Page One of the Exclusive Interview with Professor Masaaki Kimura –

The Morien Institute - Exclusive illustrated interview with Professor Masaaki Kimura about the underwater pyramid structures discovered off Yonaguni-Jima, Japan



University of the Ryukyus
Okinawa, Japan



text translation service for many worldwide languages

 


 Today is

Friday, February 24, 2023 


please left-click to access another page with more information and images
 
please left-click to access another page with more information and images
 
please left-click to access another page with more information and images
 
please left-click to access another page with more information and images
 
please left-click to access another page with more information and images


The controversy that has erupted in archaeological circles around the world since the discovery of an enigmatic

structure, described by some as ‘pyramid-like’, at Iseki Point, just off the coast of the southernmost

Japanese island of Yonaguni-Jima, some 15 years ago, looks set to get even hotter as news

emerges that the so-called ‘Yonaguni Monument’ is just one of a number of

underwater megalithic structures in a ‘complex’ stretching for

many hundreds of miles northeast of Taiwan.


As the sea-levels rose at the end of the last Ice Age, the dry land that was once between the Chinese mainland

and Japan was inundated, and only in the last few years has the attention of marine scientists been

drawn to the existence of ‘walls’, ‘stepped-pyramid-like structures’, and some very


‘unusual artifacts’ that have been found underwater in the East China Sea.

 


a map of the Japanese island of Yonaguni-jima and the locations

of nearby anomalous underwater discoveries


please left-click to access another page with more information and images






Okinawa, Japan



One man above all others has made a study of the ‘No.1 monument’ at Iseki Point over the past 10 years, and he is ideally qualified to comment on the discoveries – being a marine geologist. His name is Professor Masaaki Kimura, and in late June 2002 The Morien Institute contacted him at the University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa, Japan. Over the next few months we interviewed Professor Kimura via email, and the following pages contain the questions and answers that passed between us until mid-October 2002. The interview is illustrated with some of Professor Kimura’s photographs and diagrams of the discoveries he made during countless dives over the past 10 years.

 


These stepped-platforms on the upper terrace of the ‘No 1 monument’ at

Iseki Point have been dismissed by some geologists as being created

by ‘natural forces’, and judged to be simply ‘natural features’.


please left-click to access another page with more information and images






Okinawa, Japan

 


Morien Institute:

Professor Kimura, how long have you been studying the underwater structure off the coast of Yonaguni Island at Iseki Point?


Professor Masaaki Kimura:

“I have been studying it during 10 years.”


Morien Institute:

I have read that scuba diving is one of your interests. During the past 10 years, how many dives have you personally made to study the structure at Iseki Point?


Professor Masaaki Kimura:

“More than 100 times.”

 


the ‘triangle pool’ and part of the ‘loop road’ which runns along the

bottom of the ‘No. 1 monument’ at Iseki Point, Yonaguni


please left-click to access another page with more information and images






Okinawa, Japan


please left-click to access another page with more information and images






Okinawa, Japan

 


Morien Institute:

I understand that certain features have been allocated specific names, such as ‘the triangle pool’, ‘the loop road’, and the ‘arch-gate’. Can you explain why these names were assigned to those particular features of the underwater structure at Yonaguni?


Professor Masaaki Kimura:

“Triangle pool: Shape of the depression seems to be a triangle. It resembles a ‘Kaa’ that is an artificial spring for drinking water at Gusuku Castle of ancient Okinawa. The gusuku means a castle including a temple in ancient Okinawa.


Loop road: There is a space looking like a loop road surrounding the No.1 Monument. The widest part is 15 m and the typical part is 6 m wide.


Arch-gate: There are stone fences surrounding the loop road. The entrance to the loop road seems to be an arch-gate the height of which is 1.7 m and the width is 1 m.”


Morien Institute:

What would you describe as the most interesting feature, or features, of the Yonaguni structure, and why?


Professor Masaaki Kimura:

“A rock similar to a face of a man, the height of which is about 7 m. Its eyes are artificial and, a famous free diver, Jacques Mayol liked them very much. Therefore, we call them ‘Jacques eyes’.”

 


the feature termed the ‘arch-gate’ on the west side of ‘Iseki Point’ at

Yonaguni is shown to the left, and on the right is the image of the

23-foot Moai-like figure showing ‘Jacques Eyes’.


please left-click to access another page with more information and images






Okinawa, Japan


please left-click to access another page with more information and images






Okinawa, Japan

 


Morien Institute:

One of the features on the Yonaguni monument is the ‘giant turtle’ that has been carved out of the living rock at the eastern side of the structure. Are there any species of turtle known in the South China Sea area, which have ever been known to grow to this giant size?


