« Back When Portland director, producer, and playwright Dmae Lo Roberts was researching the subject of her new youth chamber opera Shizue which begins a long journey throughout Oregon this month she met with the grandson of the opera’s subject Hood River community leader and artist Shizue Iwatsuki was a master practitioner of the Japanese art form of ikebana But no flowers grew in the freezing Idaho concentration camp to which the US government consigned Shizue and her family during World War II After telling Roberts stories about his grandmother Harry Iwatsuki brought out a magical object she made an ikebana arrangement in a bottle using sticks The revelation sent chills down Roberts’ spine The improvised ikebana arrangement symbolized Shizue’s tenacity and persistence — qualities that would sustain her through the cruel camps and other challenges down the decades thereafter.  By the time the aged Shizue taught her grandson Harry the art of ikebana she’d come to view the art form as a metaphor for life itself Each arrangement contains a flower “that is above “and here in the middle is where we are.” Roberts decided to make that story a central theme for Shizue a story about a powerful Oregon woman who could coax beauty from even the most dire circumstances.  The 50-minute, one-act chamber opera, composed by Kenji Oh with a libretto by Roberts, opened last weekend, October 4-5, at downtown Portland’s Brunish Theatre to sold out shows. The production then moves to various cultural and educational venues before briefly alighting at Hillsboro’s Walters Cultural Arts Center on October 26 the show goes on the road to about 50 schools and other venues throughout rural and suburban Oregon.  The show also represents an evolution for Portland Opera It’s part of the company’s long standing educational and outreach efforts that bring opera beyond its usual urban enclave and predominantly aging affluent audiences to schools and communities in Oregon’s outback and other places where live opera seldom happens And it’s the latest installment in a new Portland Opera initiative to stage and set to music the inspiring true stories of underrepresented Oregon communities.  so named because after premiering on public performance stages the shows tour schools and community centers around the state.  “Portland Opera has been in schools since its inception,” notes Alexis Hamilton, Manager of Education & Community Engagement. Hamilton was herself a young artist in the program, then its tour manager, and now she heads up the project. “Around 2004, we rebranded those education efforts as Portland Opera to Go where we come into school assemblies with full sets Anyone who thinks of opera as an elitist, adult art form (which hasn’t always been the case) might be surprised to think of it serving rural and low income Oregonians — especially children “I have found when working with littles that opera is easy for them,” says Hamilton and if you like music and you like a story then you’re two-thirds of the way to liking opera Littles are used to not understanding every single thing that happens to them It’s older people that are more intimidated if they think they don’t know everything Opera is nothing if not larger than life — big emotions, big sounds, big drama — and really, that’s not really so far from other kid-friendly, larger-than-life, music-augmented spectacles like cartoons and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Hamilton fondly remembers Schoolhouse Rock and often uses Looney Tunes’ famous “What’s Opera, Doc?” to demystify opera to audiences young and old.  POGO doesn’t just parachute in with the performance at a school assembly “If I can help an audience understand why we do the things we do,” Hamilton says Providing such context is a big part of POGO in general and Our Oregon project in particular.” In advance of performances Hamilton conducts “teach-the-teacher” sessions and opera lesson plans — a curriculum integrated with the students’ regular subjects that goes out to the teachers at each school POGO visits there’s nothing better than opera,” Hamilton explains “It’s at the intersection of everything they’re already studying: literature I can teach anything jumping off from opera.”  she uses the composer’s penchant for incorporating Japanese folk song melodies as a point of departure to explore modern musicians’ analogous use of sampling in pop and other music They even get to learn one of the major folk songs Such lessons show students that they’re already familiar with a lot of what’s going on in an opera ask the students what they think is going on The POGO artists also help on the educational side the performers themselves visit classrooms to talk to students directly about the show and opera and bring it all down to a personal level.  “You have to be a lot more than a good singer and great performer,” Hamilton says of the POGO artists she hires “You really have to be a great communicator across the board and treat everyone with respect I need people who love the art form and do not think this is beneath them We have run into farmers in the middle of Nowheresville Oregon who listen to the [Metropolitan Opera] broadcast every Saturday morning or we might have teachers who’ve never seen a live performance in their lives.” POGO artists “have to be their own roadies,” she says tear down the set — and we might do a second show that day” in a second venue.  Those early POGO productions were truncated youth adaptations of traditional operas (Rossini’s Cinderella, Mozart’s Magic Flute, et al), although in 2022, the company turned to contemporary fare with A Journey of Faith / Un Camino de Fe which explored the challenges a Latina teenager’s family faced as immigrants to the United States The youth operas were often revelatory for students in the rural Title I schools (those with high numbers of lower income students) that receive the majority of POGO visits Hamilton remembers shows in tiny towns like Fields and Crane that might play to only a couple dozen kids Hamilton says the company charges only $2 per student and performs more than 10 percent of its shows for free “We’ve never turned away anyone who really wanted us,” Hamilton says “We have generous funders (more than a dozen foundations and public arts agencies) who enable us to go places where nobody else goes,” Hamilton says Once POGO performed at a school in Halfway that had recently lost its only music teacher to budget cuts forced by Measure 5 property tax limits “We drew “the whole damn town,” she recalls ‘we have to fund a music teacher.’ And they did.” POGO began evolving in 2018 when Portland Opera embarked on a strategic plan that involved gathering feedback from the company’s constituents “We heard over and over that they wanted us to put the Portland in Portland Opera and to commission new works,” Hamilton says.  a program that would commission new works featuring Oregonian subjects New operas can be phenomenally expensive (they’re often now created by multi-company consortiums) so Portland Opera decided to start with lower-budget youth operas and artist requirements are much more affordable than main stage mega productions.  When it came to choosing the subjects of the new operas Portland Opera adhered to a vision whose expansiveness was inversely proportional to its expenses but also to the larger ecosystem,” Hamilton explains so we wanted stories that featured people who were traditionally not represented” on opera stages They chose to create new youth operas depicting Oregonians from Native alternating with more of those traditional youth opera adaptations in off years.  Portland Opera’s then-interim music director Damien Geter recommended composer Dave Ragland and librettist Mary McCallum Chosen as a response to the recent racial reckoning protests in the wake of the recent police murder of George Floyd the show presented Cannady’s eventful life in a charming setting that you didn’t have to be a child or even a journalist to enjoy Hamilton says it went over well in school performances Still, as much as I enjoyed Beatrice’s catchy music, I do wish Portland Opera had considered other Oregon composers who write beautifully for voice, such as Judy A. Rose or Sydney Guillaume One of the lessons Hamilton says she learned from Beatrice was the importance of working with creators embedded in our own community.  Hamilton asked Roberts to write the libretto and story for what became Shizue — and to direct the production “I had done a lot of work telling Japanese American stories,” Roberts told ArtsWatch including the first Asian American history series on public radio I asked a bunch of questions before I said yes.” Hamilton answered them all to her satisfaction Roberts: “Does it have to rhyme?” Hamilton: “Uh Roberts’s first call was to her longtime acquaintance Linda Tamura, an emerita Willamette University education professor, scholar, author, and granddaughter of Japanese immigrants, who was raised on a Hood River orchard. Along with an impressive record of scholarly articles and exhibitions she’d written books about Japanese Americans and had worked with Roberts on Oregon Children’s Theatre’s Covid-quashed 2020 production asked Tamura if she knew of any Japanese Oregonian women whose lives might make a compelling stage drama for kids and adults.  Over the next several decades, Iwatsuki faced a series of challenges, several chronicled in Shizue. Maybe the toughest was her family’s incarceration in three of the US government’s notorious World War II concentration camps for Japanese Americans who’d committed no crimes Roberts’s libretto reveals the kind of struggle so many women of color and immigrants have faced — not necessarily a single dramatic moment but a lifetime of courageous perseverance and adaptation Shizue Iwatsuki somehow managed not only the immense work of running a family business and motherhood but also became a much-honored community leader — and continued making her art Her poetry won the highest honors in Japan and she continued to pursue the art of ikebana Roberts describes that special kind of heroism in a Japanese word which approximately means “enduring the seemingly unbearable with patience and dignity.” And when she read Shizue’s lyrical poetry (one of her poems graces Portland’s Japanese American Memorial Plaza in Tom McCall Waterfront Park) Roberts knew she had an opera subject.  To create the music, Hamilton turned to California-based Japanese American composer Kenji Oh who has worked with various West Coast ensembles and choirs and composed for theater and (likely a Portland Opera first) gymnastic floor exercise (He’s a gymnast too.) He also happened to be just putting the finishing touches on his own first opera.  using her connections with local Japanese American cultural organizations and institutions Her grandson Harry Iwatsuki regaled Roberts with stories about and images of his grandmother And showed her that improvised ikebana in a bottle she’d created in the camp So many stories — and it all had to fit in a 50-minute opera with a four-member cast “How do you tell a story that starts at age 19 and goes to age 78 — in music?” Roberts wondered “I came up with the concept of splitting her into the elder [played by Chihiro Asano] and younger [Lindsey Nakatani] Shizue Then each actor can become multiple characters when not playing the title role.” One challenge that didn’t daunt her: writing for kids “I don’t think it’s that much different to write for young people as for adults,” Roberts says “Sometimes a lot of writers write down to kids I don’t want to underestimate young audiences and I don’t think there’s anything they can’t grasp.” [Shizue] moves fast and covers so much ground The only thing I worry about is them losing some of the facts” along the speedy timeline She hopes Portland Opera’s contextual education guides and the students’ teachers will help fill in any gaps Some of Shizue’s story is conveyed through the set designed by previous Roberts collaborator John Kashiwabara who faced similar space constraints — working with classroom spaces as small 20’ by 20’ or as capacious as a full auditorium stage “We needed a set that was portable and super flexible,” Hamilton says Director Roberts will block and rehearse both the compact and expansive versions.  