was a Japanese anthropologist and folklorist known for his studies in Taiwanese indigenous peoples. Inà  was the first person who classified the aboriginal tribes into several groups, instead of the traditional classification, dating back to the period of Qing rule and earlier, which imprecisely recognized these aborigines only as or .
Inà  was born in Shinyashiki (æ°å±Âæ·), Yokota Village (æ©«ç°æÂÂ), Tono City (é éÂÂå¸Â), what is now part of the city of Tà Âno, Iwate, Japan. He moved to Tokyo in 1885 and was active in the Freedom and People's Rights Movement. He later worked as a journalist and for a printing company before becoming a pupil of the noted professor of biological anthropology, Tsuboi Shogoro, at Tokyo Imperial University in 1893, along with Torii Ryà «zà Â. Following the acquisition of Taiwan by the Empire of Japan following the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895, he received permission from the Governor-General of Taiwan to conduct research there. Upon his arrival in Taiwan in November 1895, Inà  joined the Governor-General's Office in Taipei to catalog material on indigenous people collected during the Qing administration. Inà  began field research the following year. He remained in Taiwan to 1906, publishing several works on the culture of the Taiwanese aborigines.
In The Island of Formosa (1903), former US Consul to Formosa James W. Davidson presented the first English-language account of the aborigines of the whole island, which was almost entirely based on the comprehensive work collected over several years of study by Ino, the foremost authority on the topic at the time. In his book, Davidson presented Ino's formalization of eight tribes of Taiwanese aborigines: Atayal, Vonum, Tsou, Tsalisen, Paiwan, Puyuma, Ami and Pepo.
Inà  returned to his native Tà Âno in 1905 and pursued cultural and folklore studies there, together with Kizen Sasaki. He became acquainted with Kunio Yanagita, who was also collecting oral traditions and tales in preparation of his Tà Âno Monogatari. He died in 1925, due to complication from malaria contracted while he was living in Taiwan.
Since Inà  Kanori conducted the "survey on the preparation of educational facilities for aborigines," he had published several important and general articles on knowledge of TaiwanâÂÂs aborigines. In 1900, when Taiwan Customs Study Group (èºç£栣ç¿Âç Â究æÂÂ) was founded, Inà  Kanori often published articles relating to old customs and folklore of Han Chinese in Taiwan on Articles on Taiwan Customs (ãÂÂèºç£栣ç¿Âè¨ÂäºÂãÂÂ), marking his entrance into the realm of history from anthropology. In 1902, he published his first major work since he arrived in Taiwan: Chronicles of Taiwan (ãÂÂèºç£å¿ÂãÂÂ). In 1908, he participated in the editorial work of Preface to the Greater Japan Dictionary of Geographical Names-Chapter of Taiwan. In 1922, when the Government-General established the Government-General of Taiwan Historical Materials Editorial Committee, Inà  Kanori was hired as a committee member and compiled articles. When he died in 1925, he left a posthumous manuscript of The Complete History of Taiwan (ãÂÂèºç£堨å²ãÂÂ) with as many as 54 volumes, which was published as Chronicles of Taiwan Culture (ãÂÂèºç£æÂÂÃ¥ÂÂå¿ÂãÂÂ) in 1928,àand the renowned Japanese intellectual Ozaki Hotsuma who was in Taiwan praised Inà  as "the authority of TaiwanâÂÂs historiography.â In the same year, most of Inà  KanoriâÂÂs Taiwanese ethological specimens became part of Taihoku Imperial University's (èºåÂÂå¸ÂÃ¥ÂÂ大å¸, nowadays National Taiwan University) collection in the specimen room, while his books and manuscripts entered the university library, and was collectively named Inà  Bunko (ä¼Âè½æÂÂ庫, âÂÂInoâÂÂs book collectionâÂÂ). In 1941, famous Taiwanese scholar Yang Yunping (æ¥Âé²èÂÂ), who dedicated herself to the study of TaiwanâÂÂs history, appraised Inà  as âÂÂthe master of Taiwan studiesâ and âÂÂthe immortal pyramid in the history of Taiwan studies.â In 1997, sorting of the Inà  Bunko, which had stayed in National Taiwan UniversityâÂÂs library for a long time, was finally complete, bringing Inà Â's achievements in TaiwanâÂÂs historiography to an even higher peak. His works were considered important references of Taiwan studies, and among the cultural and historical knowledge they offered, the Pepo survey record Chronicles of Politics of Taiwan Aborigines and Chronicles of Taiwan Culture were considered the most important.