Ozeki, who lives in Nagoya, has written academic reports about the clothing, called “angin,” which is believed to date back to the Jomon period (ca 10,000 B.C-ca 300 B.C.).

According to Ritsumeikan University, she is the oldest person to obtain a doctoral degree in literature (a field not limited to the study of written works) among the nation’s universities.

Ozeki is a native of Aichi Prefecture. She graduated from a school for girls. At the age of about 30, after going through a divorce, she began producing dolls to earn a living.

Some officials of the junior college noticed her skills, and Ozeki was employed there as a lecturer in handicrafts in 1964. She worked in that role until 1995.

While studying the history of clothing, she became interested in the fact that dogu — clay figures produced in the Jomon period — appear to be wearing clothing with sleeves on which decorative patterns are featured. It prompted her to begin studying angin clothing.

To figure out how people produced clothes in the Jomon period, in which there were no looms, Ozeki visited 165 ruins of the period from the north to the south of the nation, traveling to Hokkaido and 21 other prefectures, in her late 50s to 80s.

She then analyzed the net-like patterns on the bases and other parts of excavated earthenware pieces. She checked the distances between the patterns’ lines and looked at the marks left by strings used to make the patterns to see how they had been twisted.

To work out things that could not be determined only by appearances, she actually wove replicas herself.

Through her examinations of skills and tools, Ozeki discovered that there had been various techniques for weaving cloth in the Jomon period.

On Saturday, Ozeki attended a ceremony where she received a certificate for the degree at Ritsumeikan University. “I’m full of emotion over being given a doctoral degree at this age. This is the most glorious event of my life,” she said, tearfully.

This colorful idea has worked its charm, as photos of travelers against the background of colorful villages and riversides are found all over social media.

Feeling the need for more color in your travel photos? Below are some of the destinations:

Tridi village, Malang, East Java

The name “tridi” means 3D, or three-dimensional, representing the numerous murals painted on the walls of this village. Once a dirty residential area, the village is now tidy and colorful, full of hope for a better future.

According to Kompas.com, the transformation of the village began with an idea from students from Malang Muhammadiyah University.

Collaborating with a local paint manufacturer, PT. Indana Paint, the idea came to fruition. Now the village at the north of Brantas river is famous for its color visible from afar, three-dimensional murals that provides fun photo backgrounds and a glass bridge that has become a popular spot to take a photo.

Code village, Yogyakarta

Previously known as a slum residential area in Yogyakarta, Kampung Code started to improve in the 1980s when the late Catholic priest and architect Romo YB Mangunwijaya (Romo Mangun) led an upgrading initiative.

Assisted by students, Romo reconstructed the area to blend in with its natural land contours. In 2015, years after Romo Mangun’s passing, the houses and roofs of Kampung Code were painted in bright colors to resemble the colorful hill favelas in Rio de Janeiro.

Warna-warni village, Bogor, West Java

The village in Katulampa, Bogor, West Java, is now known as kampung Warna-warni, meaning colorful village. The color is the idea of local youngsters, who funded the project themselves.

More than just painting the houses in vibrant colors, the villagers also painted rocks by the river. Open spaces in the village were transformed into a library and traditional game area. Meanwhile, other villagers began operating a river tubing attraction in Katulampa river.

Three Dimensions village, Depok, West Java

Jl. Danau Tondano Raya in Sukmajaya village, Depok, grabbed attention at the end of 2017 with three-dimensional paintings on their roads. The paintings were created by the local Karang Taruna group (official youth organization at the community level), to prevent motorbike riders from speeding on their village roads.

Cikao river, Purwakarta, West Java

Coloring and decorating are positive ways to solve problems. In the case of Cikao river in Purwakarta, West Java, rocks in the river that were once vandalized are now painted with bright colors. Now visitors to Cikao park flock around the colorful rocks to take photos. They also enjoy other activities within the park, which is more appreciated by its visitors because of the fresh look and colors.

It will present artefacts from the nearby temple and related heritage sites, as well as exhibitions on local culture, flora and fauna.