Kashiwabara’s reversible four-panel design and ground cloth variously morphs into Hood River fields and orchards and prison camps Roberts suggested using an outsized suitcase as a centerpiece that both evoked the limited baggage the interned Japanese American citizens were allowed to take with them and symbolically carried their lifetime of memories Shizue’s poetry also permeates both the libretto and the set design Roberts also enlisted Unit Souzou’s Michelle Fujii and Toru Watanabe to choreograph the actors’ movements Roberts workshopped the first version of her libretto with Japanese American actors whose families shared some of the same history Shizue had endured She incorporated their feedback along with the audience’s into her revisions That two-year timeline — double Beatrice’s another lesson learned — also allowed Portland Opera time to muster support “With Shizue we want to involve as many people in the local community as we can,” Hamilton says “We’re seeing the enthusiastic response from the community with Linda Tamura and Dmae talking it up” at events and in the media More than a dozen members of Shizue’s family will be coming to the show from Idaho she acknowledges that “opera doesn’t always have the greatest history with Japanese Americans We’re willing and anxious to participate in that conversation It’s both gratifying and intimidating because we want to do it right.”  That includes the educational material. Along with engaging members of the community in the opera’s creation, Hamilton has borrowed lesson plans from the Japanese American Museum of Oregon for the teacher’s guide we have language arts lesson plans about Japanese poetry and a variety of multimedia ways to access it We’re providing a packet that gives the historical context of the camps We’ve tried really hard to make sure that a teacher who knows nothing about the art form or the history has everything they need.” And with incidents of anti-Asian racism rising in recent years and the looming specter of further incarceration of innocent Americans of color that history might soon prove newly — and sadly — relevant to those students today and tomorrow The source of what Hamilton considers its universal appeal to kids in Eastern Oregon and Portland urbanites It’s an emotional art form and when an opera does it right there is nothing that can touch it for drama “Brain science tells us that the things you remember most in your life have high emotional content So I can just tell you that Japanese Americans were incarcerated in 1942 for no reason other than their Japanese ethnicity But if I tell you a story about an individual who lived through this thing and wrote poetry and set that to music that is moving that hits different because I’ve personalized it It multiplies the power of the entire thing.”  Like Shizue’s makeshift flower arrangement in a bottle POGO is showing that opera can bring rare beauty Portland Opera To Go’s Shizue is presented at community center and school performances around the state, with public performances Oct. 26 at 2 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. at the Walters Cultural Center in Hillsboro 11 at Beaverton’s Elsie Stuhr Center; 10 a.m 12 at the Garden Home Recreation Center; 7 p.m 10 at Birkenfeld Theater in Clatskanie; 7 p.m Also see Angela Allen’s review of the production, “A powerful poetic punch: Portland Opera premieres Dmae Lo Roberts and Kenji Oh’s ‘Shizue: An American Story.’“ Brett Campbell is a frequent contributor to The Oregonian He has been classical music editor at Willamette Week and West Coast performing arts contributing writer for the Wall Street Journal Musical America and many other publications He is a former editor of Oregon Quarterly and The Texas Observer a recipient of arts journalism fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (Columbia University) the Getty/Annenberg Foundation (University of Southern California) and the Eugene O’Neill Center (Connecticut) He is co-author of the biography Lou Harrison: American Musical Maverick (Indiana University Press editing and magazine publishing at the University of Oregon School of Journalism & Communication and Portland State University Email *Your email address will not be published Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. 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If you prefer to make a comment privately, fill out our feedback form The fourth in FNM’s season-long commitment to Oregon composers showcased music for piano and a whole lot more of the finest in Oregon springtime music A month’s worth of choral music in one weekend from the multi-choir CONNECTED event and the return of Ēriks Ešenvalds with Oregon Repertory Singers to Festival Chorale Oregon’s Bach-Rutter pairing and Oregon Bach Festival’s “Musicking Festival.” based on the love story behind the landmark civil rights case This dialog contains the full navigation menu for this site Every sports fan has seen an athlete “choke”—in other words fail to live up to performance expectation during a competition Or blows a putt he has made millions of times before The internet is full of those tales of woe How can an athlete prevent this from happening One of Penn State Altoona’s newest faculty members is focusing on research to answer those questions Iwatsuki came to the United States from Aichi he earned a master’s degree in psychology from Springfield College in Massachusetts His athletic accomplishments playing tennis in Japan also paid off in the move During college he had competed in Japan’s National College Tournament placing “best of 32 in doubles and best of 64 in singles,” he says modestly “not professional level,” but it certainly meant he could be the graduate assistant tennis coach—eventually the head tennis coach—at Springfield in kinesiology from the University of Las Vegas–Nevada Then it was back east to Penn State Altoona where in addition to teaching both kinesiology courses and tennis he is continuing his research begun at UNLV studying “the factors that influence motor skills—how we effectively learn motor skills and how we successfully perform motor skills,” he says He is specifically looking at “factors influencing performance Autonomy—allowing people to make some of the choices that go into an act—may have an influence on performance Iwatsuki’s previous work has shown that choice enhances motor performance participants are divided into two groups who putt a golf ball on artificial turf “One group decides the color of the golf ball the other group has it assigned by the researcher,” he explains “choosing some aspect of practice conditions actually helps us learn skills.” So Participants are informed beforehand that their movements will be recorded with a video camera so they can be studied closely “This method has consistently shown to increase pressure on performance and I am interested in whether choice enhances performance or not when it counts.” While the research is not yet completed and so the question has not yet been answered Iwatsuki thinks we might perform better “because people don’t like being forced If the choice is somehow taken away from us I suspect people who get to choose perform more effectively.” Continuing his research will tell Iwatsuki what he wants to know but that will take time; “we need to collect at least 20 participants in each group, for a total of 40 participants, to collect enough data,” he says. Along with his research and teaching, he will continue to write articles on the subject (most recently for the Journal of Sports Sciences) He is also thinking further into the future and outside sports as he asks: “For surgeons does getting to choose their own instruments improve their performance and effectively learn surgical skills?” The question may already be on its way to being answered with something as simple as a golf-ball putt Takehiro Iwatsuki and kinesiology major Kierra Irwin work together on Iwatsuki's research regarding motor skills Share your travel photos with us by hashtagging your images with #visitjapanjp The other day I had the wonderful opportunity of visiting the newly opened Iwatsuki Saitama City Ningyo Museum Ningyo means doll and human figures in English and as ningyo is tricky to translate into English The museum opened in February 2020 in the historic ningyo district of Iwatsuki and collects conserves and carries out research on ningyo (human figures) Through exhibitions and educational activities they aim to raise awareness of the culture of ningyo Easily accessible by public transport (either train and a short walk on this occasion I chose to take the train I took the Tobu Urban Park Line (Noda Line) to Iwatsuki Station exited via the East Exit and walked straight along the main road leading away from the station It's around a 10 minute walk from the station to the museum The exit for the museum is clearly labelled There are many shops specializing in ningyo crafts around the station This is one such shop and it is very well known for its high quality ningyo products After walking a little more I came across a map of the Iwatsuki area There are also many beautiful tiles embedded into the pavement The one on the left depicts famous Hina ningyo and the one on the right depicts Toki no Kane there is an easy-to-read direction board showing where to turn for the museum The location is called Iwatsuki-eki Iriguchi Iwatsuki Station Entrance walk straight for around 500 metres and you will see the museum on the right As I was walking I noticed this beautiful manhole cover with the designs varying across the country and usually depicting local landmarks and specialities This one shows Toki no Kane (the Iwatsuki Bell Tower) and other famous places in Iwatsuki I stopped by this famous shop that sells traditional dessert and senbei (rice crackers) I had heard their traditional desserts were famous and I wanted to try them for myself So many different types of sweets were on display in the glass cabinets The shop's staff member recommended this traditional dessert It has a Japanese red bean (azuki) filling in a crisp wafer shell shaped like the Iwatsuki Bell Tower The other one is yuzu (a type of citrus) with shiroan (white sweet bean) I hadn't tasted anything like this before so it was a really new taste experience After walking down the road for a few minutes I was in awe of the simple and elegant construction of both the museum as well as the museum precinct restaurant and amenity buildings The first thing that really struck me was the beautiful use of textures in both the building and the ground area you will see an area that I think is a great place to take a commemorative photo before you start looking around The museum's logo and name are both clearly visible To the left is the museum shop and reception area where you purchase entry tickets The shop is visually very beautiful and well designed They have commemorative books about the museum in English and pamphlets available too In the entrance area there is a sign which shows the cafe barrier free bathroom and coin locker area The museum also has free wheelchair rental mobility dog admissions and discounted admissions for people with disabilities the entrance to the museum is to the right of the reception The exhibitions