Andrew Mancabelli

I am a farm boy at heart growing up on a farm in the heartland of New York.  I have been interested in history and archeology ever since I could walk and talk.  Since the age of eight I excavated archeological sites and joined such organizations as the Audubon Society and the NY State Archeological Association. I paid my way through four years at Syracuse University as an honors student and received an honors thesis award for my work on a proto-historic Mississippian Mound site in Arkansas.  I have lived in Japan for three years on the JET program in one of the most remote villages in the program. I learned to speak Japanese rather fluently as I had no connections to the outside world and nobody spoke English in the village. While there I joined two Japanese sword societies and the Japanese Armor Society and spent every weekend in Tokyo at a study group one or the other. While in Japan I began my collection.  Following Japan I entered Syracuse University Law school and attended for part of the first semester as I have always been interested in legal issues. However, I felt that profession robbed me my self.  So, I sold antiques for the next two years living in Japan half the time.  In 2002 I followed my heart and returned to school at University of Arkansas’ Master program in Anthropology/Archeology at Fayetteville.  My specialization is Cultural Resource Management, which involves the legal aspects of cultural preservation and cultural resource protection.  In 2003 I received two grants from the University of Arkansas to develop a course about Japanese feudal society and culture.  It was the first of its kind on this subject in such a format and received outstanding reviews from the students.  In addition to this upper level course I also taught biological anthropology labs and introduction to cultural anthropology and designed a sequence to Japanese feudal society and culture.  I specialize in East Asian history outside anthropology and am well versed in Chinese as well as Japanese History and culture.  In 2004 I finished the masters program with honors and am currently a PhD candidate finishing up my final class this semester.  My dissertation research involves cultural resource management and preservation in Japan and other countries in East Asia.  In 2005 I designed a research proposal to the Ministry of Education Science Sports and Culture (Monbusho) to conduct research in Japan to study various ways cultural resource protection is carried out. I was recently selected to carry out this research over a number of years as a fellow through MONBUSHO at a top ten research institution in Japan beginning October 2006. The research is focuses on tangible and intangible cultural protection as well as the legal system surrounding them. It will involve historic, ethnographic, and ethnohistoric research methods.  Recently I finished a handbook to aid in the understanding of the different cultural property designation systems throughout Japan.  This handbook is based in part on my dissertation research.  In March of 2006 I will be giving a lecture at PennState University at the annual Ethnobiological Conference and presenting a paper entitled Medical Ethnobotany in Japan: The conservation of Traditional Health Beliefs.  I am currently finishing up a translation and co-authorship of a handbook for judging Muromachi-Edo Era Toppai Kabuto with Masao Takemura of the NKBKHK. Unfortunately I have undergone a great deal of age discrimination in this field first of all because I was the youngest member of the armor society and secondly because even though I am 31 years old people tend to think I look like I am 18.(the first day of class I used to sit outside and listen to what students said about me before they knew I was their instructor!) I just let my research speak for itself.  Accept it or not; it’s well done and I have the honors and expertise to prove it.

 

My interests in Japanese antiquities are many ranging from Ukiyoe, to Japanese swords. However, my expertise is in Japanese armor. My particular specialty is in Muromachi era armor. Areas of armor study that particularly intrigue me are the development of the domaru from the Nambokucho – Mid Muromachi period,  the development of kabuto, and the evolution of schools from the late Muromachi period through the Momoyama period.  Aside from Japanese antiquities I love western prints and bronzes, ship paintings (don’t know why) and antique sports cars and motorcycles.  My pride and joy is a red 1974 Corvette convertible that you might see me driving around Arkansas.