Latest news with #Maruyama
Japan Forward
30-05-2025
- General
- Japan Forward
Reintroducing Wolves: A New Hope for Japanese Ecosystems
During a recent visit to the Hokkaido University Botanical Garden in Sapporo, I found myself standing before two haunting figures: the taxidermied remains of the now-extinct Ezo and Honshu wolves. Preserved behind glass, their forms felt frozen in time, ghosts of a lost species that once ruled the forests of Japan. Their absence, however, is anything but silent. In recent decades, deer, wild boar, and even bears have surged in numbers across Japan. They have disrupted ecosystems and damaged crops, edging ever closer to human settlements. It's within this context that the Japan Wolf Association (JWA) proposes an audacious solution: Bring back the wolves. A taxidermied Japanese wolf (courtesy of the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences / Faculty of Agriculture). The JWA was founded in 1993 by Associate Professor Naoki Maruyama, who was then teaching at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology. According to Kunihiko Otsuki, a current director at the Association, the idea was born after Maruyama attended a conference in Poland. "He happened to see a wolf on the grasslands," Otsuki told me. At the time, Maruyama had been researching the effects of deer overpopulation on Japan's forests. That single encounter made him realize what was missing in his work: a natural predator. He returned to Japan convinced that wolves were the key to restoring balance to the nation's ecosystems, and rallied fellow researchers to form the JWA. "In the beginning, we were starting from zero," said Otsuki. The notion of reintroducing wolves to Japan was met with skepticism and fear. For many, wolves were still the villains of old folktales, dangerous beasts better left in the past. Yet over the years, the Association's persistence has paid off. Between 2006 and 2016, public support for their reintroduction rose from 17.4% to 43.3%. During the same period, opposition fell from 30.2% to just 11.0%. These numbers, Otsuki believes, reflect the cumulative impact of the Association's outreach: books, symposiums, a robust online presence, and educational campaigns. However, progress has since stalled. "Support has plateaued since 2016," Otsuki said. "The biggest barrier now is the government." Japan's Ministry of the Environment remains opposed to the idea of reintroducing wolves. Without political will, the JWA finds itself at a crossroads. "We believe we've entered a phase where political lobbying is necessary. Ultimately, we must move the national government." Tibetan wolves in the enclosure at Osaka's Tennoji Zoo (courtesy of Tennoji Zoo) What would the return of wolves mean for Japan's environment? Otsuki laid it out in ecological terms: deer populations, particularly Sika and Ezo deer, are causing widespread damage to forests and farmland. The government has responded with increased hunting allowances, but the effects have been minimal. Wolves, as apex predators, could offer a more sustainable solution by naturally regulating deer and boar numbers. "By restoring the food chain's natural order, wolves would allow vegetation to recover," said Otsuki. This, in turn, would support the return of birds and small mammals, halt soil erosion, and slowly revive entire ecosystems. "Ultimately, we see this contributing to the recovery of healthy forest systems and the mountain–river–sea continuum." So, where would reintroduction be viable? According to the Association, mountainous regions across Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu are all technically suitable. Wolves, with a natural fear of humans, could be imported from overseas, and would likely avoid populated areas, said Otsuki. Potential sites include Shiretoko, the Daisetsuzan range, the Japanese Alps, the Kii Peninsula, the Chugoku Mountains, and Mt Aso. Each of these areas has sufficient prey and land area to support multiple packs — roughly 100 to 300 square kilometers per territory. Even in national parks with tourist traffic or rural communities, human activity wouldn't necessarily pose a significant obstacle. "If Japan's intensive livestock model is maintained, wolf attacks on farm animals would likely be rare," Otsuki explained. Still, he acknowledged the need for systems to mitigate risk: "Subsidies for livestock protection and compensation schemes must be in place to reassure farmers." Moreover, geography isn't the only factor. "Local government consent and political decisions will greatly influence which sites are selected," he said. "That's why we can't name a concrete location ourselves at this stage." Public fear remains a formidable challenge. "The biggest misconception is fear — what we call 'Little Red Riding Hood syndrome,'" said Otsuki. People also conflate wolf reintroduction with the introduction of invasive species, or worry that wolves will disrupt ecosystems rather than restore them. To change minds, the JWA has used every tool at its disposal, including books, lectures, exhibitions, art, and social media. One notable publication, The Maligned Predator: Rethinking Wolves in Japanese History ( Ookami Enzai no Nihonshi in Japanese, Impress Books), directly rebuts the idea