living tradition or panda's cage?

Living Tradition or Panda’s Cage?

R I I T TA ‘ R I ’ S A L A S T I E

A N A N A LY S I S O F T H E U R B A N C O N S E RVAT I O N I N K YOTO.

C A S E S T U DY : 3 5 YA M A H A KO N E I G H B O U R H O O D S

Living Tradition orPanda’s Cage?

H E L S I N K I U N I V E R S I T Y O F T E C H N O L O G Y, F I N L A N D 1 9 9 9

Academic Dissertation for the Degree of Doctor of

Technology to be presented with due permission for

public examination and debate, in Helsinki University

of Technology, Faculty of Architecture on the 21st of

August, 1999, at 12 noon.

Copyright © 1999

Teknillisen korkeakoulun arkkitehtiosaston tutkimuksia

Helsinki 1999/16

Salastie Riitta ‘RI’, Living Tradition or Panda's Cage?

An Analysis of Urban Conservation in Kyoto.

Case Study: 35 Yamahoko Neighbourhoods.

Book design by Reetta Kyttä

Printed by Gummerus Kirjapaino Oy, Jyväskylä 1999

ISBN 951-22-4575-2

ISSN 1236-6013

Helsinki University of Technology

Department of Architecture

Otakaari 1, 02150 Espoo, Finland

Arkkitehtuurin historia. Väitöskirja.

Manuscript received 16. 2. 1997

Accepted 18. 5. 1999

Communicated by Professor Masafumi Yamasaki

and Professor Fred Thompson

HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGYDepartment of Architecture

To Mr. and Mrs. Sugiura

“Hmm, it’s excellent. The color harmony...fine. You’ve never drawn anything so novel before; nevertheless,

it’s restrained. Weaving it will be difficult. But, we’ll put our hearts into it and give it a try. The design

shows your daughter’s respect for her parents and her parents’ affection for their daughter.”

“Thank you. Nowadays, people would be quick to use an English word like ‘idea’ or ‘sense’. Even colors

are now referred to in faddish Western terms.”

“Those aren’t high-quality goods”.

“ I hate it that Western words have come into use. Haven’t there been splendidly elegant colors in Japan

since ancient times?”

“Even black has various subtle shadows,” Sosuke nodded.

“Yes, I was just thinking about that today. There are some obi makers like Izukura. They have a modern

factory in a four-story Western-style building. Nishijin will probably go the same way. They make five

hundred obis a day and soon the employees will be taking part in the company’s management. The

average age of the employees is in the twenties and thirties. Small house business like mine with hand

looms will probably disappear within twenty or thirty years.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“If one survived, wouldn’t it have to be under government sponsorship as an ‘Intangible Cultural Treasure’?

...Why, even a person like you, Sada, with your Klee or whatever...”

Yasunari Kawabata, The Old Capital. San Fransisco: North Point Press 1987 (1962).

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Abstract

Salastie Riitta ‘RI’, Living Tradition or Panda's Cage? An Analysis of Urban Conservation in Kyoto.

Case Study: 35 Yamahoko Neighbourhoods.

Gummerus Kirjapaino Oy, Jyväskylä 1999. 306 Pages.

Teknillisen korkeakoulun arkkitehtiosaston tutkimuksia

Helsinki 1999/16

ISBN 951-22-4575-2, ISSN 1236-6013

The focus of the research is the city centre of Kyoto and there, the group of thirty-five hoko neighbourhoods

known for the organisation of the Gion Festival. At the present moment the wooden town heritage in the

area is threatened in a number of ways. Such threats are both the threatening effects of town planning as

well as the lack of appropriate urban conservation policies. Focusing on a few, selected landmarks and areas

has led to the compartmentalising of the city and to the failure of municipal authorities to identify culturally

dependent and place-oriented value-categories. In the process the heritage evaluation methods in use have

played more than a minor role.

The methodological approach taken in the thesis aims to an approach where the dwelling patterns and

cultural patterns are identified as an inseparable entity. Such an approach is especially important in Kyoto

where traditional townhouses were never just residential spaces but had important production and cultural

functions as well. Cultural values are analysed through the tradition of the Screen Festival. The wooden

townhouse context plays an important role as the scenic stage of the festival.

