Treasures in the Sand.(beachcombing museum)

Tadashi Ishii's fascination with beachcombing began about 35 years ago near his home on the north side of Kyushu island. While collecting seashells with his 3-year-old daughter, Ishii, a junior-high history teacher and avid stamp collector, noticed several interesting objects washed up on the shore--including a basket made of palm leaves and unusual seeds from the tropics. He became entranced by the mystery of how and why they got there. Since then he has walked the sandy beach every day, rain or shine, gathering everything from pencils and plastic dolls to an ancient wooden drum.

The rest of Japan can now enjoy the fruits of his obsession. Ishii, 65, recently opened a small museum attached to his home, containing more than 10,000 of his collected items: rare seashells from the Philippines, dolphin jaws, whalebones, giant turtle skulls, medicine bottles, containers of Chinese insecticide and South Korean piggy banks. Ishii has also published a 380-page "Encyclopedia of Drifted Items." As he sees it, the treasures of the sea offer a unique education. "We can learn about ecological problems, politics, culture and even international relations from them," he says. In the 1980s, for instance, he often found sealed plastic jars from Taiwan containing photos of attractive young women strolling in parks and working in factories, showing off the island's freedom and prosperity to its communist neighbor. In 1997 cheap cigarette lighters drifted ashore, commemorating the return of Hong Kong to mainland China.

Ishii's passion is spreading. Last year he helped establish the Japan Driftological Society, which now boasts nearly 200 members. At the society's second annual conference this month, beachcombers from all over the country convened in Koga city in Fukuoka prefecture to listen to scholars, share their research and search the shoreline. Hiroki Nakanishi, a professor of plant ecology at Nagasaki University and co- founder of the society, says the group's purpose is to lend legitimacy to a favorite pastime. He invented the term "driftology," he says, because there was no word to describe the area of their ...