that wolves were historically dangerous to humans. A taxidermied specimen of the Japanese wolf (courtesy of the National Museum of Nature and Science). The Association also shares accident statistics, research from Europe and North America, and even produces children's stories with wolves as protagonists. "We share voices from communities already coexisting with wolves," said Otsuki. Could Japan follow in the footsteps of Yellowstone National Park or Europe? Otsuki thinks so. The reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone in the 1990s is often cited as a success story. Wolves restored balance to the ecosystem, reducing elk overgrazing and allowing plant and animal life to flourish. The European example is different but equally valuable. Protected under the 1979 Bern Convention, wolves in Europe have expanded naturally from neighboring countries into old habitats. "It's not exactly reintroduction, but more like a comeback," said Otsuki. He highlighted a framework Japan could emulate: protect wolves legally, create compensation systems for damages, and permit controlled hunting once populations stabilize. "Public education, like websites explaining that wolves aren't dangerous, is also key." Finally, I asked Otsuki what reintroduction would mean for Japan, not just ecologically, but culturally and spiritually. "It would be a big step for biodiversity," he said. Japan is classified as a biodiversity hotspot (rich, highly threatened ecosystems) by Conservation International. "Wolves could help reverse the decline of vegetation, birds, insects, soil life — even reduce sediment buildup in rivers and dams." Culturally, wolves once held sacred meaning in Japan. Shrines, such as Mitsumine Shrine in Saitama Prefecture, still honor them, and legends abound about wolves that protected and guided humans. "These stories show that wolves were once part of a vibrant spiritual worldview," Otsuki explained. Their return could reignite that relationship. In a time when balance feels increasingly out of reach, the howl of a returning wolf might signal something far greater than its own survival. It could mark the first step toward restoring Japan's ecological soul. And perhaps most profoundly, reintroducing wolves would force a reckoning with the natural world. "Seeing a wolf hunt a deer might strike some as cruel," said Otsuki, "but it reminds us of nature's laws. It helps us reflect on what life means, and what it means to live as a human in harmony with nature." Author: Daniel Manning
New York Times
05-03-2025
- General
- New York Times
Let's Hear It for the Ladies Who Lathe
It often starts with a box. These utilitarian objects are expressions of a woodworker's technical rigor and style. But for Wendy Maruyama, who earned a master's degree in furniture design from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 1980, boxes were also political statements. Early in her career, she created boxes awash in vivid color, perched atop 4-foot-tall stands with spiked handles on their lids. Auction sites frequently describe these pieces as 'modesty boxes,' but they started out with a specific use: to hold an 18-pack of tampons. 'I loved the idea of gender-specific furniture — making something that men could not possibly grasp or experience,' Ms. Maruyama, 73, recently said in an email interview. One of the few women in the American studio furniture movement, a cohort that combined fine woodworking skills with artistic expression, she went on to build larger versions that held menstrual pads and sex toys. Last year, the Fresno Art Museum handed Ms. Maruyama its Distinguished Woman Artist award and hosted her first career survey. No furniture maker before her has received the honor, which has previously gone to the sculptor Ruth Asawa, the assemblage artist Betye Saar and the weaver Kay Sekimachi. In November, the Manhattan gallery Superhouse exhibited her prismatic tambour cabinets in 'Colorama,' a show that also included furniture by her friend and fellow woodworker Tom Loeser. Ms. Maruyama is not alone in stepping into a gender-specific spotlight. With boundaries dissolving between craft and high art, and women in both areas enjoying a new wave of appreciation, woodworking — which has long been and still remains a male-dominated field — has become more interesting. It is filled with narrative content, social commentary and visually daring forms courtesy of its female makers. Path breakers of the American studio furniture movement who are now in their 70s and 80s are still creating new work, while younger generations of women who learned from them continue to advance the medium. 'Over the years, women are much more likely to be woodworkers or furniture makers or designers,' said Rosanne Somerson, 70, a woodworker who co-founded the Rhode Island School of Design's furniture design department in 1995 and later became the institution's president. 