ETHNOLOGICAL STUDY OF AINU MATERIALS IN AMERICAN MUSEUMS

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1.During the fiscal year of 1992, we carried out investigations of ainu collections at the following museums in the Western U. S. : Hearst Museum of Anthropology (UC-B, Berkeley, CA) ; Oregon State Museum and University of Oregon Museum of Art (Eugene, OR) ; Peter Bleed Collection (Lincoln, NE) ; Thomas Burke Memorial Washington State Museum (Seattle, WA) ; Flower Museum of Cultural History (UCLA) ; Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History (LA, LA) ; Bishop Museum (Honolulu, HI).2.At the University of Oregon Museum of Art, we found the surprisingly large collection of archival materials left by Frederick Starr, one of the important collectors of Ainu specimens before the World War I. The existence of this collection had been unknown and the exact contents of the collection still remain to be elucidated. Starr's fieldnotes at the University of Chicago Library, only part of which we have surveyed, however, suggest that the following items might be included : photographs, movies, seals from shrine-temples, Japanese-styled books on Ainu, drawings on Ainu, matche lables, and so on. We interprete them to have been taken and collected by Frederick starr and his assistant, Manuel Gonzales, during Starr's numbers of intermittent stays in Japan, from 1904 to 1993, when he died in Tokyo. We emphasize that this collection does not only contain Ainu things, but also things Japanese.3.A progress report of our three-year research activities is to be published at the end of March. Contents of the report are : 1) A report on " Ethnological Study of Ainu Materials in American Museums, " ; 2) Several essays on major Ainu collections in North America : their historical backgrounds and some interpretations ; and 3) Lists of Aunu collections at five major museums in Eastern North America (Royal Ontario Museum, Brooklyn Museum, American Museum of Natural history, University of pennsylvania Museum, and National Museum of Natural History) and a list of some important archival materials.