Mahikari claims that the Japanese race has been
around since Early Palaeolithic times, using various
archaeological evidence - a claim that is disputed by
mainstream science. In 2000, this evidence was revealed
as a hoax, which seriously damages the claims made by
Mahikari and the supposed infallibility of its leaders.
CONTENTS
Fujimura and his "god's hands"
"Mainichi Shimbun (Mainichi newspaper) broke the news on Sunday
morning, November 5, 2000 - an archaeologist, FUJIMURA Shin'ichi, had
been caught on video planting stone artifacts at the Kami-Takamori site
in the town of Tsukidate in northern Miyagi Prefecture in northeastern
Japan."
Charles Keally
Fujimura was deputy director at the private institute, Tohoku
Paleolithic Cultural Research Institute. He was said to have "god's hands"
since he found most of the Early Paleolithic period stoneware
excavated in Japan.
However, in November 2000, Fujimura admitted that he had planted 61 of
the 65 stoneware pieces excavated in the Kamitakamori ruins, and all 29
stoneware pieces found in the Soshin Fudozaka ruins (Shintotsukawa, Hokkaido).
The pieces that Fujimura buried were from his private collection of
artifacts, that he had excavated earlier from the Miyagi Prefecture. Since
he buried and then 'found' them in 600,000 year old rock strata (thereby
placing the finds in the Early Palaeolithic era), it was assumed that
the artifacts were 600,000 years old too - no other testing was carried out to verify this claim.
Fujimura said "I was tempted by the devil. I don't know how I
can apologize for what I did."
Apart from the huge damage this hoax has done to all of Japanese
archeaology, it also throws doubt on the ability of Mahikari's spiritual
leaders to know the real truth of matters. If Ms Okada has the
all-seeing God-given powers that she claims, why didn't she know that
the Kamitakamori finds were a hoax? Surely if she had genuine divine
powers, she would have denounced these findings as flawed when they
actually occurred, in 1994, and not used them as evidence in her
teachings on the history Japan. Maybe she only has the powers of a normal human,
after all.
The Quest for an Ancient History
A frequent theme in Mahikari teachings is how the Japanese were the
first race, the first people created by God, the origin of all mankind.
To support such claims, accurate and verified archaeological findings
are obviously required. Mahikari has been helped in this by the
generally poor state of academic enquiry in Japan, the widespread
Japanese desire to prove themselves older than the Chinese, and the
personal aspirations of Fujimura Shin'ichi, an amateur archaeologist.
In Mahikari literature, Japan is called Hinomototsu-kuni, the Land of
Spirit's Origin. "It is the original place where God created spiritual
forms and spiritual images of all with the Art of Mu-u (from nothingness
to the existence with power). He placed O-bito (the King race [the
Japanese]) here and dispatched all five races throughout the world as
branch races."
Goseigen, "Mankind, Make your spiritual origin clear" pg 275, JP 458-459
"Historic events do not occur by chance but are arranged to fulfil the purpose of the Creator God.
Of particular relevance here, however, is that the history of the human began in Japan."
Mahikari - Thank God for the Answers at Last, Dr A. K. Tebecis, pg 388
The view that Japan is the head of the world is not a new concept.
During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Japan looked inwards to
search for the unique 'Japaneseness' of their culture, distilled from
Chinese and Korean influences. The Japanese have long wanted to prove
that they have an ancient culture, the first culture. It is not surprising that
these sorts of attitudes have developed within Japanese culture, resulting in
desperate efforts to create an ancient history, such as Fujimura's hoaxs.
"While Japanese culture ultimately derives from the immigrants of the
third century BC, the bulk of Japanese culture is forged from Chinese
materials - a fact that will drive an entire cultural revolution in the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as scholars attempt to reclaim
original Japanese culture from its Chinese accretions."
Richard Hooker
Japanese stamp issue commemorating the 50th Anniversary of Excavations
of Iwajuku Paleolithic Site
|
When supposedly ultra-ancient artifacts were found and made public, they
were simply accepted as genuine, displayed in museums,
and text books were changed to include Japan's new 'early
history' without any rigorous scientific checks or verification.
There is no doubt that tools that date into the Late Palaeolithic
period have been found, or about the findings of Aizawa (who is
mentioned in various Mahikari books). There is some doubt as to whether
Aizawa was a professional or not - in Oshienushisama's teachings (below)
she says that he was an amateur, making his finds "while earning his
living selling natto."
