Ryuzo Torii (鳥居 龍藏; May 4, 1870 – January 14, 1953) was a Japanese anthropologist, ethnologist, archaeologist, and folklorist.

Later, in the 1900s, Torii was assisted in his research by Mori, who acted as his interpreter.Torii was born into a merchant family on the island of Shikoku, in the Tokushima quarter of Higashi Senba-chō (東船場町).

Torii received formal education through second grade, and left school at age seven.

[2] From an early age, he was a passionate collector of artifacts of all kinds, though he showed little interest in schoolwork.

These came to the attention and appreciation of Tokyo Imperial University (TIU) professor of anthropology Tsuboi Shōgorō (坪井正五郎).

[5] Once there, Shōgorō hired Torii as a specimen classifier in the anthropology research institute of the university in 1893.

In 1895, TIU sent Torii to Northeast China to the Liaodong Peninsula, his first overseas posting.

Torii proved that the Han Chinese had arrived in Korea at an early period.

[11] In 1937 he traveled to Brazil and excavated the sambaqui archeological site Morro do Bernardes, Jupuvura, municipality of Iguape, São Paulo - with support from Museu Paulista and botanist Frederico Lange de Morretes.

In 1964 the "Torii Memorial Museum" was established by Tokushima prefecture, at Naruto area.

Funds came from local people, showing their memory and love for Ryuzo Torii.

In the wake of Yoshino Sakuzō's criticism of Japan's Imperial ambitions in Korea, Torii aligned himself with those who justified Japanese annexation on the grounds that the contemporary consensus worldwide in linguistics, anthropology and archaeology were that the Korean and Japanese people were the same race/people (dōminzoku).