The interpretation of the Japanese context and its implications for urban conservation work are an

essential part of the research. The inter-relationship between the urban dwelling and the street and the

importance of place are defined as major cultural values to be focused on. The heritage argumentation

methods are seen as an important tool how to enhance cultural values and continuous use. On-site recording

is used as an important evaluation tool.

The author measured for the thesis approximately one hundred wooden facades of traditional townhouses

in the survey area. Furthermore, as a member of the Kyoto University research team the author participated

in an extensive field research during the Gion Festival in three following years, where all screen displays and

their urban settings were documented including more than 160 antique screens.

The conclusions of the thesis suggest that the wooden town heritage cannot be assessed through selected

(expert) values alone, but also other values and meanings must be taken into consideration. The wooden

town heritage is appreciated, not only because of its visual and historical characteristics but also because of

its capacity to hold cultural values and ways of life. Individual interpretations and cultural readings add to

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the significance of place. The traditional display patterns are identified as key cultural values that should be

an essential part of heritage assessment work.

The conclusions of the research do not apply only to Kyoto but are closely related to the urban

conservation problems of wooden towns in general. Because of the fragility of the wooden town tradition

and the authenticity problems involved, the methodological approach should be paid special attention. The

wooden town heritage cannot be evaluated using same criteria as towns built in stone or brick. Changes

and alterations must be tolerated if any of the wooden town heritage is to be preserved. Social values,

cultural practices and individual interpretations should be added as an important element in the evaluation

practices of heritage.

Keywords: Japanese architecture, Kyoto, urban conservation, wooden town heritage, Gion Festival, Screen

Festival

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Contents

Preface ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................17

PART I GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE WORK

Chapter 1 THE CONTENT OF THE THESIS

Chapter 2 THE YAMAHOKO PROGRAMMEGeneral Outline of the Programme ....................................................................................................................... 27Content and Objectives of the Programme ......................................................................................................... 28Key Results of the Programme ................................................................................................................................ 29Key Persons Met through the Programme ........................................................................................................... 31Author’s Contribution to the Programme............................................................................................................ 31The Cultural Heritage Documentation Programme and the Current Research ........................................ 32

Chapter 3 THE GION FESTIVALHistory and General Outline of the Gion Festival ............................................................................................. 33The Gion Festival and Thirty-five Hoko Neighbourhoods ................................................................................. 34The Screen Festival ..................................................................................................................................................... 35List of the Main Festival Events ................................................................................................................................ 36Cultural Protection and the Gion Festival ............................................................................................................ 37Cultural Protection and the Screen Festival ......................................................................................................... 40

Chapter 4 THE CITY CENTRE AND THE HOKO NEIGHBOURHOODSHistorical Outline and Character of the Grid-Plan Area .................................................................................. 43Kyo-Machiya, the Kyoto Townhouse ....................................................................................................................... 45City Centre with Multiple Cores ............................................................................................................................ 45Description of the Survey Area and the Hoko Neighbourhoods .................................................................... 47

Chapter 5 THE LATTICE KOSHI FACADE AND EVOLUTION OF THE UNIFIED TOWNSCAPEThe Evolution of Kyoto’s Townscape and the Rakuchu -Rakugai Paintings ..................................................... 49The City and its Outskirts - One Entity ................................................................................................................ 50Evolution of the 16th and Early 17th Century Townscape ............................................................................... 51The Kaleidoscopic Edo Period Townscape............................................................................................................ 52Towards a Unified Townscape since the Latter Half of the 18th Century .................................................... 52City Fires in the 19th Century and the Evolution of the Modern Townhouse ............................................ 54

PART II DESCRIPTION OF THE FIELD OF THE RESEARCH

Chapter 6 THE INTERPRETATIVE ENVIRONMENT OF THE WORKJapanism and Interpretations of Japanese Architecture ..................................................................................... 59

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The Problematic ‘Otherness’ .................................................................................................................................... 60The Values of a Traditional Artisan .......................................................................................................................... 61The Academic World and the Kimono Artisan .................................................................................................... 62The Cultural Background of the Urban Festival .................................................................................................. 65The Temporary Character of the Festival Space ................................................................................................ 66Urban Festival that Favours Accidental Meeting .................................................................................................. 67

