education, Hokkaido

Yoichi Town Board of Education