The Art Historical Significance of the Kitano Shrine and Okuni-Kabuki Screen (six-fold screen, in the possession of the Fukuno Shinmeisha Shrine, Toyama Pref)

This painting shows not only views of the Kitano Shrine in Kyoto after it was repaired by order of Hideyori Toyotomi but also the lively scene around the temporary theater erected near the shrine, where the play of Okuni-Kabuki is being performed. It used to form a pair of six-fold screens with another painting representing ome of the noted spots of the Higashi-yama (the Gion Shrine) in Kyoto. The purpose of this paper is to consider the art historical significance of "the itano Shrine and Okuni-Kabuki Screen" while focusing on the image of the staffage person. Through analysis, this painting shows numerous pious people visiting the Kitano Shrine and it seems that the painting as depicted is filled with a religious atmosphere rather than one of a pleasure trip

"The Song of Everlasting Sorrow" Screen Written in Yōwain Letter: An Example of Screen Creation in 1701

The Yōwain letter refers to the letter sent by Yōwain (1638－1711), the lawful wife of feudal lord Mitsuhisa Shimazu, Satsuma, (1616－1695) living in Edo in the year 1701, to court noble Hiramatsu Tokikazu (Yōwain\u27s elder brother) living in Kyoto. This letter was collected by Mr. Nobuo Inokuma, who has preserved it at Hiroshima University. Most notably, in this letter, Yōwain asked her elder brother (a court Noble) in Kyoto to produce the screen of "The Song of Everlasting Sorrow" as one of the household articles for a bride, for Daimyo\u27s daughter in this case. Therefore, this letter is extremely important as a historical document that depicts the recipient, use, and production process of the screen of "The Song of Everlasting Sorrow" at the time, which has not been well known thus far, for which there are two reasons. First, "The Song Everlasting Sorrow," in the early modern era, was produced as a large screen and a wall painting to decorate public spaces so as to raise the authority of a politician, but the folding screen in this letter was produced as furniture for a private owner. Second, the folding screen of the tragic theme "The Everlasting Sorrow" is very rare, as it was chosen to be used as a piece of furniture to bless the marriage. This paper considers why the screen of "The Song of Everlasting Sorrow" in Yōwain letter was ordered as an article of the bride\u27s household effects at this time by referring to furniture ordered at the same time. An analysis of the letter revealed that furniture that would reflect the dynasty culture loved by the court noble (Kuge) was ordered. Therefore, it is possible that this was the piece ordered when Daimyo\u27s daughter, Kamehime Shimazu, married the court noble, Konoe Kazuhisa. Moreover, in the Genroku period (1688－1704), Yang Guifei, who had a tragic image thus far, was regarded as a symbol of happy marriage; therefore, it is thought that the production of this folding screen also corresponded to the trend of an era when a new interpretation was given

Essential roles of Xenopus TRF2 in telomere end protection and replication.

TRF1 and TRF2 are double-stranded (ds) telomere DNA-binding proteins and the core members of shelterin, a complex that provides the structural and functional basis of telomere functions. We have reported that unlike mammalian TRF1 that constitutively binds to chromatin, Xenopus TRF1 (xTRF1) associates with mitotic chromatin but dissociates from interphase chromatin reconstituted in Xenopus egg extracts. This finding raised the possibility that xTRF1 and Xenopus TRF2 (xTRF2) contribute to telomere functions in a manner different from mammalian TRF1 and TRF2. Here, we focused on the role of xTRF2. We prepared chromatin reconstituted in egg extracts immunodepleted for xTRF2. Compared to mock-depleted nuclei, DNA damage response at telomeres was activated, and bulk DNAs were poorly replicated in xTRF2-depleted nuclei. The replication defect was rescued by inactivating ATR through the addition of anti-ATR neutralizing antibody, suggesting that ATR plays a role in the defect. Interestingly, the bulk DNA replication defect, but not the DNA damage response at telomeres, was rescued by supplementing the xTRF2-depleted extracts with recombinant xTRF2 (rTRF2). We propose that xTRF2 is required for both efficient replication of bulk DNA and protection from the activation of the DNA damage checkpoints pathway, and that those two functions are mechanistically separable

Processing by MRE11 is involved in the sensitivity of subtelomeric regions to DNA double-strand breaks

The caps on the ends of chromosomes, called telom-eres, keep the ends of chromosomes from appear-ing as DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) and pre-vent chromosome fusion. However, subtelomeric regions are sensitive to DSBs, which in normal cells is responsible for ionizing radiation-induced cell senescence and protection against oncogene-induced replication stress, but promotes chromo-some instability in cancer cells that lack cell cycle checkpoints. We have previously reported that I-SceI endonuclease-induced DSBs near telomeres in a hu-man cancer cell line are much more likely to generate large deletions and gross chromosome rearrange-ments (GCRs) than interstitial DSBs, but found no difference in the frequency of I-SceI-induced small deletions at interstitial and subtelomeric DSBs. We now show that inhibition of MRE11 3′–5 ′ exonucle-ase activity with Mirin reduces the frequency of large deletions and GCRs at both interstitial and subtelom-eric DSBs, but has little effect on the frequency of small deletions. We conclude that large deletions and GCRs are due to excessive processing of DSBs, while most small deletions occur during classical nonhomologous end joining (C-NHEJ). The sensi-tivity of subtelomeric regions to DSBs is therefore because they are prone to undergo excessive pro-cessing, and not because of a deficiency in C-NHEJ in subtelomeric regions