Chapter 7 CITY PLANNING POLICIES AND THE HISTORIC GRID-PLAN AREAThe Legislative Structure versus Local Context ................................................................................................. 69Attitudes towards Heritage versus Modern Life ................................................................................................. 72Perception of Place and Changing Meanings ........................................................................................................ 73City Planning Directives and the Historic Grid-Plan Area ................................................................................ 74The Master Plan 1983 ................................................................................................................................................ 74

Chapter 8 THE PROFILE OF CURRENT CITY DEVELOPMENTThe Grid-Plan Area after the Second World War ............................................................................................... 77The Profile of Housing Production in the Late 1980s ....................................................................................... 78The Disintegration of the Built Environment ....................................................................................................... 79The Profile of Traditional Townhouses Today ........................................................................................................ 80

Chapter 9 HISTORIC PRESERVATION IN KYOTO UP TO THE PRESENT DAYKyoto as a Pioneer of Historic Preservation ....................................................................................................... 83From Conservation of Historic Monuments to Preservation of Landscape ................................................ 84Preservation of Historic Townscape ....................................................................................................................... 84Critical Evaluation of Townscape Regulations ...................................................................................................... 86New Building Code and the Kyoto Hotel Project .............................................................................................. 87Selective View of Heritage and the Conservation of Everyday Buildings ..................................................... 89Urban Preservation and the Kyoto Townhouse ................................................................................................... 89Shifting the Focus: Conserving the Urban Heritage ........................................................................................... 90

PART III THE OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCH

Chapter 10 THE OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCHThe Cultural Significance of the Kyoto Townhouse and Urban Heritage ...................................................... 95Living Tradition versus ‘Living History’ ................................................................................................................... 96Definition of Urban Conservation .......................................................................................................................... 97The Objectives of the Research .............................................................................................................................. 97

PART IV THE METHODOLOGY OF THE WORK

Chapter 11 THE METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH IN THIS RESEARCHNew Areas of Interpretation .................................................................................................................................. 103The Importance of Place ......................................................................................................................................... 104Expert Values versus the Preservation of the Whole ....................................................................................... 104

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The Character of the Japanese Indoor/Outdoor Relationship ...................................................................... 105The Inter-Relationship between the Urban Dwelling and Street as a Cultural Value .............................. 106Critical Evaluation of Heritage Arguments ......................................................................................................... 106

Chapter 12 RECORDING AS A MEANS OF EVALUATIONDefinition of Recording in International Standards .......................................................................................... 109Recording as a Method in the Current Work .................................................................................................... 109The Use of Terminology .......................................................................................................................................... 110Sources and Related Research ............................................................................................................................... 111Perceptions of the Past ............................................................................................................................................ 112

PART V DEFINING THE CONCEPT OF HERITAGE

Chapter 13 THE CONCEPT OF HERITAGE IN JAPANPreservation in the Japanese Context ................................................................................................................. 117Universal Values versus the Context .................................................................................................................... 118Authenticity of Design versus Authenticity of Material ................................................................................... 119Cultural Adaptation and the Japanese Preservation Methodologies ............................................................ 119

Chapter 14 THE CONCEPT OF HERITAGE IN THE CURRENT WORKInternational Charters and Standards .................................................................................................................. 121The Wooden Town Heritage and the World Heritage Listing ........................................................................ 122The Importance of Everyday Buildings ................................................................................................................ 122The Value of Continued Everyday Use ................................................................................................................. 123The Needs of Local People versus Visitors ........................................................................................................ 124Social Value as a Measure of Cultural Significance ............................................................................................ 124

PART VI URBAN CULTURE OF THE HOKO AREA

Chapter 15 STREETS AS COMMUNAL SPACE AND THE SELF-GOVERNING TOWNSHIPCOMMUNITIES The Pre-Modern Township System and the Concept of Ryogawacho ................................................................ 129The Self-Governing Township Communities ...................................................................................................... 130Street as Communal Space ..................................................................................................................................... 131The Pre-Modern Common Facility ....................................................................................................................... 132The Heritage Value of Common Facilities ........................................................................................................... 132Questioning the Heritage Criteria of the Common Facilities ....................................................................... 133