'With every generation, interests change. My generation had more of a lineage from high-level decorative arts, but women now are bringing in a lot more narrative interest and identity issues; it's less about the highest levels of craft and more about the highest levels of expression — and almost provocation.' Because the material carries so many cultural and ecological associations, it is well suited to engage with contemporary issues. Joyce Lin, 30, a furniture maker in Houston, created her 'Material Autopsy' series of conceptual domestic objects to explore the impact of our industrialized society and how most of us are far removed from how things are made. For one chair in the series, which looks like it was grown from a single log sliced open to reveal its rings, Ms. Lin riffed on the decorative arts tradition of faux bois, or realistic-looking artificial wood. 'When I post photos of the piece online,' Ms. Lin said, 'I get people who think I actually grew the wood and then there are a lot of people who think it was A.I.-generated.' For Kim Mupangilaï, 35, a Belgian Congolese interior designer in Brooklyn, N.Y., wood was a natural choice for her first furniture collection, introduced in 2023. 'I really wanted my furniture to come from me, kind of like a self-portrait,' she said. Her utilitarian objects loosely refer to archival photographs taken in central Africa and are made of materials common in Congolese crafts, including teak, banana fibers and rattan. Her Mwasi armoire, an hourglass-shaped piece with woven doors, is currently on view at 'Making Home —Smithsonian Design Triennial' at the Cooper Hewitt museum, and she recently exhibited chairs and stools that refer to Art Nouveau and the colonial history of Belgium at the Fog Design + Art fair in San Francisco. Deirdre Visser, a curator and woodworker in San Francisco, said that speaking more directly about the role of gender in the field was important to welcoming new perspectives and creating more exciting objects. Her commentary has taken the form of a recent book called 'Joinery, Joists and Gender: A History of Woodworking for the 21st Century.' It features women and gender nonconforming people involved with the medium: from medieval turners to the Shaker who developed the first circular saw, to contemporary artists like Katie Hudnall, who leads the woodworking and furniture program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Yuri Kobayashi, who studied under Ms. Maruyama at San Diego State University and taught furniture design at RISD for many years. (Ms. Lin was one of her students.) Ms. Visser, 54, rejects the notion that to be classified as a female woodworker rather than just someone working in wood diminishes the maker. 'All of us have identities we bring to making and that is, more and more, where the discussion is rooted,' she said. 'The most cisgender, straight white male is also bringing identity and a set of experiences to the wood shop, and so this perceived neutrality of their identity as a maker is foolish.' Faye Toogood, a British designer, has become more attuned to the ways that her identity shapes what she creates. She used wood for her earliest works, but quickly shifted to industrial materials. 'I looked to my left and my right and thought, if I want to be taken seriously, I need to pick up bronzes and steel,' she said. 'I now realize that was because I felt like I was wacky in a male-dominated field of industrial design.' Recently, Ms. Toogood, 48, returned to wood with 'Assemblage 7: Lost and Found II,' a series of monolithic chairs, tables and cabinets that includes pieces hand-carved from oak and covered in shellac, a finish popular in 18th-century England. 'It made the pieces really modern but feel quite ancient at the same time,' she said. With all the leaps, woodworking can still be unwelcoming and isolating for women, and some makers are bent on building community and support. Natalie Shook, 42, an artist and self-taught woodworker in Brooklyn, is one of them. After her products grew from stools to large-scale modular shelving, she opened her own workshop. This allowed her to 'completely insulate' herself from the hostility she had experienced at other shops, she said. 'There is not an energy or assumption that women can't do things in our studio.' Alexis Tingey and Ginger Gordon, who founded their woodworking studio Alexis & Ginger in 2023, a year after graduating from RISD, experienced culture shock once they left the cozy precincts of their academic furniture program. At school, they were able to 'just focus on materiality and run full force into exploring and articulating our ideas,' Ms. Tingey, 34, said. 'And that hasn't always been the case since.' Sometimes they are the only women in their workshops. 'But at least we have each other,' she added. Katie Thompson, 38, an artist in rural South Carolina, started a blog and Instagram account called Women of Woodworking in 2015 to connect with other makers. 'I felt pretty isolated as a woman woodworker at the time and wanted to help amplify the stories of other women and gender nonconforming woodworkers out there so more people could see themselves being a part of the field, too,' she said. The community has grown to thousands of members from around the world and hosts interviews on Instagram Live and virtual meet-ups. Practitioners hope that this momentum continues. 'As much as I'd love to believe the next few years will bring more progress for women in these fields, the political climate doesn't give me much hope,' Ms. Maruyama said. 'But I'd like to be wrong. I've been pleasantly surprised before.'