are divided into three categories Room Two: Japan's ningyo from the collection Room Three: A special exhibition room where the theme changes several times a year Saitama Prefecture is Japan’s largest producer of ningyo and this exhibition room introduces how ningyo are made with a strong focus on ningyo from Saitama The photo below shows the different steps in the production of the head of a ningyo The head is often made by a separate craftsperson who specialises in making heads The photo below shows the molds for the head and drawings and they can be pulled out as part of the exhibition The special tools that are used in the crafting of ningyo are displayed too There is a video library too and videos are available in English The videos show craftspeople making ningyo and compliments the materials and tools that are on display I found this tiny set of arrows and a bow which are placed with ningyo I visited room two: Japan's Ningyo from the Collection There are many classic ningyo on display here The museum has many ningyo in its collections One important collection was gathered by the modern Japanese-style painting artist Nishizawa Tekiho (1889–1965) Nishizawa-san's collection has many varieties of ningyo which are on display at the museum During the Edo Period ningyo culture really started to emerge and in the 1930s ningyo were officially recognised as an art form colourful and intricately made ningyo greet you I found the standing ningyo very interesting as had only ever seen sitting ningyo before I was most familiar with ningyo for seasonal celebrations especially hina ningyo which is perhaps the most famous worldwide Hina ningyo of many different sizes are on display along with intricate hina accessories they let you feel the atmosphere of celebration that is central to the hina ningyo This beautiful white ningyo represents a healthy and bountiful upbringing in a period where not all children lived through to adulthood More ningyo items that are both exquisitely small and beautiful out in the hallway is an easy to understand visual timeline of the evolution of ningyo: Onto the third room: the special exhibitions room The displays in this room change periodically to preserve the fragile collections with a limited number of the museums full collection on display at any one time The lights are dim and the display cabinets are are also temperature controlled in order to preserve the ningyo on display When I visited there was a special inu bako (dog-shaped storage box) exhibition and as I walked into the third room I was greeted by two large inu bako These inu bako cases are also from Nishizawa Tekiho's collection They represent an easy childbirth and are made from paper mache and decorated in bright colours and symbolistic imagery Below is one of the boxes the inu bako case was stored in  – the case itself has a beautiful design too painted with similar symbolistic imagery that adorn the larger cases This line up of musicians all playing different instruments was amazing This wonderful collection was given to the museum by a prosperous Japanese family so the museum could display their collection for everyone to see In times where large displays of wealth were not allowed smaller and more compact (but no less intricately made) ningyo became popular Made from silk and modelled on the way small children crawl these were usually placed beside a baby or pregnant woman to ward off evil spirits and protect from calamity There ended my tour of the Iwatsuki Ningyo Museum I entered with only the knowledge of Hina ningyo and left with so much information and a new-found appreciation of ningyo culture and the craftspeople behind them I learned about changes throughout the eras that affected ningyo and that we can gather a lot of information about that period of time in history from them Even if you don't have a deep knowledge of ningyo I really recommend visiting the museum which has wonderful amenities and an outstanding building design which welcomes everyone English information is readily available too making the museum visit very informative and fun Closed every Monday (except national holidays) Closed over the New Year's holiday period (28 December to 4 January) Elementary school and junior high school students: 100 yen From the East West Gate of Iwatsuki Station and get off the bus at Iwatsuki Shogakko Minami stop High school and university students and persons over 65: 150 yen Elementary school and junior high school students are 100 yen Browse the JNTO site in one of multiple languages Look out for your first newsletter in your inbox soon We help you navigate a myriad of possibilities Sign up for our newsletter for the best of the city By entering your email address you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and consent to receive emails from Time Out about news, events, offers and partner promotions. Tokyo The city of Iwatsuki is renowned for its doll culture and highlights its heritage with this impressive museum, opened in February 2020 and centred on the vast and varied collection of doll connoisseur Tekiho Nishizawa. The exhibits, which focus on traditional Japanese dolls, are gorgeous down to the tiniest detail. facebooktwitterpinterestinstagramAbout us Volume 13 - 2025 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fcell.2025.1593226 This article is part of the Research TopicDoes Adult Beta Neogenesis Occur?View all 4 articles The pancreatic duct plays a key role in collecting pancreatic juice The fluid flows unidirectionally into the duodenum where it mixes with partially digested food to further facilitate digestion we report the generation of pancreatic ductal organoids from non-human primates for the first time aimed at investigating the role of tuft cells that reside in the pancreatic duct since no studies have addressed the role of tuft cells in the pancreas The organoids were maintained in a medium supplemented with Wnt3a and other factors that support pancreatic duct proliferation These pancreatic organoids expressed the stem cell marker LGR5 mRNA and the ductal marker protein CK19 although tuft cell markers were not detectable at this stage tuft cell differentiation was confirmed by immunohistochemistry and transcriptomic analysis as well as taste signaling molecules such as TRPM5 and PLCβ2 upregulation of LYZ and DEFB1 mRNA indicated the expression of antimicrobial peptide markers alongside molecules associated with inflammation the differentiated organoids specifically responded to a bitter compound suggesting that pancreatic tuft cells may play a role in detecting potentially harmful chemicals immunohistochemical analysis identified tuft cells in the non-human primate pancreas supporting their involvement in sensing harmful compounds and regulating protective responses within the pancreas their role beyond being a conduit for pancreatic fluids such as their potential function as sensors for various signals or stimuli Since there are no reports to date demonstrating the transition of pancreatic ductal stem cells into tuft cells this observation prompted us to consider whether tuft cells could be generated from the pancreatic duct as has been observed in endocrine lineages since there has been no reliable in vitro culture system to analyze the immune system the precise function of tuft cells in the pancreas remains unknown it may be beneficial to introduce other animal models that more closely mimic human physiology Given the considerable logistical and ethical constraints in obtaining human tissues which possess taste receptor functions similar to those of humans In this study, we demonstrate the generation of pancreatic duct organoids from non-human primates, which can be induced to differentiate into tuft cells by IL-4/13. These cytokines act through a shared receptor subunit, IL-4Rα, and are central to the type 2 immune response, which plays a key role in host defense against parasitic infections and contribute to allergic responses (Bernstein et al., 2023) We observed the expression of taste-related molecules as well as molecules involved in biological defense in differentiated tuft cells We also investigated whether differentiated tuft cells have the potential to sense noxious compounds that may arise from duodenal reflux or pancreatic ductal reflux we identified that tuft cells reside within the pancreatic tissue of macaques extending from Vater’s papilla to the tail of the duct Macaques (Macaca mulatta and Macaca fuscata 1–22 years old) was used for the experiments The study was approved by Kyoto University (Approval No based on the Guidelines for Care and Use of Nonhuman Primates of the Primates Institute Ngn3-GFP mice (Kimura-Nakajima et al., 2021), Pou2f3-knockout (KO) mice (Matsumoto et al., 2011) and Wild-type mouse (7–10 weeks old) used in this study were housed and used in accordance with the Guiding Principles in the Care and Use of Animals published by the Animal Care Committee of Tokyo University of Agriculture (Approval No 2020080) and the Animal Experiment Committees of the Takasaki University of Health and Welfare Faculty of Health and Welfare (Approval No Wild-type and Pou2f3-KO mice were treated with or without 100 mM succinate (FUJIFILM Wako After perfusion fixation with 4% paraformaldehyde these tissues were post-fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde (Nacalai Tesque The proliferation medium (PRO) is a modified version of the medium described by Broutier et al. (2016) It consists of a basal medium supplemented with 1:50 B27 supplement (without vitamin A; Thermo Fisher Scientific 1:100 N2 supplement (Thermo Fisher Scientific) 5% R-spondin2-conditioned medium (lab-made) 10 nM recombinant human [Leu15]-gastrin1 (Sigma-Aldrich) 50 ng/mL recombinant human EGF (Sigma-Aldrich) 100 ng/mL recombinant human FGF10 (Peprotech 25 ng/mL recombinant human Noggin (Proteintech) 100 ng/mL recombinant human IGF-1 (FUJIFILM Wako) and 50 ng/mL recombinant human FGF-2 (FUJIFILM Wako) The basal medium consists of Advanced DMEM/F-12 (Thermo Fisher Scientific) supplemented with 1× Gentamicin/Amphotericin B (Thermo Fisher Scientific) 2 mM L-Alanyl-L-Glutamine (Nacalai Tesque) Wnt3a-conditioned medium was prepared using L1 cells and R-spondin2-conditioned medium was prepared using HEK293T cells and 40 ng/mL recombinant human IL-4 or IL-13 (Peprotech) was added The macaque pancreas tissue was sectioned into the papilla of Vater, and the head, body, and tail regions of the pancreas. Frozen sections were prepared from each region, and DCLK1-positive cells were quantified in three sections from each region. In murine tissues, Dclk1-positive cells were quantified from the papilla of Vater to the common pancreatic/bile duct (Dolensek et al., 2015) Dclk1-positive cells were quantified in 10 villi of wild-type mice (n = 3) DCLK1-positive cells were quantified in macaque pancreatic ductal organoids (≥150 μm in size) under three experimental conditions: PRO (n = 6) Pancreatic tissues were fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde for 90 min at 4°C Cryosections (12–16 µm) were fixed and blocked with 0.3% Triton X-100% and 2% donkey serum for 1 h Sections were incubated overnight at 4°C with primary antibodies followed by 1-h incubation with secondary antibodies Nuclear staining was done using DAPI (Nacalai Tesque) organoids were fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde for 30 min and incubated with primary and secondary antibodies Nuclear staining was performed with Hoechst 33342 Fluorescence images were acquired using a confocal microscope (FV-1200; Olympus Primary antibodies: rabbit anti-CK19 antibody was provided by Dr rabbit anti-pancreatic alpha amylase (ab21156 goat anti-Choline Acetyltransferase (AB144 Secondary antibodies: Alexa Fluor 488 donkey anti-rabbit