This study aims to review the process that Naruse Jinzo, founder of Japan Women’s University, studied in the United States, and decided the realization of the women’s higher education in Japan. Furthermore, it discusses a reason and the actual situation that focused on physical education in Japan Women’s University as follows:

Section 1 reviews the process that Naruse aimed at the realization of the women’s higher education in Japan at the base of studying in the United States.

Section 2 discusses a view of Naruse on physical education, and gives light on particularly that he thought it was necessary to teach “the good manners exercises” such as Delsarte System for a woman.

Section 3 introduces the actual situation in Japan Women’s University such as athletic meet and describes the teachers who instructed in these performances.

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The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between communication skills and dance creation with fixed large groups for a long-term. We investigated communication skills before and after 15 dance classes at women’s college, and we investigated about experiences of interpersonal conflict through creating works after the classes. We obtained 222 data in the first survey and 239 data in the second survey from seven groups consisted of 29 to 47 students in one group. We used the scale “ENDCOREs” proposed by Fujimoto and Daibo (2007) to investigate communication skills. As a result, there were significant improvement in the scores of “decoding ability” and “self-asserting ability”. It was also shown that students who did not experience interpersonal conflict in the creation had greater improvement in the score of decoding ability than those who experienced interpersonal conflict. These results suggest that improvement of communication skills by creating dance works is related to the group size and the kind of dance. Although experiencing interpersonal conflict at creating works has been considered to act positively for students, the result of this study did not support that idea.

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The purpose of this study is to propose a new method for identifying the relationship between physical information (cognitive elements) about body parts that constitute classical ballet movements, and viewer impression. In order to uncover the quantitative relationship between the cognitive elements of ballet poses and impressions, the Affective engineering method (rough sets) was used to explore the human cognitive evaluation structure.

Among impression words, we focused on three antonyms (A. “dynamic ↔ static,” B. “linear ↔ curved,” and C. “well-intentioned ↔ ill-intentioned”), which were expected to be deeply related to the choreography of “Swan Lake.” According to the examination results of the impression words, the three antonyms A., B., and C. were classified based on the decision rules and each of the 19 silhouettes was classified into two different fields. The characteristics of A. “dynamic” was “stretching up high,” “balancing on one leg,” and “lifting the lower limb up high.” It represents ballet movement forms such as “arabesque” and “attitude” (movement lifting the leg up high behind the dancer). The characteristics of B. “linear” was “symmetric cross.” In other words, a strong “linear” image was drawn in the form of a cross. The characteristics of C. “well-intentioned” was “a vertically long shape, with hands rather closed.” This is similar to the everyday movement of straightening oneʼs back and positioning one hand on top of the other around oneʼs lower abdomen in a formal setting. These observation results helped verify through cases the effectiveness of the proposed analysis.

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In Katsurao village, Fukushima Prefecture, the Triple Lion Dance is still performed by a ceremonial group called Saiten-gumi. This article will analyze the dance performances of Taro Lion, Jiro Lion, and Hanako (which continue to be staged after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake) in order to reveal the current structure of the Triple Lion Dance and consider its significance for the people in Katsurao village.

The current Triple Lion Dance is a condensed version of the traditional dance. Despite its abridged nature, the modifications preserve the basic and minimum motions of the dance. Furthermore, the modification provides some changes to the repetitive choreography of the traditional dance. In this way, the current version of the Triple Lion Dance is a living representation of the way we can simultaneously preserve and evolve traditions to fit changing times.

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