In April 2009, the surviving family of the late Mr. Ichiro Kawai donated bird skin, egg and nest specimens to the Yamashina Institute for Ornithology. Mr. Kawai was a naturalist who lived in Yamagata Prefecture and died in January 2009. His collection consists of 51 skins of 29 species, 114 clutches of 70 species and 14 nests of 10 species. From the 1920s to 1960s, these specimens were mainly collected from Yamagata and Oita Prefectures in Japan, and from overseas.
