On the murals or in paintings to tell natural history, people have long painted and drawn "fish" and "fishing" to convey their appearance, ecology, and relationships with people. This issue focuses on Shurinzu and other forms of drawings where fish are drawn from various viewpoints. The high techniques in the Edo period made the creatures so real that they seem to start moving at any moment.

SATO Yo-ichiro (Director General, Museum of Natural and Environmental History, Shizuoka; and Emeritus Professor, Research Institute for Humanity and Nature)

Japanese people have long depended on seafood as a source of protein, and thus seafood diet has developed as the basis of washoku, the traditional Japanese food.Focusing on the preserved foods made using fish and shellfish developed in the Kinki region (place of the ancient capitals) and other areas across Japan, the article examines Japan's seafood culture, an embodiment of knowledge accumulated in Japan.

MATSUDA Hiroyuki (Emeritus Professor and Specially Appointed Professor, Yokohama National University)

Global warming is progressing rapidly, and there are concerns about changes in the marine environment. Fishing means harvesting wildlife from the ocean and thus influences the marine environment and resource levels in the form of overfishing and other activities. This article examines the current position of resource management and environmental conservation with an eye on the future of fisheries.

WADA Masaaki (Professor, Future University Hakodate and Director, Marine IT Lab, Future University Hakodate)

To realize a decarbonized society, each industry has started taking on the challenge of GX (Green Transformation). In the fisheries industry, the environmental impact of each fishing method is visualized based on the data accumulated through smart technology. Using fish and shellfish as an example, the article shows environmental impact indexes and examines the new values of fish and shellfish in food.

FUJIMORI Terunobu (Architectural historian and architect; Director, Tokyo Metropolitan Edo-Tokyo Museum; and Emeritus Professor, University of Tokyo)

Terunobu Fujimori, an architectural historian, also known as an innovative designer, talks about architecture from a unique perspective. In this issue, Fujimori reports on seagrass houses in Denmark. Why did the people in the island thatch their roofs with the seaweed that grows in the ocean, not the grass that grows on the ground?

Planning: Obayashi Project Team

Since ancient times, the lives of the Japanese people have been with the tangible and intangible blessing of the sea. In recent times, however, Japanese consumers have been eating fish less than they once did. At the same time, the species of fish that can be harvested from the seas around Japan have been adversely affected by the rising sea temperatures and other factors, and fish catches have been declining steadily. Will future generations of Japanese be able to enjoy the kind of diversity and abundance of the sea as previous generations?

To help answer this question in the affirmative, the Obayashi Project Team set to work on the idea of an "ocean farm," a project intended to protect the bountiful sea and Japan's diverse fish-centered food culture. It proposes the future of aquaculture and fisheries, utilizing the regulating power of nature to protect the sea and nurture fish, just as animals are raised in a spacious natural pasture in a relaxed manner, feeding on grass.