Chapter 16 DWELLING PATTERNSUnagi no Nedoko – ‘Sleeping Places of an Eel’ ..................................................................................................... 137The Tokugawa Era Dwelling Plan ........................................................................................................................... 137Dwelling Patterns in Yatacho................................................................................................................................... 139

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Chapter 17 THE SCREEN FESTIVALScreens and the Japanese Dwelling Space ........................................................................................................... 143History of the Screen Festival ................................................................................................................................ 143The Inter-Relationship between the Urban Dwelling and the Street .......................................................... 144The Picture Window Effect and the Visual Significance of the Screen Festival .......................................... 146

Chapter 18 THE CURRENT PROFILE OF THE HOKO NEIGHBOURHOODSIntroduction ................................................................................................................................................................ 147Population Trend ........................................................................................................................................................ 147Age of Population and Number of Households ................................................................................................ 148Profile of the Built Environment ............................................................................................................................ 149Use of Buildings ......................................................................................................................................................... 149The Current Profile of the Hoko Neighbourhoods and the Future of its Heritage ................................. 149

PART VII FIELDWORK IN THE HOKO NEIGHBOURHOODS

Chapter 19 INTRODUCTION TO THE FIELDWORK ON ARCHITECTURAL PATTERNS OFTHREE HOKO NEIGHBOURHOODSDescription of the Survey Area ............................................................................................................................. 155History of the Neighbourhoods ............................................................................................................................ 155The Built Environment ............................................................................................................................................. 157The Survey Area and Urban Conservation ......................................................................................................... 158Description of the Recording ................................................................................................................................ 158

Fieldwork No. 1 BUILDING INVENTORYThe Content of the Fieldwork ............................................................................................................................... 161Survey Results ............................................................................................................................................................ 165

Fieldwork No. 2 USE OF BUILDINGSThe Aim of the Fieldwork ....................................................................................................................................... 168Survey Results ............................................................................................................................................................ 168

Fieldwork No. 3 THE ARCHITECTUREThe Aim of the Fieldwork ....................................................................................................................................... 170The Method of the Survey and the Major Results ............................................................................................ 170Conclusions of the Architectural Vocabulary Fieldwork ................................................................................. 174

Chapter 20 INTRODUCTION TO THE FIELD SURVEY ON TRADITIONAL DWELLINGPATTERNSThe Aim of the Fieldwork ....................................................................................................................................... 177

Fieldwork No. 4 FIELD SURVEY ON SEVEN HSTORIC URBAN DWELLINGSThe Aim of the Fieldwork ....................................................................................................................................... 179Description of the Seven Documented Houses ................................................................................................ 179The Future of the Houses ....................................................................................................................................... 188

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Fieldwork No. 5 FIELD SURVEY OF AN URBAN TENANTED HOUSE, NAGAYADescription of the Survey ....................................................................................................................................... 190History of the Sugiura Family ................................................................................................................................. 191The Floor Plan Before .............................................................................................................................................. 192The Floor Plan Now ................................................................................................................................................. 193The Future of the House ........................................................................................................................................ 194Conclusions of the Dwelling Pattern Fieldwork ............................................................................................... 195

Chapter 21 INTRODUCTION TO THE FIELDWORK ON CULTURAL AND URBAN PATTERNSOF THE SCREEN FESTIVALGeneral Outline of the Fieldwork ........................................................................................................................ 197The Hayakawa Survey in 1977 ............................................................................................................................... 197Content of the Fieldwork ....................................................................................................................................... 198

Fieldwork No.6 THE PROFILE OF THE DISPLAYED ARTICLESThe Aim of the Fieldwork ....................................................................................................................................... 199General Description of the Screens ..................................................................................................................... 199The Age and Topics of the Screens ....................................................................................................................... 200The Profile of the Displayed Articles Today ........................................................................................................ 202