“The purpose of creating this museum during the wartime with the neighbouring country is to show the world that Cambodia does not need war, we need only peace, to preserve the national heritage, to transfer knowledge from the past to the public and to educate the locals to love their national heritage and disseminate it to others,” said museum Director Som Piseth.

Unesco provided technical support for the project, with the finances partly supported by the Cambodian government, by funds from Prime Minister Hun Sen and from other donors. Piseth was unable to provide information about the project’s costs.

Among the challenges in building the museum was the ongoing border conflict with Thailand until the end of 2013, a lack of equipment and workers, and the remoteness of the museum, he said.

The museum is distinct from others not only in terms of its size but also in what it will show, with objects on display ranging from ancient artefacts to information about a variety of heritage locations in Cambodia, and even exhibits on neighbouring countries. It will also focus on local indigenous cultures, especially the Kuy ethnic group – including their role during the Angkorian era as elephant breeders and as armourers.

“It is really a museum which is showing the cultural diversity of Cambodia,” Unesco representative Anne Lemaistre said. “It is the first ethnographic museum in Cambodia.”

Its variety is part of the attraction, Piseth said, with its focus not on “one specific theme or topic”.

“We do not only focus on showing the archaeological collections but we also show the history of other world heritage countries such as Laos, Vietnam, the culture and the livelihoods of indigenous people, as well as the flora and fauna in the area,” he said.//AFP

Five Chinese archaeologists with the National Center of Underwater Cultural Heritage, which is affiliated with the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, are set to conduct field research of the ruins, known as al-Serrian, from March 26 to April 13.

It will be the first Chinese archaeological mission on the Arabian Peninsula, and additional research at the site will follow within the next five years.

They will join six counterparts from the antiquities and museums sector of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage, including one trained by China as the first certificated underwater archaeologist in Saudi Arabia.

Al-Serrian was one of the gateways for Hajj pilgrims to Mecca, together with the bigger trade hub of Jeddah to the north. Jiang Bo, the team head, said some ancient travelogues show that it was a busy port with mosques, markets and residential areas.

“However, no comprehensive excavation has been done in the area before,” Jiang said on Friday. “It’s a dream for Chinese underwater archaeologists to check the former glory on the other end of the Maritime Silk Road.”

Jiang conducted preliminary field research at al-Serrian in 2016 and found some construction components and broken porcelain pieces on the beach.

Local Arabic historical documents showed that al-Serrian had its peak from the ninth to the 13th centuries, but Jiang speculated that a Chinese porcelain piece he found was produced in Fujian province during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

“It shows that the boom period of al-Serrian might have been much longer,” he said.

Nevertheless, he said conclusions can only be reached after excavation. The final report will be published in Chinese, Arabic and English, he added.

Some tombstones also were found, but the writing on them needs further study, Jiang said.

Traditional methods and new technologies will be combined for the research, he said. For instance, drone aerial photography, digital mapping and 3-D virtual reconstruction of the port will be used, in addition to a trawl survey of port ruins and cultural relics that are under the water.

In the early 15th century, Chinese explorer Zheng He led seven expeditionary voyages across the Indian Ocean. During the last voyage, from 1430-33, seven Muslim sailors in the fleet set off from India, passed al-Serrian and finally reached Mecca for Hajj, Jiang added.

“They recorded their journey in detail, which offered a crucial reference in studying communication between China and the Arabian Peninsula,” he said. “Archaeological works and historical records are interconnected.”

More than 20 joint international archaeological projects are being conducted in Saudi Arabia, Jiang said, and Germany and Italy also have recently conducted underwater excavations in the area.

“The region is now a popular destination for global academic research,” he said. “China also needs to better use its expertise promoting cross-border cooperation in the cultural heritage field to echo the Belt and Road Initiative.”

The archaeological project is part of a Sino-Saudi cultural heritage cooperation agreement signed during President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Saudi Arabia in January 2016.

Following the agreement, a large exhibition, Roads of Arabia: Archaeological Treasures of Saudi Arabia, which displayed hundreds of artifacts from 15 Saudi museums, was held from December 2016 to March 2017 at the National Museum of China in Beijing. The two countries’ state leaders attended the event’s closing ceremony.