IgG (A21206 Alexa Fluor 555 donkey anti-goat IgG (A21432 Alexa Fluor 555 donkey anti-mouse IgG (A31570 and Alexa Fluor 594 donkey anti-rat IgG (A21209 Total RNA was extracted using ISOGEN (Nippon Gene) following the manufacturer’s instructions and assessed for quality with a Bioanalyzer (Agilent Technologies) cDNA libraries were prepared from 50 ng of total RNA using the NEB Next Ultra II RNA Library Prep Kit (New England Biolabs) The accurate concentration of each library was measured with the KAPA Library Quantification Kit (Kapa Biosystems) Sequencing was conducted on the NextSeq 500 (Illumina) with 75-bp single read and sequence data were generated in Fastq format using bcl2fastq version 2.18.0.12 The read data are available in the NCBI BioProject (ID: PRJNA1231724 for the monkey and ID: PRJNA1234775 for the mouse) FC ≥ 2 and FDR p-value <0.05) MA-plot was generated by averaging count data after TPM normalization calculating fold change relative to the PRO group and plotting log2-transformed values with the R package “ggplot2” Statistical significance was assessed using a one-way ANOVA (p < 0.05) followed by Tukey’s honest significant difference (HSD) test for TPM comparisons Organoids cultured with the media with IL-4 were used for the assay Organoids were dissociated with TrypLE Express (Thermo Fisher Scientific) seeded onto poly-L-lysine- and laminin-coated glass and incubated in PRO till cell attached to the glass cells were loaded with 2.5 µM Fura2-AM (Dojindo washed and perfused with Ringer’s solution (30 mM NaCl pH 7.4) at a flow rate of 30 μL/s and stimulated with 10 mM denatonium (FUJIFILM Wako) and 20 µM ATP solution for 10 s USA) was incubated at 40 µM for 10 min Fluorescence images were acquired using Leica’s LAS X software with excitation wavelengths of 340 nm and 380 nm Leica’s LAS X software was used to determine a fluorescence ratio at 340 and 380 nm Fluorescence was recorded using a CCD camera (DFC365 FX; Leica Microsystems Germany) mounted on a Leica DMI6000B inverted microscope (Leica Microsystems) Tuft cells in the pancreatic ducts and small intestine of mice Wild-type (WT) mice were treated with 100 mM succinate or water (H2O) for 7 days Immunofluorescence staining was performed to detect Dclk1 (green) Dclk1 expression was examined in both the pancreatic duct and ileum of Pou2f3-KO mice treated with 100 mM succinate for 7 days (C Small intestinal epithelial cells were stained with Ep-CAM (red) The number of Dclk1-expressing tuft cells in each condition was quantified (D Data are presented as means ± SEM (n = 3) Generation of macaque pancreatic ductal organoids Schematic illustration depicting the process of generating pancreatic ductal organoids (A) Representative images of primary organoid cultures at days 2 and 5 (B–D) and clusters of growing organoids at days 2 Day 10 pancreatic ductal organoids cultured with proliferation medium were stained with anti-CK19 antibodies (green Nuclei were stained with Hoechst 33342 (blue) The pancreatic ducts are outlined with dashed lines It has been reported that tuft cell numbers increase significantly upon exposure to IL-4 or IL-13 both in vivo and in vitro (von Moltke et al., 2016; Inaba et al., 2021) we aimed to induce the differentiation of mature tuft cells in macaque pancreatic duct organoids by supplementing the culture medium with IL-4 or IL-13 and withdrawing nicotinamide and epidermal growth factor (EGF) for 5 days To determine whether macaque ductal organoids are capable of differentiating into tuft cells we performed both immunohistochemical and transcriptomic analyses We observed that IL-4 and IL-13 stimulation induced the differentiation of DCLK1-positive tuft cells, whereas no such differentiation occurred in organoids cultured in PRO medium (Figures 3A–C). Compared to the PRO medium, the number of DCLK1-positive tuft cells significantly increased upon supplementation with either IL-4 or IL-13 (Figure 3D) Transcriptome analysis of macaque ductal tuft cells induced by IL-4 and IL-13 stimulation DCLK1 immunoreactive tuft cells were not detected before induction with IL-4 or IL-13 (A) After stimulated with IL-4 or IL-13 for 5 days DCLK1-expressing tuft cells (green) were observed (B Quantitative analysis of the DCLK1-expressing tuft cells under three culture conditions (D) Principle component analysis (PCA) showed that individual culture condition fell into the same cluster (E) The heatmap illustrates the tuft cell markers that were significantly upregulated in organoids induced by IL-4 and IL-13 (FC ≥ 2 and FDR p-value <0.05) (F) Color bars represent Log10-transformed TPM values (F) Gene expression of representative tuft cell markers (POU2F3 genes related to tuft cell function (GNG13 All data are presented as means ± SEM (n = 3) The p-value was determined by a one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s HSD test (*P < 0.05 ***P < 0.001) In contrast, the expression of the proliferation marker gene MKI67 and the stem cell marker leucine-rich repeat-containing G protein-coupled receptor 5 (LGR5) was downregulated (Supplementary Figure S4) we did not observe significant changes in the expression of taste 2 receptors (TAS2Rs) and IL-25 Phospholipase C-mediated calcium response of IL-4-treated organoids to a bitter compound A representative waveform of a cell derived from IL-4-treated organoids exposed to 10 mM denatonium benzoate (black arrows) is shown The response to denatonium benzoate was attenuated by the phospholipase C inhibitor U73122 (40 µM) The response recovered after the inhibitor was removed via perfusion for 6 min Black bars indicate the timing of application of the phospholipase C inhibitor U73122 (40 µM) and following washing out a white arrow) was applied as a positive control to validate the cell viability Most tuft cells exhibited immunoreactivity to both DCLK1 and ChAT antibodies; however not all GNAT3-positive cells co-localized with DCLK1 suggesting the existence of subtypes of tuft cells within the duct Tuft cells reside in the main pancreatic duct and papilla of Vater in monkey The schematic illustration shows location stained with anti-DCLK1 antibody (A) Fluorescent immunostaining images of DCLK1-positive tuft cells through PV to Tail region (B Fluorescent immunohistochemical analysis show that DCLK1 (green) and CHAT (red researchers have been seeking the origin of pancreatic stem cells that could give rise to both endocrine and exocrine lineages In anticipation of the future therapeutic applications of these stem cells increasing attention is being paid to the conditions that promote the emergence of endocrine cell progenitors and to their potential cellular origins a significant debate still exists regarding the precise source of pancreatic stem cells Recent studies have presented conflicting evidence regarding the cellular origin of pancreatic β cells. One group has provided data suggesting that stem cells residing within the pancreatic duct have the potential to differentiate into β cells (Gribben et al., 2023). In contrast, another group has proposed that β cells may instead arise through transdifferentiation from exocrine cell (Magenheim et al., 2023) Both groups employed lineage tracing using genetically modified mouse models in conjunction with gene expression analyses discrepancies in the experimental models and differences in data interpretation have precluded a definitive conclusion the origin of β cells remains a matter of ongoing debate During the analysis of endocrine cells derived from mouse pancreatic organoids, we observed the expression of tuft cell markers in the same group of organoids that had differentiated into endocrine lineages (Kimura-Nakajima et al., 2021). Tuft cells have been shown to play a role in bioprotective activities across various tissues, with tissue-specific functions (O'Leary et al., 2019; Schneider et al., 2019) Although several decades have passed since the discovery of tuft cells in the pancreatic duct of rodents the exact function of these cells within the duct remains uncertain Analyzing tuft cell function is challenging due to their low abundance and the lack of reliable in vitro culture systems for studying them the specificity and selectivity of ligands for taste receptors vary among species which limits the applicability of data obtained from rodent models we focused on tuft cells present in the pancreatic ductal epithelium and successfully generated pancreatic ductal organoids from non-human primates Since the original culture medium primarily supports cell proliferation within the organoids by removing nicotinamide and EGF from the medium and supplementing with IL-4 and IL-13 we were able to induce tuft cell differentiation suggesting that tuft cells in primates have multiple functional roles suggesting that an alternative pathway may be involved in the signal transduction by tuft cells to provoke immune responses We hypothesize that the expression levels of TAS2Rs in these organoids may be too low to detect significant changes in expression or that alternative receptors could be involved in the response to denatonium It may be necessary to identify an improved method for inducing tuft cell differentiation using ductal organoids Further studies are required to investigate these possibilities While it is premature to draw definitive conclusions tuft cells appear to perform their functions differently across various tissues despite sharing similar sensory mechanisms Speculation of tuft cell function in pancreas Schematic diagram of the hypothesis that tuft cells in the pancreatic ducts detect harmful agents from the duodenum and bile ducts we have successfully generated ductal organoids from macaque pancreatic ducts we tested only one differentiation condition which selectively promoted tuft cell differentiation endocrine lineages may also be induced with our culture model Further studies are warranted to determine whether primate pancreatic ductal organoids possess bipotency to give rise to both tuft and enteroendocrine cells The datasets presented in this study can be found in online repositories. The names of the repository/repositories and accession number(s) can be found in the article/Supplementary Material The animal study was approved by Animal Care Committee of Tokyo University of Agriculture Animal Experiment Committees of the Takasaki University of Health and Welfare Faculty of Health and Welfare and Animal Welfare and Animal Care Committee of Center for the Evolutionary Origins of Human Behavior of Kyoto University The study was conducted in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research and/or publication of this article This work was made possible by JSPS KAKENHI (24K21855 the Foundation for Dietary Scientific Research to KI the Society for Research on Umami Taste and by Research Units for Exploring Future Horizons and Future Development Research Funding Program Kyoto University Research Coordination Alliance to HI Clevers for Wnt3a-producing cell line and Dr Whitsett for the R-spondin2-producing cell line The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest The author(s) declare that Gen AI was used in the creation of this manuscript Generative AI was used for proofreading and improving the grammar All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcell.2025.1593226/full#supplementary-material Bitter taste receptors and human bitter taste perception PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Engineering the IL-4/IL-13 axis for targeted immune modulation PubMed Abstract | CrossRef 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bacterial signals PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Two distinct determinants of ligand specificity in T1R1/T1R3 (the umami taste receptor) PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar A comparison of the anatomical structure of the pancreas in experimental animals PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Etiology and diagnosis of acute biliary pancreatitis PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Tuft-cell-derived IL-25 regulates an intestinal ILC2-epithelial response circuit PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Negative regulation of cytokine signaling in immunity PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Imai H and Iwatsuki K (2025) Generation and functional characterization of tuft cells in non-human primate pancreatic ducts through organoid culture systems Received: 13 March 2025; Accepted: 22 April 2025;Published: 06 May 2025 Copyright © 2025 Sakaguchi, Kimura-Nakajima, Inaba, Hatano, Ogawa, Koshiishi, Tanaka, Kometani, Ohmoto, Sato, Imai and Iwatsuki. 