PWRI Web Magazine Editorial Staff
P.R. Managerial Meeting
<Tsukuba>
General Manager: Dr.Kazunori Wada, Representative managers: Mr. Eiji Aoki, Ms. Harumi Moriki, Mr. Toshio Yarimizo,
Mr. Masuo Kondo, Mr. Minoru Kikuchi, Mr. Makoto Kimura, Managers: Mr. Yoshiaki Sato, Mr. Takahiro Yamanashi, Mr. Akira Kamakura, Mr. Yoshinori Nonomura, Ms. Yuko Nagaya, Mr. Yuya Kato, Dr. Mamoru Suwa, Mr. Yuji Okayasu, Mr. Hitoshi Umino, Mr. Koji Ishida, Mr. Nobuharu Isago, Mr. Tomoyuki Noro, Mr. Yasushi Josen
<CERI>
Dr. Atsushi Yoshii, Mr. Wataru Suzuki, Representative managers: Mr. Osamu Hatakeyama, Mr. Masahiro Shibata, Managers: Mr. Hirofumi Kitsuta, Ms. Yuri Sakai, Ms. Maiko Kawanaka
Editor´s Note
Now that we have entered October, we can enjoy very cool and comfortable
weather in Tsukuba City. Rice harvesting was mostly finished at the beginning
of September and new rice is now being served in nearby restaurants, announcing
the arrival of autumn when people have a good appetite. The Tsukuba Marathon
will be held at the end of November, and we have often come to see people
training at night. Autumn is a good season for sports as well.
I hear that marathons have become popular recently, and people have also
been showing an interest in history owing to games set in the Warring States
Period and movies on the History of the Three Kingdoms. The Battle of Sekigahara
took place on Sep. 15th according to the lunar calendar, which is around
Oct. 21st in the solar calendar: about this time of the year. In the Battle
of Sekigahara folding screen, people and horses are carrying provisions
in rice bales for the Eastern forces, but the depiction for the Western
forces includes the threshing of rice reaped from fields. These are respectively
depicted near Ogaki Castle and Tokugawa Ieyasu and this man's fan standard
is arriving at the headquarters in Akasaka, which suggests that these scenes
describe what happened on the day before the Battle. So rice was harvested
at the time of the Battle in October. I wonder if this means that the present
breeds of rice develop faster because of breed improvement and fertilizers.
In Japanese costume dramas often show tall thoroughbreds, even though they
had not yet come into Japan at that time. For "Ran," a masterpiece
directed by Akira Kurosawa, I have heard that American Quarter Horses were
imported especially for filming but I do not see any clear difference from
thoroughbreds with my untrained eye. It would be nice to see costume dramas
that faithfully reproduce not only costumes and houses but also horses
by using short domestic breeds such as Kiso Horses. Based on the exhumation
of his ashes, Date Masamune is said to have been just 159cm tall. Kiso
Horses may have been suitable for the sizes of Japanese in those days.
According to the population statistics provided by the National Institute
of Population and Social Security Research, the population of Japan in
1600 was 18 million and about 200,000 gathered at Sekigahara, which means
1 in 90 Japanese fought in the Battle of Sekigahara. An army of 15,600
strong led by Kobayakawa Hideaki at the age of just 19 was said to have
turned coat and pounced on Otani Yoshitsugu's unit of 600 Western forces.
If you are wondering how you would feel if a large army rushed toward you,
you might want to go and see the start of the Tsukuba Marathon with 16,500
entries.
Changing the subject from history to civil engineering, full-scale experiments
with data faithfully reproduced are conducted at PWRI and their results
are reported in detail in papers as well as in the Web Magazine. To engineers
and researchers who intend to actually test what has been studied while
sitting at a desk, large test facilities located in PWRI's spacious premises
are available for lending (However, Japanese companies have priority).
(Yoshiaki Sato)