Shinichi Fujimura is a Japanese amateur archaeologist who claimed he had found a large number of stone artifacts dating back to the Lower Paleolithic and Middle Paleolithic periods.
10 Facts About Shinichi Fujimura
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Shinichi Fujimura became intrigued by archaeology when he was a child, finding shards of Jomon pottery in the backyard of his house.
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In 1972 Fujimura began to study archaeology and to look for Paleolithic artifacts during his holidays.
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Shinichi Fujimura discovered and excavated many Paleolithic stone artifacts in Miyagi prefecture, such as at Zazaragi site in 1981, Nakamine C site in 1983 and Babadan A site in 1984.
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Shinichi Fujimura established his reputation as a leading amateur archaeologist because he found most of the artifacts on his own.
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Shinichi Fujimura even became known as the archaeologist with the "divine hands".
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Shinichi Fujimura claimed to have found the postholes of an early Paleolithic period dwelling, which would have been the nation's oldest, between 600,000 and 120,000 years old.
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On November 5,2000, the newspaper Mainichi Shimbun published pictures of Shinichi Fujimura digging holes and burying 61 objects at Kamitakamori, which he and his team later unearthed.
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Shinichi Fujimura confessed and apologized the same day in a press conference, saying that he had been "possessed by an uncontrollable urge".
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Shinichi Fujimura was expelled from both the Japanese Archaeological Association and the Tohuku Paleolithic Institute, whose chairman resigned as a result of the scandal.