However, in Chapter 6 of "Daiseishu - Great and Holy Master"
(the book about Sukuinushisama), he is called Professor Aizawa, implying
that he is a professional archaeologist. From what I have learnt
recently, I suspect that he was an amateur.
|
The archaeologist, Professor Charles T. Keally (personal correspondence, Nov 2001) writes :
"Tadahiro Aizawa found the Iwajuku site in 1946 and an excavation by
two Meiji University archaeologists in 1949 confirmed Aizawa's find as
the first Palaeolithic site in Japan. Since then, the Late Palaeolithic
in Japan has been well studied.
"But the Early Palaeolithic has always been controversial. Now, as
you know, exposure of the hoax has effectively put the study of finds
older than 35,000 years ago back to zero. There is no serious
controversy about the Late Palaeolithic, which dates from about 35,000
years ago until 12,000 years ago."
Professor Keally's summary of the main criticisms of the Early
Palaeolithic work is below, as well as his detailed analysis of the hoax and its effects on the study
of archaeology in Japan.
Extracts from the Teachings of Oshienushisama
"A Major Turning-Point in the History of Humankind"
5 October 1996
"Due to the major changes in the will of Heaven, problems that
cannot be solved using previously held assumptions and ideas are
arising one after another. Major changes are occurring in every realm
of human endeavour, whether it be history, religion, science,
economics or politics.
"One example of these changes is that firmly held misconceptions
regarding history have started to collapse.
"This began with the discovery of the Iwajuku site in Nitta
County, Gunma Prefecture, and the Second World War. It was an
epoch-making discovery in terms of our understanding of the
palaeolithic culture of Japan.
"Mr Tadahiro Aizawa was responsible for discovering stone tools
from the palaeolithic period in Japan. Until that time, it was
believed that stone tools that were more than ten thousand years
old did not exist in Japan. It was under such circumstances that Mr
Aizawa continued his research while earning his living selling
natto (fermented soybeans). One day he found an excellent
example of a stone implement made of obsidian. It was by the side of
a road in a stratum of red clay which had been exposed while the
road was being made. That was how the evidence of the palaeolothic
period in Japan was first revealed.
"Our holy founder, Suikunishisama, would visit the Iwajuku and
Natsuido sites with Mr Aizawa every time he made a Tour of Light to
Gunma. On one trip, Sukuinushisama pointed to a certain place on the
ground with his walking stick and said that archaeological remains
would be discovered there. Some time later, important stone tools
were unearthed in that spot.
"Since then, stone tools from the palaeolithic period have been
found one after the other at the Iwajuku and Natsuido sites.
Suikunishisama had predicted that,"Much, much older stone tools
will be found." Indeed, 300,000-year-old stone tools were later
excavated from the Natsuido site. However, the academic world, still
close-minded at the time, has been very reluctant to accept these
findings.
"In recent years, the discoveries of the Zazaragi and Babadan
sites in Miyagi Prefecture have shown that Japan's palaeolithic age
began more than 100,000 years ago. These findings have forced
scholars, who had argued against it, to accept the existence of such
an early palaeolithic period for Japan.
"Furthermore, in 1994, a surprising discovery was made at the
Kamitakamori site, also in Miyagi Prefecture. Splendid stone tools
from the palaeolithic period were found in strata dating back all of
600,000 years, which is 100,000 years earlier than the appearance of
Peking man. [These are the finds that Fujimura later admits he planted,
were never date tested, and are NOT from the Early Palaeolithic era.]
"There were also traces of scorching by fire at this site,
showing that early humans in Japan used fire at an earlier stage
than Peking man. When this fact is confirmed, wit will constitute a
great discovery in regard to the earliest use of fire, which was the
foundation for the development of human culture and civilisation, and
in itself, led to a rapid improvement in living conditions.
"Fifteen articles forming a circular design were found at the
site. A piece of red jasper was in the centre and the other pieces
radiated from it to form a circle. From this we can see that early
humans possessed a sense of beauty that enabled them to arrange
things in an orderly way and that they were highly imaginative. From
this discovery we learn that our ancestors had the custom of holding
Divine ceremonies in the distant past - from at least 600,000 years
ago - and that they had a tradition of burying people's personal
articles with them when they died.
"The time of Heaven has now arrived when humankind is being urged
to extensively rewrite its history.
