Biohistory Journal

It has been a fast 20 years of continually reading the stories that are told by small living things and creating various shapes that represent those stories, and thinking about what it means to be alive. When I remember it, my head is filled to bursting with memories of many and various people and matters. What is interesting is that all of them are connected together and converge on what it is to be alive. That is the creation of biohistory, and it has made the Research Hall a rich and abundant place. It's like a hammock woven of yarns of various colors. On the other hand, when thinking about how to live, the challenges in nature and society are increasing. I think that what we can do in response to this is to continue to send out the stories of living things with the hope of becoming a society that realizes that everyone is a living thing. Creating the reality for the words "Biohistory Research Hall" has been the result of our activities over the past 20 years. Although the container is small, thanks to your efforts I think that the contents are quite substantial.
A major factor that made this possible was that the aura emanating at the beginning from Tokindo Okada, the first Director General was the very essence of the Biohistory Research Hall. First was his attitude toward the specialty of developmental biology. Loving the rare beautiful existence of newt cells was everything, and when he returned from a trip no matter how late it was, for him the day was not over until he had checked on the condition of the cells. It was through this story that he inspired the young researchers on how to listen and learn from the stories of living things.
When Dr. Okada says that when the cells are beautiful they are showing good results, I think "I see". And when he discusses the relationship between cells using the words of Goethe's "Elective Affinities" or Buddha's "Dependent Origination", that is truly biohistory. He saw the properties of flexibility and formidability that are shown in the phenomenon of regeneration as the essence of living things, and he said that possibly the loss of that capability was a tradeoff made to give us as human beings large brains. Dr. Okada's "Commentary on music" which was serialized close to 20 times in the quarterly journal Biohistory always made me think that his having this sense is precisely what enabled him to perform such research. Dr. Okada said that when he listened to the overture to Haydn's "The Creation", he heard the life of ancient organisms in the oceans, and he said that Haydn used his music to depict the emergence of plant photosynthesis, the Cambrian explosion, etc., and that such music nurtures a high level of rich feelings inside us as we listen.
The research on ground beetles that began first with Tokindo Okada and Shozo Osawa, two people who are a fusion of insect-loving kids with cutting-edge researchers and the joy they take in their work are the essence of the origin of the Biohistory Research Hall. That happy atmosphere continues to envelope the Research Hall. Visitors say that there is a unique air of comfort that flows through this place. We hope that this air will also flow out into the outside world that has somehow become cold and unfriendly over the past 20 years. This is the work of the Biohistory Research Hall from now on.