Professor Katsuyoshi Fukui, who died suddenly last year at the age of 64, was a leading figure in the anthropological study of southern Ethiopia and the main architect of a remarkable growth in Ethiopian studies in Japan since the 1980s.

Through his own writing and research, through the contributions of the many younger scholars whom he inspired and encouraged and through his tireless energy in organising international meetings and forging links with scholars from Ethiopia, Europe and America, he put the study of southern Ethiopia and of Northeast Africa firmly on the map of Japanese anthropology.

His first academic appointment was to the Research Institute for the Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. On returning from his first visit to the Bodi, he moved to the National Museum of Ethnology (Minpaku) in Osaka, then recently established under its first Director, Tadao Umasao. In 1993 he became Professor at Kyoto University and remained there until his retirement in 2007.

Recognising no doubt the importance of creating institutional structures to support this growing community of scholars, Katsuyoshi founded, in 1992, the Japan Association for Nilo-Ethiopian Studies (JANES) which, among other things, publishes the English language Journal of Nilo-Ethiopian Studies.

He died in April 2008 and is survived by his wife, Masako, their children Michiko and Takahiro and two grandchildren.

David Turton

African Studies Centre, University of Oxford