Fieldwork No. 7 THE CURRENT PROFILE OF THE SCREEN FESTIVALIntroduction to the Fieldwork ............................................................................................................................... 205The Profile of Displays in 1991-92 ........................................................................................................................ 205The Profile of the Exhibition .................................................................................................................................. 205The Profile of the Display Facility ......................................................................................................................... 206Summary ...................................................................................................................................................................... 206

Fieldwork No. 8 INVESTIGATION OF THE STAGING PATTERNSIntroduction to the Fieldwork ............................................................................................................................... 208Description and Classification of the Display Patterns .................................................................................... 208Name and Location of the Display Room........................................................................................................... 209Viewing Pattern and the Route Taken by Public ................................................................................................ 210Partition between the Outdoor and Indoor Space .......................................................................................... 212Summary ...................................................................................................................................................................... 213

Fieldwork No. 9 THE PROFILE OF ONE KIMONO HOME DISPLAYIntroduction to the Fieldwork ............................................................................................................................... 217Description of the Content of the Display ......................................................................................................... 218The Sugiura Display in 1991-1992 ........................................................................................................................ 219Summary ...................................................................................................................................................................... 220

Fieldwork No. 10 SEVENTEEN SCREEN DISPLAYSIntroduction to the Fieldwork ............................................................................................................................... 222Description of the Seventeen Screen Displays .................................................................................................. 224Conclusions of the Screen Display Fieldwork ................................................................................................... 232

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PART VIII CONCLUSIONS OF THE WORK

Chapter 22 CONCLUSIONS OF THE RESEARCHQuestioning the Current Definition of Heritage .............................................................................................. 239From Expert Values to the Preservation of the Whole ................................................................................... 240The Screen Festival Tradition and the Meaning of Place .................................................................................. 241Revising the System of Protection Priorities ...................................................................................................... 241Questioning the Argument of Age ........................................................................................................................ 242The Need for a Place-Oriented Urban Conservation ..................................................................................... 243The Conservation of the Hoko Area as a Cultural Heritage .......................................................................... 244Conservation Plan as an Enhancement of Living Tradition ............................................................................. 245The International Perspective ................................................................................................................................ 246

PART IX POSTSCRIPT

Chapter 23 THE CHANGING STAGE OF THE TRADITION-LIVING TRADITION OR PANDA’S CAGE? .................................................................................................... 251

PART X SUMMARY

Description of the Field of the Research and Urban Conservation. Problems Involved ........................ 259Case Study Area and the Tradition of the Screen Festival .............................................................................. 260Fieldwork as an Evaluation Tool ............................................................................................................................. 261Questioning the Heritage Evaluation Methods in Use. The Methodology of the Work .......................... 261Conclusions ................................................................................................................................................................ 262

REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................................................. 265SOURCES ................................................................................................................................................................... 273ILLUSTRATION SOURCES .................................................................................................................................... 281Appendix 1 JAPANESE ENGLISH GLOSSARY .................................................................................................. 283Appendix 2 ENGLISH JAPANESE GLOSSARY .................................................................................................. 292Appendix 3 THE NAMES OF THE HOKO NEIGHBOURHOODS AND THEIR FESTIVAL FLOATS...... 295Appendix 4 STATISTICS COLLECTED IN YAMAHOKOCHO...................................................................... 296Appendix 5 SURVEY FORM FOR THE SCREEN FESTIVAL ........................................................................... 303Appendix 6 LIST OF THE SCREEN DISPLAYS .................................................................................................. 304

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Preface

I became acquainted with the laboratory of Prof. Koji Nishikawa at Kyoto University in 1984 and since

that time I have struggled with the problems of urban conservation in Kyoto. My licentiate thesis, which

was published by Helsinki University of Technology in 1989, was my first attempt to portray the basic

outlines of urban conservation as adopted in Kyoto until now.

The laboratory of Prof. Koji Nishikawa is well known, both in Japan and internationally, for its pioneering

work in the field of urban preservation. In the 1970s it pioneered the defining and developing of urban

preservation methodology in Kyoto, and took the leading role in this field. Large groups of wooden buildings

or entire city neighbourhoods, such as the four historic preservation areas, the major urban preservation

areas in Kyoto, were preserved as representative of the wooden townhouse tradition and the architectural

heritage of Kyoto. Furthermore, the laboratory contributed to the preservation of the historic urban landscape

of Sanjo Street which in Kyoto represents fine brick buildings of the Meiji era.