Professor Masaaki Kimura:

“I do not know its species. Living turtles may grow about 1.5 m long.”


Morien Institute:

I am told that all Japanese school children are familiar with the Okinawan fable of Urashima Taro, the gentle fisherman, who saved a young turtle from bullies and released it into the ocean, only to be visited by a ‘giant turtle’ who offered him, for his kindness, a ride beneath the sea to a magical kingdom. Could this fable be a folk memory of the ‘giant turtle’ carved onto the Yonaguni monument?


Professor Masaaki Kimura:

“I do not know the direct connection. However, the fable of Urashima (name of a fisherman) is related to this kind of turtle.”

 


two views of the ‘giant turtle’ on the top of the ‘upper terrace’

on the ‘No. 1 monument’ at Iseki Point, Yonaguni


please left-click to access another page with more information and images






Okinawa, Japan


please left-click to access another page with more information and images






Okinawa, Japan

 


Morien Institute:

Can you give any details about the stone tools and other artifacts that have been found on the seabed in and around the Island of Yonaguni?


Professor Masaaki Kimura:

“We recovered several pieces of stone tools. Typical ones are adzes. They are not polished. Their age is estimated as up to 10 thousand years old.”

 

 



Books About

Prehistoric Japan



“Ancient Jomon of Japan”


by

Junko Habu





Get This Book From:

Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk




“Prehistoric Japan:

New Perspectives on Insular East Asia”


by

Keiji Imamura





Get This Book From:

Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk




“In the Wake of Jomon: Stone Age Mariners and a Voyage Across

the Pacific”


by

Jon Turk





Get This Book From:

Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk




“An Archaeological History of Japan, 30,000 B.P. to A.D. 700”


by

Koji Mizoguchi





Get This Book From:

Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk




“Sacred Texts and Buried Treasure:

Issues on the Historical Archaeology of Ancient Japan”


by

William Wayne Farris





Get This Book From:

Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk




“Shinto:

The Sacred Art of Ancient Japan”


by

Victor Harris

(Editor)





Get This Book From:

Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk




“Jomon of Japan:

The World’s Oldest Pottery”


by

Douglas Moore Kenrick





Get This Book From:

Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk




“Underworld: Flooded

Kingdoms of the

Ice Age”


by

Graham Hancock


an image/link direct to this product at amazon.com



Get This Book From:

Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk




“Voices of the Rocks: A Scientist Looks at Catastrophes and Ancient Civilizations”


by

Dr Robert M. Schoch





Get This Book From:

Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk



if you would like to support

The Morien Institute

marine archaeology research


please send us a book

My Amazon.com Wish List
from our Wish List


the interview with Professor Masaaki Kimura continues on pages


2 |
3 |
4

 


Google

 
Web
The Morien Institute








 


History’s Mysteries


“Do undersea relics near Okinawa offer proof of a sophisticated civilization during the last ice age? Archeologists have long believed that civilization as we define it – intelligent, tool-making, monument building, social humans – began about 5,000 years ago. But submerged beneath the waves near the Japanese island of Yonaguni is evidence that may well overturn that long-held theory.


A small but persuasive number of scholars and scientists have long thought that “advanced” societies may have existed as long as 10,000 years ago. Their theories, however well reasoned and defended, have been hamstrung by a lack of evidence. But recent discoveries of man-made artifacts on the Pacific seafloor may well prove to be the smoking gun that will propel this alternative view of civilization to prominence”.


See the evidence with ‘unique underwater footage’ of the Yonaguni structures

in the NEW DVD of the
‘History Channel’ television programme.


“Japan’s Mysterious Pyramids”



DVD

or

VHS


 


Following the great cataclysms and mass extinctions of 11,500 years ago, land that was once between the Chinese mainland

Okinawa and Japan was inundated, and only in the last few years has the attention of marine scientists been

drawn to the existence of ‘undersea walls’, ‘stepped-pyramid-like structures’, and some very


‘unusual artifacts’ that have been discovered underwater in the East China Sea.

 

 


please take a look at our
Ancient Mysteries Bookshoppe for a wide selection of books

that challenge orthodox views of prehistory on every continent


|
|
2019 Skywatching Calendar |
|


Marine Archaeology News 2019 |
Astro-Archaeology News 2019


The Morien Institute