"In the prayer book (Norigotoshu), there are the following Divine songs:
As the Light of God has started to radiate at dawn, a time of
great transition in human history has arrived.
Awaken! Now is the pioneering age when human history must be
rewritten in the Light of the righteous path."
(Butsumetsu no Yo, pg 200, JP 131-6 & 131-7)
and
This is the beginning of the Era in which human history shall be rewritten."
(Geinen, pg 211, JP 138-4)
"Sukuinushisama predicted, "The excavations, discoveries, and
progress made by the new archaeology will lead to the discovery in
the Japanese islands of remains dating back at least a million
years." This means that human being already lived in the Land of
Origin of Spirit (Hi no Motosu Kuni - Japan) a million years ago,
not just 600,000 years ago.
"Facts unthinkable according to ideas commonly held until now are
coming to light and being proved by archaeology.
"The predictions Sukuinushisama made regarding the great expanse
of human history are turning out to be correct."
In fact, it is clear from these recent events that the predictions that Okada made
"regarding the great expanse of human history" are turning out to be rubbish and wishful thinking.
The failure of Ms Okada to pick up the fact that the Kami-takamori finds were a hoax
throws all the other claims of Mahikari into doubt. They cannot be trusted to present
properly researched scientific findings, especially given their attitude to science in general.
Mahikari has a basic aversion and aggression towards rational thought
and the scientific process, which is clear throughout its teachings. It
is highly hypocritical for them to then to make use of scientific results to
support their various positions on such topics as the ancient history of
Japan.
"There are also numerous scholars (Gakusha; man of self-caused sufferings) who are causing self sufferings.
Although there are many kinds of scholars, only the evil ones have increased in the past thousand years..."
"There are truly many academic fields with contaminated egos different from that of God. There is much
"poisonous powder of a moth" covering these fields. They are covered with excrement. Thou shalt make them
realise this soon. There is no other way than to make them realise the Principle of Cross of the two essences."
Goseigen Ambiguous Delusion called Truth, pg 92 (JP 152-153)
How Fabrication of Two Early Palaeolithic Sites
Has Damaged All of Japanese Archaeology
by Charles T. Keally
December 14, 2000
I have talked with a number of archaeologists on both sides of the
Early and Middle Palaeolithic controversy and recent fabrication
scandal. Those who have favored the material give the impression that
they still feel most of the finds are valid and eventually will be
validated. Those who have criticized the work seem 100% convinced that
it is all now proven invalid. Both sides seem unwilling to concede any
possibility that the other side might be right, if even only partially
right, and neither side seems to understand that they need to produce
some very good, concrete scientific evidence to support their arguments.
Neither side presently has much such evidence backing their arguments.
The circumstantial evidence (note 1) (which is all
we really have at the moment) is about 90% against the validity of the
Early and Middle Palaeolithic finds of FUJIMURA Shin'ichi and the group
of archaeologists in Miyagi Prefecture (note 2) that he
worked with. But, if we ASSUME that some or all of these finds will
eventually be shown to be valid, we need to ask how the fabrication of
just two sites in the 2000 field season has come to cast a dark cloud of
suspicion on all the other 31 excavated Early and Middle Palaeolithic
sites, and on the previous several seasons' work on the two sites that
were fabricated this year. That this confirmed fabrication of two sites
has had such a bad effect on all the other Early and Middle Palaeolithic
work is why Japanese archaeology as a whole has come to look so bad.
The Early and Middle Palaeolithic finds by themselves are important
to Japan. They give evidence of ancient humans in the islands at the
same time as Peking Man or the earlier Lantien Woman in North China.
Such important finds needed to be validated by other archaeologists, and
the archaeologists in Miyagi Prefecture needed government financial
support and government pressure to do the studies that would answer
their critics. Instead of this, the government -- Cultural
Affairs Agency, Ministry of Education -- the Japanese
Archaeological Association and leading Japanese archaeologists
did not provide support or ask for validation; they simply
accepted the finds and put them in museum exhibits and approved
them for inclusion in school textbooks. That was careless to the point
of being foolish.
But when the Early Palaeolithic sites started to produce cache pits
with neatly arranged tools, bifacial points and evidence of socketted
tools, the government, the archaeology associations, and the
leading archaeologists needed to take action. These finds suggested that
Homo erectus in Japan had cognitive and mechanical skills far in advance
of anything suggested for Homo erectus elsewhere in the world. These
finds could have changed our understanding of human evolution. But even
several years after the first of these highly significant finds, the
leading archaeologists, archaeological organizations and government
agencies were just accepting all of this without any validation or any
request for validation. This inaction and unquestioning acceptance of
such potentially significant finds is unbelievable behavior for
academics and related government institutions in an advanced country
like Japan. It calls into question their competence.