I joined Prof. Nishikawa’s research team in 1984 when I worked in the laboratory for a period of six

months. Later, I rejoined the laboratory in 1987 for a period of one year, returned for three months in 1989

and for this thesis, I worked there for a period of three years in 1990-1993. Additional information for the

purpose of this thesis was collected during a visit of two months in Kyoto in 1996 and shorter visits 1997.

In Prof. Nishikawa’s laboratory the research was part of the so called Yamahoko programme, the object

of which as its name indicates, was to draw a profile of the thirty-five hoko neighbourhoods, the historical

city neighbourhoods known for their responsibility for the Gion Festival. The festival has been the major

religious celebration of the city centre for centuries. The Yamahoko programme, which focused on the

documentation of the Gion Festival, was one of the key projects of Prof. Nishikawa’s laboratory for more

than three years.

In the thesis, where I focus on the preservation of everyday buildings and wooden town heritage of

Kyoto, the Gion Festival tradition came to play an important role because of its great cultural significance.

With its historic assets and traditions, the Gion Festival is among Japan’s priceless cultural possessions and

parts of that heritage may be considered even to be of outstanding universal value.The thesis, in particular,

concentrates upon the screen displays, which are performed during the festival by kimono merchant and

artisan families. During this performance the light wooden lattice partitions, which are the major architectural

elements of wooden-frame townhouses, are temporarily removed, and the interior of the house is exposed

to the street as if it were a stage.

Through the Yamahoko programme, after visiting and surveying many uniquely beautiful everyday

structures and their screen displays, I became aware of the urgency of urban conservation in the historic

2 Living Tradition or Panda’s

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grid-plan area of Kyoto. The area is characterised by one of the world’s most sophisticated wooden townhouse

traditions. Or to put it more precisely: perhaps more than ever during my visits to Kyoto I became painfully

aware of the entire lack of the concept of urban conservation in this important area of the architectural and

urban history of Kyoto.

Therefore, when I was given the opportunity to join the Yamahoko programme, I took the formulation

of the urban conservation thesis as my major task in Kyoto. It was also my major contribution to the

Japanese research programme that I was able to make as an outside observer. In identifying a town’s historical

values or indeed any type of environment an international perspective is important and may help to see

conservation problems in new and unexpected ways.

Professor Koji Nishikawa was my academic advisor during all my stays in Japan. To stay in his laboratory

and study, which he generously allowed me to do, deepened my knowledge of Kyoto’s architectural and

urban history and its efforts at preservation, and also my knowledge of Japanese culture in general. Without

this experience it would have been impossible to accomplish the research.

To attempt to thank all those who have helped me over many years in the project would be impossible.

While remaining grateful to all of them I shall confine my special thanks and gratitude to Prof. Koji Nishikawa,

who’s authority and support opened all the doors necessary for the accomplishment of the work.

In Prof. Nishikawa’s laboratory, I owe a special gratitude, both professionally and personally, to Assoc.

Professor Masaya Masui in particular, who was the project leader in the Yamahoko programme and who

kindly and wholeheartedly sacrificed his time helping to arrange the fieldwork necessary for my research

and generally to make the project a reality. Furthermore, in Prof. Nishikawa's laboratory, I owe a special

debt to Prof. Masafumi Yamasaki, who provided me with valuable insight on the urban character and

heritage of Kyoto and helped me to look critically at present city development. His comments on the

principles of urban preservation methodology in Kyoto are very illuminating. They make the Japanese

context more easily understandable.

Outside Kyoto University I wish to extend my special thanks to Dr. Akira Shintani of the Cultural

Heritage Office of the City of Kyoto. I am grateful for his help during my fieldwork and his valuable

comments on the system of cultural protection in Kyoto and on the selection criteria for historic buildings.

The documentation work of the Yamahoko programme in Prof. Nishikawa’s laboratory was carried out in

close cooperation with the municipal heritage authorities.

