Role of the Sword Futsunomitama-no-tsurugi in the Origin of the Japanese Bushidō Tradition

One of the formative narratives in Japanese martial arts is the bestowal of the mystical sword “Futsunomitama-no-tsurugi” upon Emperor Jinmu, the legendary founder of Japan. Within the Kashima Shinden Bujutsu lineage, this bestowal is attested as a critical event in the initiation of the principles of Bushidō martiality. However, the practical reasons for its significance has been unclear. Drawing on historical and archaeological records, in this paper we hypothesise that the physical conformation of the legendary sword Futsunomitama-no-tsurugi represented a comparatively incremental progression from the one-handed short swords imported from mainland Asia. These modifications, however, allowed for a new, two-handed style of swordsmanship, and therefore it was the combination of the physical conformation of Futsunomitama-no-tsurugi and the development of appropriate techniques for wielding it that formed the basis of the martial significance of the “Law of Futsu-no-mitama”. Drawing on various traditions and records linking Futsunomitama-no-tsurugi to the Kashima Grand Shrine, we also argue that this new tradition of swordsmanship was the nucleus around which the Kashima Shinden Bujutsu lineage would develop, and therefore represented a critical first step towards the later concepts of Bushidō. Based on the kabala of the Kashima Shinryū, we also present a working model of what the techniques for usage of Futsunomitama-no-tsurugi might have been, and provide an account of an experiment testing its application.

Sea Power

“Sea power” refers to the power exerted by a state through its capacity to use the sea for both military and civilian purposes. The ability to use the seas for transport and other civilian purposes such as fishing and, more recently, exploitation of resources on or under the sea bed has generated considerable debate. This has resulted in the notion that military power deployed at or from the sea is the key component of a state’s sea power. It was Alfred Thayer Mahan who first coined the term “sea power.” In his 1980 book “Influence,” Mahan outlined six “principal conditions affecting the sea power of nations”: geographical position, physical conformation, extent of territory, number of population, national character, and character of government. After Mahan, other writers advanced a variety of ideas regarding the concept of sea power, including Philip Colomb, who emphasized the importance of “command of the sea”; Sir Julian Corbett, who discussed the importance of maritime “lines of passage and communication” as “the preoccupation of naval strategy,” and control of such lines as the essence of “command of the sea”; and Sir Herbert Richmond, whose definition of sea power can be summed up as the “power to control movements at sea.” Others who have contributed to the scholarly literature on sea power include Raoul Castex, Bernard Brodie, Stephen Roskill, Sir Peter Gretton, Sir James Cable, Sergei G. Gorshkov, Paul Kennedy, Ken Booth, Richard Hill, and Geoffrey Till.

Mechanical catalysis on the centimetre scale

Enzymes play important roles in catalysing biochemical transaction paths, acting as logical machines through the morphology of the processes. A key challenge in elucidating the nature of these systems, and for engineering manufacturing methods inspired by biochemical reactions, is to attain a comprehensive understanding of the stereochemical ground rules of enzymatic reactions. Here, we present a model of catalysis that can be performed magnetically by centimetre-sized passive floating units. The designed system, which is equipped with permanent magnets only, passively obeys the local causalities imposed by magnetic interactions, albeit it shows a spatial behaviour and an energy profile analogous to those of biochemical enzymes. In this process, the enzyme units trigger physical conformation changes of the target by levelling out the magnetic potential barrier (activation potential) to a funnel type and, thus, induce cascading conformation changes of the targeted substrate units reacting in parallel. The inhibitor units, conversely, suppress such changes by increasing the potential. Because the model is purely mechanical and established on a physics basis in the absence of turbulence, each performance can be explained by the morphology of the unit, extending the definition of catalysis to systems of alternative scales.

Morphometrics of a wild Asian elephant exhibiting disproportionate dwarfism

Dwarfism is a condition characterized by shorter stature, at times accompanied by differential skeletal growth proportions relative to the species-typical physical conformation. Causes vary and are well-documented in humans as well as certain mammalian species in captive or laboratory conditions, but rarely observed in the wild. Here we report on a single case of apparent dwarfism in a free-ranging adult male Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) in Sri Lanka, comparing physical dimensions to those of other males in the same population, males in other populations, and previous records. The subject was shorter than typical mature males, with a shoulder height of approximately 195cm and a body length of 218cm. This ratio of body length to height also deviates from what is typically observed, which is nearly 1:1. The subject also exhibits a slight elongation of the skull. We discuss how this phenotype compares to cases of dwarfism in other non-human animals.

Morphometrics of a wild Asian elephant exhibiting disproportionate dwarfism

Dwarfism is a condition characterized by shorter stature, at times accompanied by differential skeletal growth proportions relative to the species-typical physical conformation. Causes vary and are well-documented in humans as well as certain mammalian species in captive or laboratory conditions, but rarely observed in the wild. Here we report on a single case of apparent dwarfism in a free-ranging adult male Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) in Sri Lanka, comparing physical dimensions to those of other males in the same population, males in other populations, and previous records. The subject was shorter than typical mature males, with a shoulder height of approximately 195cm and a body length of 218cm. This ratio of body length to height also deviates from what is typically observed, which is nearly 1:1. The subject also exhibits a slight elongation of the skull. We discuss how this phenotype compares to cases of dwarfism in other non-human animals.

Lindane sorption and desorption behaviour on sediment organic matter

The work is concerned with the sorption and desorption behaviour of lindane on four humic acid fractions (HAs) and two humin fractions, sequentially extracted from Ludas lake sediment. All sorption isotherms, fitted to a Freundlich model, were nonlinear. The isotherm linearity increased from 0.757 for the first extracted HA to 0.944 for the ninth HA showing a positive correlation with atomic H/C ratio, while a negative correlation between sorption coefficient and aliphaticity of the isolated HAs was observed. It has been shown that the sorption processes may be strongly influenced by the physical conformation of and accessibility to sediment organic matter (SOM), as demonstrated by high Koc and low n values of humin samples. Despite exhibiting the most nonlinear sorption isotherms, humin samples did not show a pronounced sorption-desorption hysteresis, while the most significant hysteresis was observed for three HA samples. These results support the hypothesis that the aromatic domains in SOM influence strongly the sorption and desorption behaviour of lindane. Our findings may be helpful in understanding the distribution, transport and fate of lindane in soils and sediments.