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
Hibiscus Sir Yosihiko Sinoto, a hybrid created by Jill Coryell to honor Sinoto, was unveiled in 2007.
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
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