Urakata and Kamakata : Structure of the Kaison (Seaside Villages) on the Coasts of Ise-Shima

The purpose of this paper is to understand the multiple social structures of a kaison, or seaside village, by presenting a case study of Okaura, one of the kaison-villages that consists of two (an urakata and a kamakata) and is located on the coast of Ise-Shima. To clarify the characteristics of Okaura, the historical background of each community, the relationship between the inhabitants, the natural environment, and the balance between “insistence" and “concession" towards the rights in their ordinary life will be analyzed. First, the case study of the urakata, a fishing community, shows that it is characterized in terms of social structure as equalizing and categorizing rights through an original ritual system (Touya-system) and a unique fishery system (Amikabu-system). It is further characterized by domination the Ise Grand Shrine and solidarity with the neighboring fishing villages. Second, the case study of the kamakata demonstrates the community's multiple social structures through its founding legend and a network with Youkagama (eight villages engaged in the salt industry). The relationship between the urakata and the kamakata is also influenced by both the village's natural resources, such as salt, wood, and marine products, and also by the environment itself. Moreover, their relationship has changed through time with flexibility. Okaura, as a kaison-village, has a multiple social structure consisting of both an urakata and a kamakata structure. The case of Okaura suggests that the village structures are very complicated and dynamic in the small seaside area

Formation of a community of practice in the watershed scale, with integrated local environmental knowledge

金沢大学地域連携推進センターRural communities around the world face formidable problems such as resource depletion, environmental degradation and economic decline. While the term \u27community\u27 is often used without clear definition or context, it can be viewed as a group of people emerging through social interaction. Through a series of collaborative action toward a shared goal, a community of practice can be formed. This paper proposes a hypothetical framework of integrated local environmental knowledge (ILEK), and applies it to analyze the processes of collaborative actions in the case of the Nishibetsu Watershed in Hokkaido, Japan. The case study identified several phases of actions, all initiated by a group of local residents on a grassroots and voluntary basis. These local resident-initiated collaborative actions had a particular confluence of elements to facilitate gradual strengthening of formal and informal institutions in the watershed scale beyond jurisdictional boundaries, making this a worthy case to study. The local residents used diverse types of knowledge, including livelihood-based technologies and skills of working as a group and with local governments, for establishing and strengthening various institutions for collaborative actions, with such knowledge being used in the manner of tools in a box of bricolage for community formation. © 2018 by the authors

Evolutionary histories of breast cancer and related clones

乳がん発生の進化の歴史を解明 --ゲノム解析による発がんメカニズムの探索--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2023-07-28.Tracking the ol' mutation trail: Unraveling the long history of breast cancer formation. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2023-08-31.Recent studies have documented frequent evolution of clones carrying common cancer mutations in apparently normal tissues, which are implicated in cancer development1, 2, 3. However, our knowledge is still missing with regard to what additional driver events take place in what order, before one or more of these clones in normal tissues ultimately evolve to cancer. Here, using phylogenetic analyses of multiple microdissected samples from both cancer and non-cancer lesions, we show unique evolutionary histories of breast cancers harbouring der(1;16), a common driver alteration found in roughly 20% of breast cancers. The approximate timing of early evolutionary events was estimated from the mutation rate measured in normal epithelial cells. In der(1;16)(+) cancers, the derivative chromosome was acquired from early puberty to late adolescence, followed by the emergence of a common ancestor by the patient’s early 30s, from which both cancer and non-cancer clones evolved. Replacing the pre-existing mammary epithelium in the following years, these clones occupied a large area within the premenopausal breast tissues by the time of cancer diagnosis. Evolution of multiple independent cancer founders from the non-cancer ancestors was common, contributing to intratumour heterogeneity. The number of driver events did not correlate with histology, suggesting the role of local microenvironments and/or epigenetic driver events. A similar evolutionary pattern was also observed in another case evolving from an AKT1-mutated founder. Taken together, our findings provide new insight into how breast cancer evolves

海辺の生活環境史 : ローカルな資源管理の現場から

関西学院大

Formation of a Community of Practice in the Watershed Scale, with Integrated Local Environmental Knowledge

Rural communities around the world face formidable problems such as resource depletion, environmental degradation and economic decline. While the term ‘community’ is often used without clear definition or context, it can be viewed as a group of people emerging through social interaction. Through a series of collaborative action toward a shared goal, a community of practice can be formed. This paper proposes a hypothetical framework of integrated local environmental knowledge (ILEK), and applies it to analyze the processes of collaborative actions in the case of the Nishibetsu Watershed in Hokkaido, Japan. The case study identified several phases of actions, all initiated by a group of local residents on a grassroots and voluntary basis. These local resident-initiated collaborative actions had a particular confluence of elements to facilitate gradual strengthening of formal and informal institutions in the watershed scale beyond jurisdictional boundaries, making this a worthy case to study. The local residents used diverse types of knowledge, including livelihood-based technologies and skills of working as a group and with local governments, for establishing and strengthening various institutions for collaborative actions, with such knowledge being used in the manner of tools in a box of bricolage for community formation