Yosihiko H. Sinoto (September 3, 1924 – October 4, 2017) was a Japanese-born American
anthropologist at the
Bishop Museum in
Honolulu, Hawaii.[1] He is known for his anthropological expeditions throughout the
Pacific, particularly Hawaii and
French Polynesia.[2]
In 1964-5 he excavated
Hane in the
Marquesas Islands, where he discovered more than 12,000 bird bones. Nearly 10,000 of them are reported to belong to about seven species of
shearwaters and
petrels.[6][7]
On the island of
Huahine, where he worked for 40 years, he helped to restore and preserve the prehistoric village of Maeva with its temple ruins, or
marae. In 1977 he discovered the remnants of a deep-sea voyaging canoe.[8] Sinoto's further expeditions led him to the
Society Islands,
Marquesas,
Tuamotus and others, where he studied the settlements,
artifacts, migration patterns and Polynesian cultural ties.[2][9]
Though he officially retired in 2013, Sinoto continued to work until his death on October 4, 2017.[10]
Yosihiko Sinoto's wife,
Kazuko Sinoto, who died in 2013, was a
historian of Japanese immigration.[11] His son, Akihiko, was an archaeologist at the Bishop Museum.
Honors
Sinoto is honored as a Tahitian chevalier (knight) of the
Order of Tahiti Nui in 2000[12] and the Japanese
Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Rays.[13] He also was awarded the Society of Hawaiian Archaeology's Naki‘ikeaho Cultural Stewardship Award, the Bishop Museum's Robert J. Pfeiffer Medal, and the Historic Hawaii Foundation's lifetime achievement award. He was also named a
Living Treasure of Hawaii.[14]
Robert D. Craig, Russell T. Clement: Who's who in Oceania, 1980-1981. Institute for Polynesian Studies, Brigham Young University—Hawaii Campus, 1980
ISBN978-0-939154-13-5