The primary focus for blame for the fabrication has been on Fujimura
himself, because he is the one who got caught and he claims to have been
alone. The media have given themselves some of the blame for their
emphasis on "finds" and superlatives, such as "older." There is also
criticism of the Miyagi archaeologists who worked with Fujimura and did
not realize he was planting artifacts on the sites. But I think the real
blame lies with the leading archaeologists and institutions that did not
provide support for the research or require validation before accepting
the finds, or pay attention to the criticisms that were being made by
some archaeologists. Focusing on one person, or on one group of
archaeologists, will not explain how this scandal occurred or result in
eventual validation, or invalidation, and a system that will prevent a
similar scandal in the future. If the critics had been listened to
instead of ignored 14 years ago, we might now have a validated Early and
Middle Palaeolithic, and fabrication of two sites would not have any
affects beyond those two sites.
Even if many of these finds prove to be valid in the end, the
Japanese archaeology world has suffered hugely from this display of
scientific incompetence. If these finds prove to be a 20-year-long,
33-site hoax, Japanese archaeology will have a long uphill battle trying
to demonstrate that it belongs among the archaeologies of the advanced,
educated world. For those people who do not have direct contact with,
for example, the Jomon research here, how are they supposed to judge the
quality of [Jomon] research by Japanese archaeologists? This wholly
unacademic, incompetent work in the Early and Middle Palaeolithic
research will suggest that that is possibly also the quality of work in
all other areas of Japanese archaeological research. The rest of the
world will (might or should?) cease to believe anything that comes out
of Japanese archaeology, unless they have first-hand knowledge of it, or
some other very good means of validating it.
My hope is that Japanese archaeologists will realize just how much
damage this scandal has done (or could do) to them and then take the
necessary measures to ensure the high quality of all future
archaeological research here, and to provide validation for all past
archaeological research, too. In fact, much of Japanese archaeology has
been of very high quality, and it is unfortunate that this, too, is
likely to suffer because so many leading archaeologists and institutions
have been so careless about the Early and Middle Palaeolithic research.
Note 1:
The main criticisms and/or sources of doubt are:
lack of vertical displacement of artifacts in the soil, when
there is always some vertical displacement in Late Palaeolithic sites,
caused by moles, tree roots and other natural agents;
dates with extremely large plus-minus error factors, suggesting
possibly great disturbance of the strata;
extreme scarcity of refittable pieces or other evidence of stone
tool production on the site, when there is always such evidence in Late
Palaeolithic sites; but despite this scarcity in the Early and Middle
Palaeolitic sites, there is one example of a refit between two sites
that are 30 km apart and on opposite sides of a mountain range;
cache pits with neatly arranged stone tools, and other evidence
suggesting cognitive abilities and mechanical skills for humans in Japan
several hundred-thousand years before such abilities and skills are
generally thought to have evolved in humans;
one person, Fujimura, is responsible for finding most of the
sites and a majority of the artifacts, and his "god hand" seems to go
far beyond the expectable even for an unusual combination of skill and
luck;
no evidence of cultural evolution over a period of several
hundred-thousand years;
Early Palaeolithic artifacts that appear to be the same as Jomon
artifacts dating several hundred-thousand years later; and
new finds getting older by a 100,000 years almost every year.
Lack of Early and Middle Palaeolithic finds in rich Palaeolithic
regions, such as the plains of South Kanto, and no more than a few
uncertain claims for pre-35,000-year finds elsewhere in the country
(that is, effectively ALL Early and Middle Palaeolithic finds involve a
single group of archaeologists).
Note 2:
KAJIWARA Hiroshi (an archaeologist at Tohoku Fukushi University),
KAMADA Toshiaki (a college-trained archaeologist and Buddhist priest),
FUJIMURA Shin'ichi (an amateur archaeologist), several other
archaeologists who have not gained as much fame, and, until 1990,
OKAMURA Michio (presently an archaeologist with the national Cultural
Affairs Agency). These people are all members of the Sekki Bunka
Danwakai, which is now called the Tohoku Kyusekki Bunka Kenkyujo (Tohoku
Palaeolithic Laboratory).
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