A major exhibition of Chinese cultural heritage will be opened later this year in Saudi Arabia. Jiang said that some artifacts unearthed during the upcoming excavation in al-Serrian will probably be included in the exhibits.

Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame, 45, was among a group of officers who rushed to the scene in the town of Trebes in southwest France Friday after the attacker, who claimed allegiance to the Islamic State group, stormed a supermarket and fired at shoppers and staff.

Beltrane offered to take the place of a woman the gunman had taken hostage and was shot and badly wounded before anti-terror police moved in to kill the attacker and end the siege.

“Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame has passed away. He died for his country. France will never forget his heroism,” Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said on his Twitter account.

Macron earlier paid tribute to the bravery of the police officer.

“He saved lives and honoured his colleagues and his country,” Macron said.

With the death of the officer, the assailant, identified as 25-year-old Radouane Lakdim, killed a total of four people in France’s first major jihadist attack since October.

“Our country has suffered an Islamist terrorist attack,” Macron said in a televised address following the rampage in the medieval town of Carcassonne and nearby Trebes.

The Islamic State group claimed the attack was in response to its call to target Western enemies — as is customary when the assailant has pledged allegiance to the jihadists.

The shootings come as France remains on high alert following a string of deadly attacks that have killed more than 240 people since 2015.

Top anti-terror prosecutor Francois Molins said the gunman had convictions for carrying a banned weapon and for drug use.

“He had been on a watchlist for his radicalisation and links to the Salafist movement,” Molins told reporters in Carcassonne, adding that Lakdim had been tracked for his online contacts with extremists.

Security sources said Lakdim was born in Taza in northern Morocco and held French nationality. His partner, who lived with him in Carcassonne, has been detained, Molins said.

Lakdim started his rampage in Carcassonne at around 10:30 am (0930 GMT), hijacking a car and shooting the two people inside, Molins said. The passenger was killed, and the driver remains in a critical condition.

Lakdim then shot and wounded a police officer who was out jogging with colleagues before driving to nearby Trebes where he burst into the Super U supermarket.

“The attacker entered the store shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest) and saying he was a soldier of the Islamic State, ready to die for Syria,” Molins said.

He further demanded “the release of his brothers” from prison before shooting a supermarket customer and an employee dead.

“I was five metres away from him,” the store’s security guard said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“He shot at me twice.” Luckily for the security guard, “he shot badly.”

Hostage swap

About 50 people were in the supermarket at the time, and though some people managed to escape, several remained inside.

Beltrame offered to take the place of a woman Lakdim was using as a human shield while his colleagues negotiated with the gunman, the interior minister said.

The officer “left his telephone on the table” to allow police who had surrounded the building to listen in, Collomb said.

When special forces heard shots they stormed the store, killing the gunman and recovering Beltrame, who had been seriously wounded.

He was shot twice and stabbed several times by the attacker, a source close to the investigation told AFP.

Tough questions for government

Trebes, a sleepy town of 5,000 people along the Canal du Midi, was on lockdown throughout Friday as helicopters swirled overhead and heavily armed and masked police carried out a massive operation in Lakdim’s neighbourhood.

The fact that Lakdim had been monitored as a potential extremist will raise difficult questions for Macron’s government as to how he slipped through the net.

“We had monitored him and did not think he had been radicalised,” Interior Minister Collomb said after flying to the scene.

“He was already under surveillance when he suddenly decided to act.”

In Paris, the Eiffel Tower dimmed its lights at midnight in a mark of respect for the victims and a minute’s silence was held at the Stade de France before a football match between France and Colombia.

Friday’s violence took place in a part of France still scarred by a killing spree in 2012 in the city of Toulouse and nearby Montauban where another jihadist, Mohamed Merah, shot dead seven people including three Jewish schoolchildren.

That assault marked the first of several big Islamist attacks in France since 2015, including the massacre at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, the November 2015 attacks that killed 130 in Paris, and a summer 2016 truck attack during Bastille Day festivities in Nice.