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The use distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited in accordance with accepted academic practice distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms *Correspondence: Ken Iwatsuki, a2kyMDQ4ODZAbm9kYWkuYWMuanA= Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher 94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or goodLearn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish A museum devoted to dolls and other items from Japan and abroad including Japanese dolls from the 17th to the 19th centuries unveiled its extensive collection for the first time in the city of Saitama The media were given a preview a month before the opening of the Iwatsuki Ningyo Museum located in Iwatsuki Ward home to Japan's foremost makers of traditional "hina" dolls (A collection of Japanese dolls are shown to the media.) "We have collected traditional hina ningyo dolls and court dolls We would like people to see the high quality of our exhibition," Koichi Hayashi The museum's displays include objects related to Japanese dolls such as a dog-shaped "inubako" box from the 17th to 19th century Edo period that was part of a bridal set for upper-class women of the time the box was also a good luck charm for the safe delivery of children is the only public institution in Japan devoted to dolls and says it will collect conserve and carry out research on dolls and the culture around them was constructed by the city in the prefecture of Saitama at a cost of around 4.2 billion yen ($38 million) 22 with a general admission fee of 300 yen Full-size moving Gundam robot to loom over Yokohama from October Ainu minority to file suit for fishing rights in northern Japan Fukui dinosaur museum renovation to spark roaring trade Tokyo manga hotel makes virtue of sleepless nights To have the latest news and stories delivered to your inbox Simply enter your email address below and an email will be sent through which to complete your subscription Please check your inbox for a confirmation email Thank you for reaching out to us.We will get back to you as soon as possible If JavaScript is not enabled on your browser Japan — January 30 — ORIX Corporation (“ORIX”) announced that it has started construction on the Iwatsuki II Logistics Center in Saitama City The Iwatsuki II Logistics Center is located on National Route 122 approximately one hour by car from central Tokyo It is conveniently situated about 4.3 km from the Iwatsuki Interchange where National Route 16 and the Tohoku Expressway intersect and can be used for deliveries both to the capital and to wider areas intends for the logistics center to serve as a base for its business expansion into the Tokyo metropolitan area The construction will consist of a two-story building with floor area of 18,114.81 m2 with completion scheduled for the end of September 2019 ORIX began ramping up its investment in the logistics investment business in 2002 We has developed a total of 40 buildings in Tokyo ORIX completed construction of the Hasuda II Logistics Center in March 2019 and is scheduled to complete construction of the Matsubushi Logistics Center in March 2019 and the Iwatsuki II Logistics Center will be the thirteenth to be developed We intends to continue identifying sites suitable for logistics facilities and propose state-of-the-art logistics facilities that can respond to the needs of diverse tenants Contact Information: ORIX Corporation Corporate Planning Department Tel: +81-3-3435-3121 Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements: These documents may contain forward-looking statements about expected future events and financial results that involve risks and uncertainties Such statements are based on our current expectations and are subject to uncertainties and risks that could cause actual results that differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements Factors that could cause such a difference include those described under “Risk Factors” in the Company’s annual report on Form 20-F filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and under “(4) Risk Factors” of the “1 Summary of Consolidated Financial Results” of the “Consolidated Financial Results April 1 2019 News Releases List and Jietong Fu (Kamegoro) dance during the premiere show in October Shizue Iwatsuki around the time she moved to Hood River Hood River Valley High School’s (HRVHS) Bowe Theater will feature “Shizue: An American Story,” presented by the Portland Opera to Go (POGO) and the Our Oregon Project POGO is the Portland Opera’s flagship outreach program that travels around Oregon and performs 50-minute productions on various subjects manager of education and community engagement Our Oregon Project commissions youth operas that spotlight individual experiences throughout Oregon’s rich history “Shizue” (pronounced Shih-zoo-way) is Our Oregon Project’s second installment and dives into the life of Shizue Iwatsuki The first commission came in 2022 and featured African American civil rights activist Beatrice Morrow “Shizue” is directed by Dmae Lo Roberts and composed by Kenji Oh tribulations and triumphs Shizue and her husband Kamegoro “Charles” Iwatsuki — portrayed by Jietong Fu — experienced when they moved to Hood River in 1916 Shizue was a well-respected poet who practiced tanka poetry described by the Academy of American Poets as a “31-syllable poem traditionally written in a single unbroken line.” Her poetry is a large part of the production and Shizue is represented by two actresses: Chihiro Asano as the elder Shizue and Lindsey Nakatani as the younger Shizue This production hits close to home for the cast whose grandmother and her siblings were incarcerated in concentration camps her grandfather on her dad’s side fought for the U.S Nakatani said she used their experiences as a way to shape her perspective of Japanese Americans at that time “In preparation for this role and this piece of history but I reached out to my my relatives who are still living,” Nakatani said “[I] really did my best to kind of internalize the mentality that must have been just so difficult I’m really trying to evoke that as I tell the story both of my family and of Mrs author and Willamette University professor Linda Tamura played a major role in the research for the play Tamura invited some of the playwrights to Hood River to see for themselves Hamilton was joined by Roberts and Oh who visited the Hood River Valley to get a sense of what Shizue’s life may have looked like They also took a trip to the Japanese American Museum of Oregon located in Portland The production at HRVHS will be one of the group's final performances The troupe traveled to 50 different locations throughout Oregon and southwest Washington Hamilton said she has been receiving lots of requests from schools and other organizations to host the group Hamilton added they started booking visits for the fall in March Information from the News and our advertisers (Want to add your business to this to this feed?) 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Born under a traveler’s star, I relish immersing myself in other cultures. Even better, travel sharpens my palate for Oregon, where I found my poetic voice. I recently discovered other voices at the Salem Public Library, in “From Here We Speak: An Anthology of Oregon Poetry” (1993), edited by Ingrid Wendt and Primus St. John. Native American incantations, songs and stories open the collection. They speak of a spirit world lingering close, of relationships worn like skin. They pass on memories and entertain with word play. The first English-language poems came from pioneers like Anna Maria Pittman Lee, whose words outlasted her too-brief life. John Minto, Frances Tyler Victor and Henry H. Woodward put to verse poignant narratives of the settlers. Valiant women like Minnie Myrtle Miller wrote of suffrage and suffering. In the mid 1800s, Samuel Leonidas Simpson celebrated the “Beautiful Willamette” in timeless lines: With pioneer life a memory, new narratives emerged. Oregon-born Edwin Markham was eulogized in his lifetime and named Oregon Poet Laureate. It is hard for me to comprehend a time when mere printed text could catapult a poet to such recognition. The 20th-century wars inspired Oregon poets to address themes of conscience with razor words of bitter reality. How appropriate to revisit Japanese Americans’ poems of wartime internment, such as Shizue Iwatsuki’s “At Tule Lake Camp.” Oregon’s beloved and internationally known William Stafford wrote his early poems in World War II conscientious objector camps. As the 20th century waned, globally connected Oregon poets still expressed the same wonder at the Pacific Northwest as their predecessors. In these lines by Jeanne McGahey, Oregon-born poet raised in a lumber mill town on the coast, we hear that wonder: It sags against the hills, and the wild geese, Wedge-flying, brush the heaviest cloud with their wings.” Primus St. John, one of the anthology’s co-editors, reflects on the Oregon-ness of poets born or transplanted here. “Like wolves,” he said, “they have mated for life.” This article by Franca Hernandez is one of a monthly series by members of the Mid-Valley Poetry Society on books by Oregon poets. For information about the MVPS, contact Eleanor Berry eberry@wvi.com. Volume 12 - 2020 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fnsyn.2020.00007 We previously created a prosthetic hand with a tacit learning system (TLS) that automatically supports the control of forearm pronosupination This myoelectric prosthetic hand enables sensory feedback and flexible motor output which allows users to move efficiently with minimal burden we investigated whether electroencephalography can be used to analyze the influence of the auxiliary function of the TLS on brain function Three male participants who had sustained below-elbow amputations and were myoelectric prosthesis users performed a series of physical movement trials with the TLS inactivated and activated Trials were video recorded and a sequence of videos was prepared to represent each individual’s own use while the system was inactivated and activated In a subsequent motor imagery phase during which electroencephalography (EEG) signals were collected each participant was asked to watch both videos of themself while actively imagining the physical movement depicted Differences in mean cortical current and amplitude envelope correlation (AEC) values between supplementary motor areas (SMA) and each vertex were calculated there were differences in the mean cortical current generated by the motor imagery tasks when the TLS inactivated and activated conditions were compared The AEC values were higher during the movement imagery task with TLS activation although their distribution on the cortex varied between the three individuals AEC values increased in conditions with the TLS activated Evidence