It is not clearly known when iron was first manufactured in Japan. However, general consensus has it that the first iron was manufactured from magnetite sand. Seki City in Gifu Prefecture has long been noted for its production of excellent Japanese swords, and its site of an ancient forge probably dates from the end of the Kamakura period (1192-1333). I have applied chemical analyses to the irondregs from this site and found some interesting clues as to the nature of the ore used by the ancient swordsmiths as well as to the location where such ores were procured.
It is almost certain that the ore is not the pyrites (FeS2) found in the neighbourhood of the site, for the amount of S contained in the dregs is extremely small. We may ascertain that the ore was identical with the magnetite sand from Sanyin District, along the Japan Sea coast, on account of the low percentage of Ti contained therein, for the Sanyin, iron sand contains the lowest amount of Ti of all the similar sand in Japan.
It was also discovered that the pile of iron scraps at the bottom of the River Yamaura flowing through the City of Seki was not the natural product of the riverbed, but was dumped there as refuse. I subsequently analyzed the content of some ancient iron products such as iron nails found at the Hachiman Shinto Sanctuary, dating from 1758, and at the Miroku Buddhist Temple, dating from the Hakuho era (672-685), and found that the original ore was also magnetite sand. It is believed that in the Kamakura period, swordsmiths from Kyushu and Nara migrated to Seki, before the city acquired a fame for its manufacture of Japanese swords. The reason for this migration, according to one theory, was that the clay produced in this district was of superior quality for the purpose of firing the swordblades. So I analyzed the red clay taken from the same site, and the results were identical in the amount of alkali contained with those of Mr. TILDEN (published in Fay East, 1897) who analyzed the clay of Inariyama and Fukakusa, Kyoto, the clay popularly used as a medium for oxidized iron.

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(1) It is understood that there are two types of acquired dental changes, intentional and non-intentional. The former is represented by the artificial removal of teeth which was frequently practiced by the Japanese especially in the later Jomon-period of prehistoric times. But very few reports have been made on the latter for which the present report is being made.
A study is made of the grooves on the surface of hard dental tissue due to mechanical wear other than ordinary mastication, i.e. abrasion specifically of buccal, occlusal and lingual surface, observed in three skeletons of the protohistoric (_??_, Mat.; _??_, Mat.; _??_, Ad.) and one skeleton of the prehistoric age (_??_, Mat.).
(2) The three protohistoric skulls show a buccal surface abrasion on the neck of maxillar and mandibular teeth in varying extent. They show a concave defect with a smooth surface (Pl. 1-4). None of them show a wedge-shaped defect, which is found in ca. 20% of the buccal surface abrasion in the recent Japanese. On experimentation, it is accepted that such defect develops when a present tooth-brush is employed on which animal hair or the like is planted.
This verifies that the abrasion and defect observed in the protohistoric skulls is not attributable to the use of a tooth-brush which is now employed.
The abrasion somtimes invades the enamel of crown. It shows a median attack starting even from the canine. It always invades premolars extensively. Distally it almost always reaches the first molar. Since abrasion is observed on the teeth in a series, it forms an almost straight, narrow and lengthy groove on the buccal surface of teeth mesiodistally. From the above findings protohistoric Japanese seems to have used a thin wood piece or bamboo piece like chopsticks for rubbing their teeth, presumbly for cleansing, resulting in a marked abrasion through an inadequate manipulation.
(3) One of the three skulls of the protohistoric age with buccal surface abrasion demonstrates additionally incisive edge abrasion of upper and lower incisors (P1. 5), as well as the abrasion of the lingual surface of tooth crown of upper incisors (P1. 6). On both upper and lower jaws, the lateral incisor demonstrates a more extensive incisive edge abrasion than the median incisor so that there is a spindle-shaped space left between the upper and lower incisors. One skull of the prehistoric age examined shows a markedly concave abrasion almost running in mesiodistal direction on the occlusal surface of lower median teeth and of bilateral distal teeth. Since the upper jaw of this skull is destroyed, it is not clear if the skull forms the spindle-shaped space mentioned above. But it seems obvious that such a marked abrasion as observed in this skull cannot be resulted from an ordinary mastication. The abnormal abrasion above may be due to the fact that these ancient individuals might have used their teeth, besides ordinary mastication, for tearing animal hides, meat and bones, as well as for tanning.

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We researched the motor performance and strength of about 800 inhabitants of four mountain villages in Japan, namely, Sata (J.Anthrop.Soc.Nippon, Vol.63, No.4.), Aogashima (ib.Vol.64, No.1.), Kawakami and Kawashima (ib.Vol.67, No. 2).These villages are alike in that they are all mountain villages whose characteristics are geographical and cultural isoration, restricted agriculture, reliance to the forest, limitation of daily activity and considerable burden of inhabitants, but in details, are different from one another as seen in the list.
Items of tests are as follows;
(1) match board test (2) reaction time test : qualitative, neurotic
(3) tapping test (4) static balancing test : mixed
(5) grip strength test (6) back muscle strength test: quantative, muscular The results are shown in figures in the text.
These villages can be divided into two groups, advanced group (Kawakami and Kawashima) and marginal group (Sata and Aogashima).
In general, the advanced villages tend to surpass the marginal ones in many tests except that Sata villagers show considerably stronger in back muscles and that male islanders of Aogashima, are excellent in tapping test. Reaction time test shows correlation with the degree of urbanization : Kawakami, Kawashima, Sata, Aogashima. Younger generations in advanced villages are more versatile in motor capacity. This is probably related with their adaptability. Sex differences in performance tests seem to be smaller in the advanced group. The declining tendency with age are more notable in the marginal villages. With the avancing of age the work of villagers gradually shift from whole body to manual labor in almost all the villages. This fact is adequately explained by the ageing process of motor capacities. The aged in Aogashima, however, is forced to perform labor. This may perhaps be due to individualistic tendency of the insular society.
As mentioned above, it is evident that the motor performence and strength are varied in different cultural environments.

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[in Japanese]

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Various dimensions such as crown length, crown width, crown thickness, root length and total length were measured in more than 3000 male teeth and in about the same number of female teeth. In the measurement, FUJITA'S standard method was employed. Through statistical treatments of the data, following results were obtained:
(1) In general, the tooth size is larger in the male than in the female in every dimension of every tooth.
(2) However, root length of the upper third molar presents an exception inasmuch as the female significantly surpasses the male. The lower third molar of the female is also superior to that of the male in its root length, although the difference is statistically not significant.
(3) The sexual differences in size are not the same for all sorts of the teeth. It is most conspicuous in the upper and lower canines, while the incisors and the premolars show less difference both in the upper and the lower jaws.
(4) Each dimension of the tooth shows different degree of sexual difference. It is greatest in root length and smallest in crown width.
(5) As compared with the sexual differences in general constitution such as stature, body weight etc., the degree of the sexual differences of the teeth is somewhat smaller, whereas it is larger in root length.
(6) It is not yet clear what the mentioned sexual differences mean. It might be surmized that the larger canine of the male represents the phylogenetical trace of the striking sexual difference prevailing in the animal kingdom.

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