The most recent assault came in October when a Tunisian man stabbed to death two women at Marseille’s railway station, shouting “Allahu Akbar”.

A state of emergency put in place just after the 2015 Paris attacks was lifted last October when Macron’s centrist government passed a new law boosting the powers of security forces.

“Given the need to financially rely on China, Asean countries have difficulties coping with this eastern major power, as they need to pursue a multilateral balancing policy as well as Asean centrality. While Asean countries, as small and middle powers, try to keep multilateral linkages with the great powers, they also have to keep relations healthy at the bilateral level and Asean level as well.

“Some Cambodians I interviewed were very cautious in pursuing this balancing policy along with the interdependence of Chinese finance. One port in Cambodia was built using a Japanese system to avoid over-dependence on China, decreasing political risks. The port, however, was surrounded by Chinese companies. How should we interpret such a situation?

“Still, it’s very hard for China to take a coercive approach to Asean countries, who seem to understand Chinese soft-power strategies and even use them to increase their own interests. From their experiences of the colonial and imperialist eras, Asean countries don’t want to lose their independence. Thailand, while not having been colonised, also had a hard time back then and wants to maintain its independence now.

Balance of power

“Looking at the US policies towards  Southeast Asia, US President Donald Trump’s administration seems not to have a critical interest in the region. The State Department, meanwhile, continues its job to provide support to the regional countries while keeping its focus on human rights and democracy development in the region.

“While they strongly criticise what is happening against the Rohingya in Myanmar, the Hun Sen regime in Cambodia and Thailand’s undemocratic situation, it should also be remembered that each country has its own political sensitivities.

“Some of the criticisms also seem to lack an understanding of the complexities of situations, which could lead to more anti-US sentiment. This won’t be comfortable for Southeast Asia in the future. From my point of view, the US engagement with Southeast Asia has had big problems since Barack Obama’s administration and things haven’t changed. The problem is that US criticism on human rights used to be effective but it is now no longer so. Now we have to take the orientation towards independence and sovereignty into account. The more the US criticises, the stronger the tendency for the criticised countries to shift towards China. So, concerns for rights and democracy in the region must take into account increased sensitivity as well as an appropriate approach to prevent them from rushing to China.

“While Japan used to be dominant in Southeast Asia, especially in terms of economic roles, I don’t think Japan can equally deal with China in this sense. The only thing we can do, especially on the South China Sea issue, is to persuade China to take a direction more compatible with the international legal order.

“China has a dual approach at different levels in the international arena. While China tries to show support to international order at the global level, its approach to neighbouring countries, including Japan, is different. Sometimes, they are more assertive, expansive and proactive. Changing China’s approach is a big challenge but at the least we should not accept its behaviour in the South China Sea.

Asean centrality

“Singapore, as this year’s Asean chair, has expressed an interest in working on a rules-based international maritime order. While not a claimant, it thinks about the negative impact of China’s behaviour over the contentious sea. Its challenge this year, indeed, would be how to manage to produce an effective and binding Code of Conduct. Thailand was traditionally an important player in Asean as one of its cofounders.

“Since the 2000s, however, Thailand’s role in Asean has become less visible, partly from a foreign policy vision shift during Thaksin Shinawatra’s administration, which turned away from the group. First of all, to make an impact as a key Asean player again, Thailand – when it chairs the group next year – should regain its political stability in domestic policies. An election is also the first step to retake such a political asset.

The two sides will each send a three-member delegation to the border truce village of Panmunjom on Thursday for talks aimed at paving the way for a summit due in late April, it said.

Seoul has suggested the talks take place at the Unification Pavilion building on the northern side of Panmunjom sitting on the border.

The decision by President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to meet comes amid a rapid rapprochement kicked off with the recent Winter Olympics in the South.

The United States and South Korea announced Tuesday that their annual joint military drills would go ahead next month, but the main exercise will be shortened by a month as a diplomatic thaw with the North gathers pace.

The inter-Korean summit is due to be followed by a face-to-face meeting between US President Donald Trump and Kim by the end of May.