from this case series indicates that TLS may change sensory stimulus recognition Our movements are supported by conscious and unconscious motor control mechanisms (Steenbergen et al., 2010; D’Ostilio and Garraux, 2012; Hayashibe and Shimoda, 2014) requires an intricate interplay between the brain and muscles A bicyclist must continuously adapt to widely ranging environmental changes while regulating balance To reconstruct such natural motor control in robots in addition to generating accurate motor output implementing good sensory feedback is required in the internal processing system the development of a technology that can perform these processes has been difficult to date because a feedback system with high precision is limited in its ability to flexibly respond to unanticipated environmental changes The Tacit Learning System (TLS; Shimoda and Kimura, 2010; Shimoda et al., 2013) is a closed-loop control system that allows adaptive movement in response to unexpected environmental changes. In its function, it contributes to a strategy of sensory feedback called sensory synergy (Alnajjar et al., 2015) The TLS is superior to conventional methods in terms of learning speed We integrated the TLS within a myoelectric prosthetic hand (Oyama et al., 2016) that automatically controls forearm pronosupination in accordance with the intention of the user We demonstrated that this myoelectric prosthetic hand enabled sensory feedback and flexible motor output allowing users to move naturally with little burden it is not easy to evaluate the internal and external benefits and costs involved in the use of a myoelectric prosthetic hand A better motor output does not always correspond to less exertion we hypothesized that the effort to use a prosthetic hand including the amount of neural activity required for motor control and sensory feedback Imaging methods such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) have been among the leading techniques for studying brain function in recent years. Both measure changes in blood flow within the brain; however, inherent disadvantages in the technologies, particularly in studies involving tool use, include the prohibition on metal materials in the former and low special resolution in the latter (Iwatsuki et al., 2020) The temporal resolutions of fMRI and NIRS extend from hundreds of milliseconds to seconds Much is to be learned about how neural representations of the body are remodeled by amputations and the use of prosthetics we investigated the effect of the use of a TLS-equipped prosthetic hand on brain activity The study protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Nagoya University School of Medicine Each volunteer gave informed consent prior to their involvement each with a below the elbow amputation who used a myoelectric prosthetic lower arm and handpiece in his daily life Participant 1 had sustained a left arm amputation and participants 2 and 3 right arm amputations The TLS-integrated prosthetic arm with a handpiece contains a closed-loop control system that supports user-initiated action resulting in functional motor synergy It relies on the signal accumulation in its process of adaptation during which a formative behavior is tuned into movement suiting a goal The integrated algorithmic system is based on human kinesiology It consists of three goniometric sensors (shoulder flexion abduction and rotation) coupled with a handpiece equipped with hand grip and wrist rotation actuators the system was attached to the participant’s own myoelectric prosthetic socket Participants wore the prosthetic hand equipped with the TLS and were asked to perform a physical movement task with the system inactivated and then repeat it with the system activated Three bars placed on a table in front of the seated participant were to be moved from a horizontal to a vertical position and then returned to the original horizontal position This sequence was to be repeated three times Finger manipulation to grasp and release each bar was performed by means of conventional electromyography electrodes in the arm socket while forearm pronosupination was supported by the TLS Everyone was able to complete the task with only simple instructions Participants were asked to repeat the task performing approximately 20 subsequent trials in 10 min until an expected level of performance where an optimal balance of energy to effort was achieved All movements were videotaped, and a series of two recordings lasting 30 s each were made of a selected trial undertaken each participant, one with the TLS inactivated and one with the TLS activated. The usability of the prosthetic hand under both conditions from the perspective of each participant was evaluated by means of Hand20, an assessment of upper limb function (Suzuki et al., 2010; Iwatsuki et al., 2014) each participant was seated directly in front of a large video monitor and asked to watch a sequence of the two previously recorded 30-s videos of himself while imagining performing the task under the condition presented He was to actively perceive controlling the prosthesis in synchronization with what appeared on the monitor separated by a 20-s blank white interval screen Each AEC value was expressed as a correlation coefficient between –1 and 1 The mean signal in the left and right SMA was calculated because the separation was ambiguous Differences in the mean cortical current and AEC values between the SMA and each vertex for the motor imagery tasks were calculated for each participant AEC values of the alpha frequency band between the primary somatosensory areas (S1) for arms and hands were also calculated during the motor imagery task with the TLS inactivated and activated The characteristics of the three participants are shown in Table 1 all Hand20 scores of the TLS activated condition substantially improved Differences in mean cortical current during motor imagery tasks without and with TLS activation [(movement imagery with TLS activation)—(movement imagery without TLS activation)] Yellow to red and blue indicates increased and decreased current (pAm) during the task with and without TLS activation Mean cortical current density in the total cortex (Total) and S1 areas was shown in the bar graph below Black and gray bars indicate cortical current density during movement imagery without and with TLS activation Each vertical bar indicates a standard deviation Differences in mean AEC value between cortical areas during movement imagery tasks with and without tacit learning system (TLS) activation (movement imagery with TLS activation) − (movement imagery without TLS activation) All participants had increased AEC values in the condition with TLS activation between both SMA or S1 and other brain areas. Differences between Amp and N-amp sides were not obvious in any participant (Figures 2, 3) Neural connectivity expressed as amplitude envelope correlation (AEC) values for alpha frequency band between the SMA (black areas) and other brain areas without [TLS (−)] and with [TLS (+)] in the three participants AEC values between SMA contralateral (upper row; Amp) and ipsilateral (lower row; N-amp) to the arm amputated and other areas are shown All participants had increased AEC values in the condition with TLS activation between both SMA and other brain areas Differences between Amp and N-amp sides were not obvious in participants Neural connectivity expressed as AEC values for alpha frequency band between the primary sensorimotor area for arm and hand (S1 black areas) and other brain areas without [TLS (−)] and with [TLS (+)] in the three participants AEC values between S1 contralateral (upper row; Amp) and ipsilateral (lower row; N-amp) to the arm amputated and other areas are shown All participants had increased AEC values in the condition with TLS activation between both SI and other brain areas Functional connectivity may change in adaptation to the use of tools Tools that easily induce brain adaptations and assist movements have a high user affinity we investigated changes in brain activity during the use of our newly developed prosthetic hand These results are important to assess the prosthetic hand function and how the participants use their brains Our results showed that the connectivity between the SMA and surrounding areas was increased by the support of the pronosupination movement with the TLS This indicated that the SMA was associated with sequential movements including arm and finger derived pronosupination and grasping It was conducted with only three participants while following a method established elsewhere the impact of TLS was ascertained solely from EEG results of the motor imagery phase We attempted to record EEG during conditions with the TLS inactive and active for both the physical movement (bar relocation task) and motor imagery (video viewing) phases during each condition in the physical movement phase While EEG signals were collected continuously during the motor imagery phase we cannot show the differences in laterality This could be attributed to the small sample size or because EEG does not have as high sensitivity and specificity as magnetoencephalography The increased AEC values observed during the motor imagery phase when the TLS was activated were similar to our previous results (Iwatsuki et al., 2019) TLS use increased AEC values in both S1 and other brain areas This is the process by which these two sensory and motor systems communicate and coordinate with each other TLS may change not only motor control but also sensory stimulus recognition The datasets generated for this study are available on request to the corresponding author The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of the Nagoya University The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study All authors discussed the results and contributed to the final manuscript Sensory synergy as environmental input integration CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Plasticity of premotor cortico-muscular coherence in severely impaired stroke patients with hand paralysis Multisensory representation of the space near the hand: from perception to action and interindividual interactions Stuttering as a matter of delay in neural activation: a combined TMS/EEG study Amputation and prosthesis implantation shape body and peripersonal space representations Neuromuscular adaptations and sensorimotor integration following a unilateral transfemoral amputation How reliable are MEG resting-state connectivity metrics Supplementary motor area as key structure for domain-general sequence processing: a unified account D’Angelo The sense of agency shapes body schema and 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syndrome: a magnetoencephalographic study Learning and acting in peripersonal space: moving Best facilitated cortical activation during different stepping treadmill and robot-assisted walking training paradigms and speeds: a functional near-infrared spectroscopy neuroimaging study Partial signal space projection for artefact removal in MEG measurements: a theoretical analysis Biomechanical reconstruction using the tacit learning system: intuitive control of prosthetic hand rotation Application of navigated transcranial magnetic stimulation to map the supplementary motor area in healthy subjects doi: 10.1097/WNP.0000000000000530 [Epub ahead of print] Biomimetic approach to tacit learning based on compound control Adaptability of tacit learning in bipedal locomotion CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Implicit and explicit learning: applications from basic research to sports for individuals with impaired movement dynamics Development and validation of an illustrated questionnaire to evaluate disabilities of the upper limb Brainstorm: a user-friendly application for MEG/EEG analysis The somatosensory cortex receives information about motor output Cortical control of gait in healthy humans: an fMRI study Psychometric characterization of incidental feedback sources during grasping with a hand prosthesis Brain region concerned with perceptual skills in tennis: an fMRI study Structural learning in feedforward and feedback control Shimoda S and Hirata H (2020) Electroencephalographic Functional Connectivity With the Tacit Learning System Prosthetic Hand: A Case Series Using Motor Imagery Received: 26 September 2019; Accepted: 07 February 2020; Published: 28 February 2020 Copyright © 2020 Iwatsuki, Hoshiyama, Oyama, Yoneda, Shimoda and Hirata. