Latest news with #YosukeKaifu
NZ Herald
a day ago
- Science
- NZ Herald
In the spirit of Thor Heyerdahl and Kon-Tiki, Japanese researchers built a canoe to follow another ancient route
Two new studies published yesterday in the academic journal Science presented the results of those experiments. In one report, advanced ocean models recreated hundreds of virtual voyages to pinpoint the most plausible routes for the crossing. 'We tested various seasons, starting points and paddling methods under both modern and prehistoric conditions,' Kaifu said. The other paper charts the 45-hour journey that Kaifu's crew made from eastern Taiwan to Yonaguni Island in the southern Ryukyus. The mariners, four men and one woman, paddled the 7.6m canoe, a hollowed-out cedar log christened Sugime, for 122 nautical miles on the open sea, relying solely on the stars, sun, and wind for their bearings. Often, they could not see their target island. 'Yosuke Kaifu's team has found the most likely answer to the migration question,' said Peter Bellwood, an archaeologist at the Australian National University who was not involved in the undertaking. Dawn, on the second morning of the voyage in 2019. Photo / Yosuke Kaifu via the New York Times Such a crossing between islands, he said, would have been one of the oldest, and among the longest, in the history of Homo sapiens up to that period, exceeded only by the migration to Australia from eastern Indonesia some 50,000 years ago. Early humans most likely used land bridges and watercraft to travel from mainland Asia to the Japanese archipelago. Three main paths had been proposed: Korea to Kyushu, Russia to Hokkaido, and Taiwan to Okinawa. Relics from six islands within the 1210km Ryukyu chain indicate that people migrated there between 35,000 and 30,000 years ago, arriving from both the north, via Kyushu, and the south, via Taiwan. 'The islands were always located at least 50 miles [80km] from the East Asian coastline, even during the last ice age with its low sea levels, and up to 110 miles [177km] apart from each other,' Bellwood said. Geologic records suggest that the Kuroshio, also known as the Black Stream, has remained stable for 100,000 years or more. Kaifu got the idea for the migration project in 2013, but lacked the funds to make it happen. Three years later, he persuaded Japan's National Museum of Science and Nature, where he worked as a researcher, to act as a sponsor. Financed largely by crowdfunding and counselled by sea kayakers, his team attempted the 40-nautical-mile route from the Yonaguni to the Iriomote islands in boats made from cattail reeds. The attempt was unsuccessful. The vessels proved stable but were too slow to handle the strong currents. In 2017, with the support of Taiwan's National Museum of Prehistory, the scientists toyed with rafts made of bamboo and rattan. A prototype was durable but, as was the case with the reed crafts, not fast enough to negotiate the Kuroshio. A second, lighter version was prone to cracking and did not last long in the high seas. After calculating that crossing the Kuroshio would require a speed of at least 2 nautical miles per hour, Kaifu searched for heavier materials. A canoe, christened Sugime, was cut and hollowed from a cedar tree using an edge-ground stone axe with a wooden handle. Photo / National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo, via the New York Times A large Japanese cedar was felled and carved using stone axes modelled after tools from about 28,000 BC. 'The idea was to replicate the canoe-building methods that prehistoric seafarers may have used,' Kaifu said. Six summers ago, the Sugime set off from Taiwan. This time, the voyage was a success. Kaifu does not believe a return journey would have been possible. 'If you have a map and know the flow pattern of the Kuroshio, you can plan your return,' he said. 'But such things probably did not take place until much later in history.' Did the ancient mariners reach the Ryukus by accident or through deliberate navigation? Kaifu noted that the islands could be spied from the top of one of Taiwan's coastal mountains, indicating intentional travel. To test this, his team set 138 satellite-tracked buoys adrift and found that only four came within 20km of any of the islands, and those had been driven by storms. 'What that tells us is that the Kuroshio directs drifters away from, rather than toward, the Ryukyu Islands,' Kaifu said. 'It also tells us that those male and female pioneers must have been experienced paddlers with effective strategies and a strong will to brave the unknown.' In his view, the Japanese islanders of antiquity were not mere passengers of chance, but die-hard explorers. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Written by: Franz Lidz Photographs by: National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo, and Yousuke Kaifu ©2025 THE NEW YORK TIMES
Japan Times
2 days ago
- Science
- Japan Times
Rowing from Taiwan to Japan was possible 30,000 years ago, says team
A Japanese team has concluded that it was possible to travel from Taiwan to Japan's westernmost island of Yonaguni in a dugout canoe 30,000 years ago. The voyage in a log boat, with no sails, was possible if all the rowers were highly skilled and adjusted their course with the fast Kuroshio current in mind, the team said. The team's findings resulted from a project by Japan's National Museum of Nature and Science to recreate how Japanese ancestors traveled from mainland China to present-day Taiwan, which was connected by land at the time, and then sailed to Yonaguni, east of Taiwan. The findings were included in two papers published in U.S. journal Science Advances on Wednesday. "You can see Yonaguni from some of the high peaks in Taiwan, but you don't arrive by chance (at Yonaguni) just by drifting," said Yosuke Kaifu, the team's leader and professor at the University of Tokyo. "We surmise that our ancestors picked a date to start the voyage based on the seasonal, weather and sea conditions, and rowed out to sea in a group of men and women with the intention of settling down (in the new location)," he said. The voyage was re-enacted in 2019, involving four men and one woman rowing a 7.5-meter-long dugout canoe. The group left the eastern shore of Taiwan on the afternoon of July 7, 2019, and arrived at Yonaguni in Okinawa Prefecture 45 hours later despite being swept away by the ocean current at times. The oldest archeological sites in Okinawa and the neighboring Amami island region of Kagoshima Prefecture date back 27,500-35,000 years. As boats used back then have not survived to this day, the research team initially created a boat made from reeds and a bamboo raft. It found, however, that such boats were too slow. Although a dugout canoe would have been difficult to build using stone axes, the team concluded that this was the only option, as no other boat possible back then could reach a speed allowing the crossing of the Kuroshio current. An ocean current simulation by researchers from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, or JAMSTEC, and Ehime University has shown that sea levels at the time were lower than now. While faster back then, the Kuroshio current flowed closer to Yonaguni. The team selected a southern point in eastern Taiwan to set off on its voyage, but it found that a point some 100 kilometers north of the point of departure was a better option.
2 days ago
- Science
Voyage from Taiwan to Japan Isle 30,000 Yrs Ago Possible: Team
News from Japan Society Culture Jun 26, 2025 07:59 (JST) Tokyo, June 26 (Jiji Press)--A Japanese team has concluded that it was possible to travel from Taiwan to Japan's westernmost island of Yonaguni in a dugout canoe 30,000 years ago. The voyage in a log boat, with no sails, was possible if all the rowers were highly skilled and adjusted their course with the fast Kuroshio current in mind, the team said. The team's findings resulted from a project by Japan's National Museum of Nature and Science to recreate how Japanese ancestors traveled from mainland China to present-day Taiwan, which was connected by land at the time, and then sailed to Yonaguni, east of Taiwan. The findings were included in two papers published in U.S. journal Science Advances on Wednesday. "You can see Yonaguni from some of the high peaks in Taiwan, but you don't arrive by chance (at Yonaguni) just by drifting," said Yosuke Kaifu, the team's leader and professor at the University of Tokyo. [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.] Jiji Press
