Keiko Nakamura
    Prof. Fujimori says that it started for him when he was part of a group of “architectural detectives” who spent their spare time walking around and looking at buildings. He says that at the time, people thought they could understand architecture by looking at only blueprints and photos, but he would study the houses in town with his own eyes to discover new findings including a sense of real life. Fujimori asserts that this enabled his group to make many discoveries, including a sense of how the residents went about their daily lives. The eyes that observe people through architecture are disciplined but warm.
     Research features the molecules that connect cells (cadherin). It has been discovered that the form of these molecules themselves, which are the basis for creating the form of biological organisms, are very much like biological organisms themselves in their commonality despite having a diversity of forms. This gives us a glimpse of the evolution of biological organisms from the evolution of molecular forms.
     The second subject in Research is the Iriomote cat. Observations conducted by walking over every inch of Iriomote Island for years has revealed the distinctive way of life of these relatives of the leopard, only a few hundred of which have inhabited this island for 200,000 years. This is interesting as a model for understanding the relationship between the ecosystem and the way of life of one of the creatures in that ecosystem.
     The ART section features anthropomorphism. There are Japanese paintings that depict human eyes in animals as well as simple tools. The BRH video Saibo-kun depicts eyes in a molecule. Both of these examples seem to have philos in common.
     Scientist Library features Michiko Go. Her work has been very much a form of biophysics that incorporates evolution. She has searched for the basic structure of proteins by perceiving them as a substance and, at times, as a living organism. The Biohistory lecture focuses on cancer. We are left to conclude that people in the medical science and healthcare fields are paying close attention to—and must pay close attention to—the meaning of being alive.
     I noticed that human eyes of the birds in the Scroll of Frolicking Animals (Choju giga) are not merely looking, but observing, and I discovered that the eyes have the meaning of informing others that they are observing. There will likely be even more enjoyable discoveries by looking at Japanese paintings through the eyes of the Biohistory Journal.