Playing chess at a high level requires a complex set of different skills. Some of these skills deteriorate sharply with age and prolonged inactivity, while other skills remain relatively intact. This paper analyzes how a chess player’s skills decline, based on the author’s experience, a former Japanese champion, who came back to tournament chess after a decade of complete absence from the game.　Due to his lack of practice and age, the author inevitably suffered huge decline in his chess skills, which resulted in many losses to lower rated players. Despite this, the author also perceived that at least some of his skills were still intact. While his calculation ability declined significantly, his positional skills (skills related to evaluation of the game and designs of the pieces) and the general understanding of the game saved him from a complete disaster.

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This paper aims to clarify the characteristics of the rope-impressed inlay patterns (Jomon-zogan) of the potter Shimaoka Tatsuzo, for which there has been little accumulated research to date. Additionally, I clarify the issues of “individuality” and “anonymity” in Shimaoka's pottery, which were closely related to Jomon-zogan. First, I confirm the process through which Jomon-zogan was established. This makes it clear that this establishment was deeply connected to Shimaoka's awareness of the issue of sublating “individuality” and “anonymity.” Next, I examine the relationship between Jomon-zogan and the decoration added to it. This makes it clear that Shimaoka positioned the unique design of Jomon-zogan as a kind of background (the “ground”). I also analyze the structural commonality between Shimaoka's awareness of the issue of trying to create deep “individuality” by making “individuality” “anonymous,” and his desire to achieve a modest yet unique style by using Jomon-zogan as the “ground.” Furthermore, I clarify that his approach was also related to his relationship with Jomon pottery, which inspired his concept of Jomon-zogan. From these considerations, my conclusion is that Shimaoka's Jomon-zogan is consistently and deeply related to the issue of the interaction between the two concepts of “anonymity” and “individuality.” This issue was characteristic of various aspects of Shimaoka's activities, such as creating Jomon-zogan, expanding the style of Jomon-zogan works, and Shimaoka's attitude toward old pottery.

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This paper presents an empirical analysis of the formulation and content of social media policies implemented by Japan’s prefectural governments. It reveals that many local governments tend to prioritize regulatory frameworks when operating social media accounts, such as ensuring information security and avoiding organizational risks. Moreover, the findings highlight an institutional structure, in which the communicative characteristics inherent to social media are constrained. The study examines social policy documents from 46 prefectures, focusing on three key elements: (1) purpose of operation, (2) policies for responding to users, and (3) legal and ethical considerations. Our analysis firstly indicates that the local governments tend to unconsciously declare the information dissemination as the purpose of operation. Furthermore, they normalize the one-way communication policies, such as the principle of “no replies in general”. Lastly, there is a significant variation in the content of legal and ethical considerations. Notably, differences were observed in approaches to handling intellectual property rights and personal information. Overall, these three core elements manifest in the administrative values and institutional characteristics such as risk avoidance and regulatory orientation. The observed variation can be understood as the differences in how these values and characteristics are embedded within governmental organizations. Amid rapid technological advancement and the difficulties in addressing ethical and regulatory challenges without up-to-date policy development, it is an urgent task for local governments to systematically establish social media policies that can adequately respond to these emerging issues.

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This paper argues that All the Pretty Horses (1992) rearticulates the cowboy myth as a form of strategic masculinity in response to late twentieth-century anxieties surrounding male identity. Rather than dismantling hegemonic gender norms, Cormac McCarthy reconfigures them through the figure of John Grady Cole, who embodies both traditional cowboy virtues and emotional vulnerability. Drawing on theory of masculinity by Hamilton Carroll, the paper examines how the novel reframes masculine authority through affective suffering and ethical introspection. Grady’s marginal status, romantic failure, and moral struggle do not undermine his masculinity, instead, they enable its cultural reinvestment. This softened heroic model preserves the ideological function of the cowboy while adapting it to contemporary narratives of male crisis and resilience. Ultimately, the novel functions as a cultural mechanism through which masculinity survives not by rupture, but through affective reinvention.

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This study explores the theoretical challenge of describing the creativity of ‘key-persons’, a central concept in endogenous development. It proposes a generative ontological turn that redefines creativity not as institutional recognition or an individual attribute, but as an event emerging through relational processes. The key-person was originally conceived of by philosopher Saburō Ichii as an ‘exceptional individual’ acting wilfully against historical determinism, and that concept was later inherited by Kazuko Tsurumi as a lens to illuminate the creativity of anonymous local practitioners. Although this concept has played a significant role in regional practice studies, it has also tended to heroise particular individuals through narratives and institutional evaluations, thereby reducing creativity to visible outcomes or leadership. While critically examining these structural issues, this paper repositions creativity as an eventual reality emerging at the intersection of the environment, history, and other forces, and presents a descriptive methodology for capturing its generative process. Drawing on Alfred North Whitehead’s philosophy of organisms and Isabelle Stengers’s responsive ontology, this study reframes description as an ethical act of sense-making within the web of events. From a critical-realist perspective, creativity is understood as potential reality—a causal stratum underlying observable phenomena—while abduction and retroduction serve as methodological foundations. The empirical analysis examines a human resource development project involving the author as a participant. By focusing on the practitioners’ affective moments, this study reveals how creativity arises as an ethical response and unfolds through relational ignition, thus co-generating new possibilities within the relational field of practice.

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