Yahoo
11-02-2025
- Yahoo
Bleeding man arrested after attacking Kyoto train station staff with knife
An injured man reportedly attacked a staff member at a train station in Kansai region in western Japan on Tuesday. The unidentified Japanese man, with a bleeding forehead, reportedly pulled out a knife and attacked a staff member at a train station in Seika in Kyoto prefecture around 6.30am on 11 February. Station staff and bystanders reportedly subdued the man and alerted the police. Local police arrested the man on suspicion of violating the Firearms and Swords Control Law. There were no injuries reported. According to West Japan Railway, the incident led to cancellations and delays on the Gakkentoshi Line, impacting approximately 150 passengers. Last month, a knife attack outside Nagano Station in central Japan left one person dead and two injured. A 49-year-old man died, while a 37-year-old man and a 46-year-old woman sustained injuries. The stabbing occurred near a bus terminal outside Nagano station, according to the Kyodo News. The incident, suspected to be a random attack with no one targeted in particular, occurred near JR Nagano Station. The suspect used a blade-like object to attack three people waiting for a bus near the station, police said. One of them, Hiroyuki Maruyama, a 49-year-old man, was pronounced dead in a hospital. Maruyama was stabbed in the left side of the abdomen and went into cardiac arrest. Violent crime is rare in Japan due to its strict gun control laws. However, recent years have seen several high-profile incidents of random knife attacks and arson on subways. In 2021, a 24-year-old man dressed as the Joker attacked passengers on a Tokyo train on Halloween night, injuring 17 people. He stabbed a man in his 60s, who was left in critical condition, and set a fire inside the train. The suspect, who was later seen calmly smoking on the train, was arrested at the scene. He reportedly told authorities he wanted to kill people to receive the death penalty.
The Independent
11-02-2025
- The Independent
Bleeding man arrested after attacking Kyoto train station staff with knife
An injured man reportedly attacked a staff member at a train station in Kansai region in western Japan on Tuesday. The unidentified Japanese man, with a bleeding forehead, reportedly pulled out a knife and attacked a staff member at a train station in Seika in Kyoto prefecture around 6.30am on 11 February. Station staff and bystanders reportedly subdued the man and alerted the police. Local police arrested the man on suspicion of violating the Firearms and Swords Control Law. There were no injuries reported. According to West Japan Railway, the incident led to cancellations and delays on the Gakkentoshi Line, impacting approximately 150 passengers. Last month, a knife attack outside Nagano Station in central Japan left one person dead and two injured. A 49-year-old man died, while a 37-year-old man and a 46-year-old woman sustained injuries. The stabbing occurred near a bus terminal outside Nagano station, according to the Kyodo News. The incident, suspected to be a random attack with no one targeted in particular, occurred near JR Nagano Station. The suspect used a blade-like object to attack three people waiting for a bus near the station, police said. One of them, Hiroyuki Maruyama, a 49-year-old man, was pronounced dead in a hospital. Maruyama was stabbed in the left side of the abdomen and went into cardiac arrest. Violent crime is rare in Japan due to its strict gun control laws. However, recent years have seen several high-profile incidents of random knife attacks and arson on subways. In 2021, a 24-year-old man dressed as the Joker attacked passengers on a Tokyo train on Halloween night, injuring 17 people. He stabbed a man in his 60s, who was left in critical condition, and set a fire inside the train. The suspect, who was later seen calmly smoking on the train, was arrested at the scene. He reportedly told authorities he wanted to kill people to receive the death penalty.