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) *Correspondence: Katsuyuki Iwatsuki, a2l3YXRzdWtpQG1lZC5uYWdveWEtdS5hYy5qcA== Today's print edition Home Delivery a march to protest child labor involving people in 107 countries made Yuka Iwatsuki realize that the issue which she had been interested in since college She also realized that there were no organizations in Japan leading the global fight "This is the perfect opportunity to inform people of the realities of child labor," she remembers thinking at the time.googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1499653692894-0'); }); had formed Action against Child Exploitation (ACE) a group working to combat child labor that went on to achieve official nonprofit organization status in 2005 In a time of both misinformation and too much information quality journalism is more crucial than ever.By subscribing Your subscription plan doesn't allow commenting. To learn more see our FAQ Sponsored contents planned and edited by JT Media Enterprise Division Medical Design and Outsourcing March 16, 2017 By Meagan Parrish When I first read the news this month that Thomas Starzl, MD, had died I immediately remembered the stirring description Bud Shaw wrote about training with the trailblazing transplant surgeon in the 80s I’ve read quite a few books by doctors and am particularly fond of memoirs. In that genre, Shaw’s book, “Last Night in the OR: A Transplant Surgeon’s Odyssey,” stands out as one of the best And I’ve never forgotten Shaw’s description of Starzl’s intense personality who went on to become a notable transplant surgeon in his own right cut his teeth alongside Starzl at a time when liver transplants were still controversial and the physicians were on the front lines of groundbreaking and highly risky operations Shaw chose to open his memoir with a story from his early days training with Starzl and describes a transplant operation the team was attempting on a patient with a failing liver he casts himself as a rookie fumbling clumsily through the operation while Starzl barks orders and doesn’t hold back on his critiques as Shaw shows he isn’t yet up to snuff It’s clear from Shaw’s description that Starzl was a force in the OR who said and did whatever it took to get the operation right Here’s an excerpt from the first chapter of the book where Shaw Starzl and the rest of the team are working furiously to stop the patient’s bleeding: “Shit,” Starzl said and threw another stitch where I’d broken mine This time I pulled too hard and the silk pulled out of the tissue and a blood torrent erupted Carlos [Fernandez-Bueno] grabbed a sponge and pressed down then got out of the way just as Starzl threw another stitch and tied it himself Carlos tied one and Shun [Iwatsuki] the other Shun frowned at me and vaguely shook his head I decided I could cut the ends of the stitches after they tied them and a good one by all accounts…So I grabbed a pair of scissors and cut the suture “That’ll come loose and he’ll bleed to death He laid down another stitch and Shun tied it At the end of the first chapter Shaw circles back to that night in the OR with Starzl Despite Starzl’s terse language and insulting jabs It’s clear that Shaw took the opportunity of recalling his early struggles in the OR to illustrate how out of his league he was — and to highlight how much of his training and career he owed to Starzl Sometimes I’d try to help and lean in just a little and I’d bump Starzl’s arm or his shoulder and he’d give me a hip check or an elbow to the chest I couldn’t yet see the pattern in anything we did Starzl just grabbed whatever hand was close by and shoved it where he wanted it with no apparent regard for whose hand it was or what else it ought to do help me,” he’d say when someone tried to help and failed That was my initiation to the operating room of Dr these were but a few of the phrases I would learn to hate and mock and Subscribe to Medical Design & Outsourcing share and interact with the leading medical design engineering magazine today DeviceTalks is a conversation among medical technology leaders webinars and one-on-one exchanges of ideas & insights MassDevice is the leading medical device news business journal telling the stories of the devices that save lives Copyright © 2025 WTWH Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media LLC. Site Map | Privacy Policy | RSS Learn how to describe the purpose of the image (opens in a new tab) Leave empty if the image is purely decorative We're working on a visual shortcode editor until then please follow these instructions Email us to support@plugin.builders for any problems Summer is well underway as we enter Tokyo's unusually late rainy season. While there are a host of fireworks festivals confirmed happening in Tokyo proper this year you should also check out these three events in nearby Saitama especially if you’re looking for a quintessential Japanese summer experience but minus the crowd The second venue, located just seven minutes on foot from the nearby Higashi-Urawa Station (and under 50 minutes by train from Shinjuku Station), Omagi Park will host a fireworks display on Saturday August 10 at 7.30pm Details of this year's event are yet to be announced last year saw over 5,000 shells of fireworks being launched over one hour Expect gigantic starmines and other large fireworks at Iwatsuki Culture Park set to be held on Saturday August 17 at 7.30pm As this is the most remote out of the three festival sites on this list your journey will take roughly an hour and fifteen minutes from Shinjuku Station by train and bus as you’ll be gazing at a beautiful display of 3,500 fireworks while being surrounded by serene nature The 55-minute fireworks at Lake Kawaguchiko is back this year Shinjuku’s projection mapping show now serves food and drinks on weekends Two Japanese carriers are in the world’s top 10 airlines of 2024 The life-size Gundam from Yokohama is moving to Osaka Expo 2025 Line Friends Square Shibuya opens with Takashi Murakami and Min Hee-jin Want to be the first to know what’s cool in Tokyo? Sign up to our newsletter for the latest updates from Tokyo and Japan. ・As this plan is information that was output to be shared it will not be deleted even if the original plan is deleted This tourist attraction has been added into "Japan Trip Planner" This eventful and exciting parade is led by children adorned in vibrant costumes of the dolls Iwatsuki is famous for (As of Aug16) Due to the impact of the Typhoon a decision on whether the festival will be held or not will be made in the morning of Sun Please check the official website for the latest information Photo Review Photo Review was given the opportunity to interview a senior executive in the Product Planning Department of Sony’s Imaging Division on the first day of the CP+ show in Yokohama Iwatsuki-san introduced himself as the senior manager in product planning for  ILC (interchangeable-lens cameras) He has been in this position for six-to-seven years the session focused upon product development from the viewpoint of development,” he explained “ILC cameras take a long time to develop image processors and also the optical design So whenever we develop a product we have to foresee the future of imaging – and our business It’s not like saying ‘Let’s make a product for next year.’ “It was a long time ago when we first started to focus on mirrorless when we launched full-frame mirrorless into the market.” To provide some perspective on Sony’s product developments the α7 and α7R cameras were announced together on 16 October in that year The 24-megapixel α7 and 36-megapixel α7R were the smallest and lightest full-frame cameras available at that time and featured a new Sony Bionz X processor 1080p 50/60fps video recording and Wi-Fi with NFC A third line was added roughly six months later with the launch of the 12-megapixel α7S which offered 4K video support plus a large  sensitivity range with a wide  dynamic range and low noise the total number of customers in ILC market was decreasing,” Iwatsuki-san explained Our vision for the ILC business was to create more customers in order to expand the total market so that more people can enjoy imaging We thought we could offer more products and experiences in the future.” Photo Review was a guest of Sony at the launch of its first ILC camera That was Sony’s first venture into the ILC market and its first DSLR camera and it was designed and built using the product development team acquired by Sony when it finalised the take-over of the assets of Konica Minolta at the end of March 2006 a Sony executive said the company aimed to become ‘Number One’ in the ILC market within 10 years Sony has certainly fulfilled those ambitions in the full-frame mirrorless market sector Clarifying the company’s market position we create not only just stand-alone cameras but each core device starting from designing the optical elements and lens actuators Lens actuators are something not many people evaluate as part of lenses but they are actually a very important part [They determine the autofocusing speed; ed.] “We make all those elements by ourselves so whenever we want to make a concept camera we have more choices and flexibility in how to make that happen because we have all the core devices We thought the idea of full-frame mirrorless will drive the market in a very exciting way So we started all the development 6-7 years ago believing this concept will be supported by many “Those years have passed and we are very happy to actually see many customers are using our equipment But we would like to grow the total market  for the future Another innovation will be the key for the next growth We will keep innovating the ILC market to provide better customer experiences by always providing new technologies so people can be more excited.” Sony has concentrated on developing products around one single lens mount that is used in all ILCs “We have an internal strategy which means the E-mount is a common platform for all creators,”  Iwatsuki-san explained “because it covers a wide range of  equipment from full-frame to APS-C cinematography and from the pocket-sized APS-C cameras to a cinematography camera called ‘VENICE’ with a full-frame sensor This illustration shows the ‘one mount’ strategy in effect in two of Sony’s latest cameras the α7III with a ‘full-frame’ sensor (top) and the α6400 (below) with an APS-C sensor This ‘one mount’ strategy remains a core feature for future product development although other features are also brought in with the aim of increasing Sony’s market share and bringing new users into the market. “We need to keep offering a wide selection to provide flexibility for our customers,” Iwatsuki-san pointed out “So when we focus on videography in addition to photography we have to look at many We also consider we have to provide value for the customer.” Asked whether Sony would continue to develop for the APS-C format the response was an emphatic “Yes” “One thing that makes Sony unique,” he added we offer full-frame lenses that can be used on APS-C