The writing and completion of the research was carried at Helsinki University of Technology under the

guidance of Prof. Vilhelm Helander to whom I also acknowledge my life-long gratitude for his support and

help, and for his many valuable suggestions. Furthermore, special thanks go to Prof. Masafumi Yamasaki,

Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto and to Dr. Tapio Periäinen, Helsinki, as examiners, for their valuable comments

and advice of my work. In particular, Dr. Periäinen’s guidance was decisive at the finishing stage of the

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manuscript. The English language has been kindly corrected by architect Nicholas Mayow. The graphic

layout is made by graphic designer student Reetta Kyttä. Sari Yli-Tolppa has assisted in drawing the lay-out

of drawings and maps.

Last but not least I wish to express my gratitude to the Wihuri Foundation, the Sasakawa Foundation,

the Japanese German Centre and the Finnish State Committee of Arts who gave financial support to the

project.

Helsinki, March 28th, 1999

Riitta ‘RI’ Salastie

P A

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The subject of the thesis is the historic city cen-tre of Kyoto and the thirty-five hoko neighbour-hoods. The thesis is in ten parts:

PART I, the general introduction to the work(chapters 1-5) describes the Yamahoko programme,the academic background for the accomplishmentof this work. A short outline of the Gion Festivalorientates the reader to the cultural backgroundand the subject of the work, the thirty-five hokoneighbourhoods. Also, a general outline of the sur-vey area, the historic grid-plan area and the hokoneighbourhoods is given. Chapter 5 explores thedevelopment of the lattice, koshi, facade and theevolution of Kyoto’s unified townscape.

PART II, description of the field of the researchconsists of four individual chapters (chapters 6-9):

Chapter 6 focuses on the interpretative environmentof the work. This includes three areas of focus:1) The European researcher in the Japanese

cultural context

Chapter 1

The Content of the Thesis

2) The conflicting values between the academicworld and the kimono artisan

3) The cultural background of the urban festivalChapter 7 and 8 describe the profile of current city

development. In both these chapters, the author fo-cuses on the symptoms of city development overthe past 30 years. The failure of city planningpolicies to protect the built fabric and the woodentown heritage as larger entities are defined asmajor issues to be focused on.

Chapter 9 explores historic preservation in Kyoto upto now. In particular the inability of conservationpolicies to protect and conserve everyday build-ings is pointed out.

PART III (chapter 10) describes the objectives ofthe work. The widening of the concept of herit-age and the critical evaluation of heritage argu-mentation methods are defined as the major ob-jectives of this work. The hoko neighbourhoods arechosen as the test area because of their continuedcultural practices and traditions.

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PART IV (chapters 11-12) describes themethodology of the work.

Chapter 11 introduces the basic methodological ap-proaches of this work. The inter-relationship be-tween the urban dwelling and the street and theimportance of place are defined as the major cul-tural values to be focused on. Furthermore, animportant part of the methodology is the explor-ing of listing priorities. The heritage argumenta-tion priorities are examined in a critical light.

Chapter 12 focuses on recording as a method of eval-uation. In the thesis on-site recording is used as animportant evaluation tool.

PART V discusses the definition of heritage. Thisincludes two areas of focus: exploring the conceptof heritage in Japan; and the definition of herit-age in this work (chapters 13-14).

Chapter 13 explores preservation in the Japanesecontext. Interpretation of universal values and thedefinition of authenticity in a cultural context dif-fering from our own are key areas to be focused

on. The thesis stresses the importance of contextin the heritage evaluation work.

Chapter 14 focuses on the definition of a heritage.The emphasis is on the preservation of everydaybuildings and values. Social value is explored asa measure of cultural significance.

PART VI explores the cultural and urban testimo-ny of the hoko neighbourhoods (chapters 15-18).

Chapter 15 describes the role of street as communalspace and the pre-modern township system, ryogawacho.The system survives, because of the Gion Festival,only in the hoko neighbourhoods. From the pre-modern building stock the work presents the com-mon facilities. In the work they are seen as onepotential group for heritage structures and now,except a few cases, without proper protection.