cameras without requiring an adapter “AI is another area in which we have been investing for a long time Basically AI is about face recognition technology This technology is not new to the industry; it’s been around for many decades the challenge we have is the need to increase the power of image recognition while keeping power consumption low for mobile devices like cameras There’s a trade-off because image recognition consumes power and requires bigger spaces for processors how to co-exist speed for AI and long battery life is a big challenge.” Extending face recognition into eye recognition and offering photographer the ability to choose which eye to focus upon have been recent developments in AI technology The latest systems can recognise not only human eyes but also the eyes of animals and birds we can extend the range of subjects but we need to apply some priority to maximise the speed of the camera,” Iwatsuki-san explained “So we need to work with the best photographers and videographers for our product development We have to listen to their advice and consult photographers involved in sports We also need to focus on many kinds of sports.” Asked whether Sony might emulate the Olympus E-M1X’s dual battery system he responded: “That could be interesting but I’m not sure we’ll be going in that direction We believe small size and light weight for the system will be very important in the future Whatever innovation we will create we will always need to consider how to balance between innovation and light weight We want to make the market bigger and increase the number of customers so light weight and small size are important.” Asked about when the α7S Mark III was likely to appear We need to go beyond customers’ expectations and their expectations level is very high for that particular product.” which recently released full-frame mirrorless camera systems “Actually we don’t focus on our competitors so much I would say we’d rather focus on customers That others are entering the full-frame mirrorless market is welcome because that will bring more choices for customers “We hope the market will be excited but we don’t want to change our business to heavy competition We’d rather go for how we can create the beautiful future of imaging “We will keep creating the APS-C system which connects to the full-frame system without adapters That’s what we can promise for the future We believe the cropped sensor has different appeal Both systems are important so the two system shouldn’t be isolated the concept of one single mount is very important.” Asked whether DSLR cameras are likely to vanish from the market and also there’s a long history with lots of lens assets in the market If there’s a possibility that DSLR can bring another innovation I would say that market will exist forever.”  ‘One big thing we need to consider is the existence of smartphones among customers,” he affirmed “Whenever we develop another fixed-lens digital still camera we have to consider that people use both smartphones and cameras What a camera manufacturer should do should be different from the way of smartphones So we are focusing upon what only we can do “What should DCS s do to differentiate themselves from smartphones Clearly it’s image quality and lens performance Bigger sensors and lenses make fixed-lens differentiation easy so the RX series is definitely our focus area There are obviously some common areas where we can use the same technology as smartphones but I think that for ILC we have to focus upon what a bigger sensor can do cameras are dedicated imaging devices for capturing That can differentiate our image processing engines from the ones used in the smartphones more people are enjoying photography and videography.” the size of the market has been decreasing sharply for some time we are Number One in that area,” Iwatsuki-san added “That the category is shrinking is a sad thing but what we’ve learned is now being applied to new cameras in the Alpha series.” which are becoming a more important sector of the market if the number of displays of lenses at CP+ is any guide “We have to provide all kinds of lens designs so people can pick what they need So we’ll keep developing lenses for the customers “For the future you may see different lenses in different categories I can say two things: one is we will keep expanding the line-up of lenses At Photokina we announced the total count will reach 60 lenses in the very near future and APS-C lenses will be counted.” Discussion turned to the new FE 135mm f/1.8 GM lens which had its own ‘touch & try’ booth on the Sony stand at CP+ Yutaka-san said there was ‘plenty of space for improvement’ when it comes to lenses “Lenses are not just the glass,” he stressed “Designers must consider optical design and also the chassis the resolution of image sensors keeps increasing It’s already exceeded the resolution of 35mm film Whenever we create another lens we have to think about future developments in resolution and how much we need for the next decade’s cameras we can foresee the future of imaging maybe better than our competitors we will need to create great lenses that will be attractive Asked how Sony plans to attract smartphone users the response was: “Basically we have to do lots of things but the main focus will be the image quality and lens line-up Of course we use bigger image sensors in our cameras and they offer better image quality and creative expression “How we bring that message to customers is very important “I think we’ve been strengthened by our lens actuators for a long time and the current generation of lens actuators moves very fast and stops very accurately Those factors are essential for stills users and also video users.” but they are our only way to maintain the server Please deactive Ads blocker to read the content Your co-operation is highly appreciated and we hope our service can be worth it The museum is newly finished with a sleek and minimalist It’s a special place to see many types of Japanese ningyo in a single location which due to regional differences in design and the private nature of family ningyo collections was not something that was possible historically The ningyo culture of Japan is an interesting one with roughly three broad concepts: expert regional craftsmanship One thing which you’ll hear time and again in Japan is the skill of traditional craftsmen You’ll be treated to this up close and personal at the Iwatsuki Ningyo Museum While Japan does have its fair share of large statues like the Buddha statues of Ushiku or Kamakura it’s sometimes in the details of small-scale creations where their true skill is revealed to the Ningyo’s finished products of Kabuto (helmets) this museum shows us that Japan’s love of “tiny” and “cute” is not a recent phenomenon Such fine motor skills and dedication does not come cheap and some families will spend generations building a collection to be passed down It is in a family’s ningyo collection that their wealth can be symbolized much in the same way other heirlooms are used while other families choose to display them prominently People show their wealth in different ways The ningyo’s main purpose is to symbolize the growth of a family’s children an annual celebration to celebrate and pray for this Symbolizing the children who will carry on the legacy the family places great spiritual value and expectation on the ningyo to “look over” their children They are similar to “Omamori” charms which you buy at shrines for good health and such and everyone has their own family’s wishes and prayers entrusted to the ningyo and perhaps the origin of Japanese kawaii (cute) as well as Japan’s love of figurines the Iwatsuki Ningyo Museum is the perfect place to discover it all and the museum shop brings many of them in one place We know you’ll find something that suits you Public Relations Office, Government of Japan Home > Highlighting JAPAN > Highlighting Japan March 2017 > Traditional Crafts The dolls crafted in the Iwatsuki district of Saitama are held to be the most refined in all Japan No article or any part there of may be reproduced without the express permission of the Cabinet Office. Copyright inquiries should be made through this form Saitama Prefectural Ranzan Historical MuseumThese flat stones may be an early version of a shuriken But one Japanese archeologist suspects that a number of stone and clay artifacts discovered at the site of a famous 16th-century siege may be some of the earliest weapons ever used by ninjas That’s the theory put forward by Akihiro Iwata an archaeologist and curator at the Saitama Prefectural Ranzan Historical Museum He studied a number of stone and clay artifacts discovered at Hachioji Castle in the city of Hachioji these three sites were stage on which the 1590 Siege of Odawara unfolded when a feudal lord named Toyotomi Hideyoshi attacked land held by the Hojo clan Iwata suspects that the Hojo put up a spirited fight with a number of simple ninja-type weapons “It is possible that the Hojo clan made these getaway weapons after realizing it faced Hideyoshi’s overwhelming force,” Iwata explained The four unglazed clay balls found at the ruins of Hachioji Castle in the 1960s about one to three centimeters in diameter Ninjas were known to throw makibishi — usually made of metal — while fleeing an enemy on horseback. Horses would step on the spikes slowing them down and allowing the ninjas to escape Saitama Prefectural Ranzan Historical MuseumThese tiny clay balls may have been caltrops Iwata also examined a number of flat stones with sharpened corners which were discovered in the 1990s and 2000s at Iwatsuki Castle and a nearby Hojo administrative site called Owada jinya He believes that these are early versions of shuriken A single stone found at Iwatsuki Castle measured 4.8 centimeters in diameter and one centimeter thick But 17 similar stones found at the Owada jinya administrative site were much bigger — they were eight to 14 centimeters in diameter and 1.5 to three centimeters thick prototypes of the later makibishi and shuriken weapons used by Japan’s fearsome ninjas a ninja expert and professor at Mie University’s Faculty of Humanities Calling the discovery “groundbreaking,” Yamada said: “Flat throwing stones could have developed into shuriken in later years I had never seen clay caltrops before.” Samuraiantiqueworld/Wikimedia CommonsA metal makibishi likely a later version of the clay caltrops The history of the ninja starts back in the 11th century when warriors from Iga and Koka gained notoriety for their unconventional battle methods They were seen as less honorable than samurai and their covert tactics earned them the title “shinobi” or “those who act in stealth.” As warlords feuded with each other during the 15th and 16th centuries in a period called the Age of the Warring States, ninjas rose in prominence. Feudal lords employed them as mercenaries. They were often sent to gather information or spread disinformation as well as fight their lord’s enemies But after Toyotomi Hideyoshi triumphed over enemies like the Hojo he greatly unified feudal leaders across Japan the use of ninjas as covert warriors began to fall out of fashion They were last used — at least officially — in 1637 to squash an uprising of Catholic peasants and disgruntled samurais Public DomainA sketch of a ninja from 1817 which helped cement modern ideas about these ancient warriors the history of ninjas — just like ninjas themselves — has long operated in the shadows That makes discoveries like Akihiro Iwata’s especially fascinating and complicated history of ninjas in Japan After reading about these possible ninja weapon prototypes, look through these 50 stunning photos of imperial Japan. Or, discover the story of the famous Japanese swordsmith Masamune