Chapter 16 describes traditional Kyoto dwellingplans. As a case area is used Yatacho. The workpresents seven townhouses including such classicdwelling patterns as the ‘sleeping place of an eel’,unagi no nedoko, and the tenement pattern, nagaya.

FIG.1 LOCATION MAP. THE HOKO

AREA WEST OF SHIJO KARASUMA

CROSSING. CGM.

FIG.2 (OPPOSITE PAGE) SURVEY

MAP. THE LINING OF THE 35 HOKO

NEIGHBOURHOODS, THE

SURVEYED TOWNHOUSES AND

THE SCREEN DISPLAYS. RS.

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Chapter 17 describes the tradition of the Screen Fes-tival. In the thesis the display tradition representsoutstanding cultural traditions of the hoko neigh-bourhoods.

Chapter 18 describes the current profile of the hokoneighbourhoods. As a main indication the authoruses population trends. The general profile of thebuilt environment and the use of buildings are alsoexamined.

PART VII consists of fieldwork in three hokoneighbourhoods. The monitoring includes threemajor elements (chapters 19-21):

Chapter 19 monitors three, arbitrarily chosen, hokoneighbourhoods. Instead of focusing on historicallandmarks or individual buildings, the inventoryconsists of whole streetscapes and historicneighbourhoods. Altogether the inventory coversalmost one hundred buildings, the facades ofwhich were measured for the survey and then ex-amined as to their building categories, buildingstyles and building materials. The inventory aimsto develop monitoring tools for vernacular, eve-ryday buildings.

Chapter 20 explores seven historic urban dwellings.The sample buildings illustrate the variety andrichness of traditional Kyoto dwelling plans. Fur-

thermore, the fieldwork portrays a common, butless-known, vernacular building type, the urbantenement, nagaya. Through the fieldwork the her-itage argumentation criteria are explored on site.

Chapter 21 portrays the open exhibition houses ofthe Screen Festival. The thesis provides a quantita-tive and qualitative analysis of the display tradi-tion from traditional kimono homes to modernwindow displays.

PART VIII draws the conclusions of the work(chapter 22).

Chapter 22 describes the conclusions of the work.Most of the conclusions of the work are relatedto the perception of heritage and to the problemsof criteria in the heritage argumentation work.The conclusions of a work do not apply only toKyoto, but to the wooden town heritage in gen-eral. Everyday values and cultural traditions areidentified as an important factor in the definitionof heritage.

PART IX (chapter 23) is a postscript, where theauthor examines the origins of the Japanese aes-thetics and our relationship with the past.

PART X is the summary of the work.

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Chapter 2

The Yamahoko Programme

General Outline of the ProgrammeThe Yamahoko programme was organised by thelaboratory of Prof. Koji Nishikawa and carried outas a multidisciplinary project with the laboratoryof Prof. Naoki Tani of Osaka City University. Theproject leader in Prof. Nishikawa’s laboratory wasan architect, Dr. Masaya Masui, who in 1993moved to the Nara Women’s University where heis now Associate Professor. Since then, the pro-gramme has been continued in Nara.

In 1993 when the major research topic was theScreen Festival, participants from a total of five Ja-panese institutions and universities, with alto-gether seventeen staff members joined theprogramme. The extended research team includ-ed members from Kyoto University, Osaka CityUniversity, the Art University of Osaka, the NaraWomen’s University and Setsunan University,Osaka. The author worked as a member of theresearch team. Besides architects and universitystudents, the research team included a specialist incultural anthropology, an art historian and aprofessional photographer. In addition, necessary

research assistance was provided by a highly mo-tivated and site-trained group of university stu-dents throughout every stage of the work.

All the fieldwork had to be carried out over ashort period of time during the few days of thefestival. Many of the screen displays were ex-posed for only a few hours during the last twonights of the festival. Moreover, all the fieldworkhad to be carried out in extreme working con-ditions which included both damp and hotweather that is characteristic for Kyoto in thisseason as well as the crowds of turists that fill thestreets and festival locales during the festivalnights. No less than a half a million people visitthe Gion Festival every year. The extensive andlaborious fieldwork would not have been possi-ble without an well-organised and efficient re-search team. These inventories, which werecarried out during the festival, provided an in-dispensable basis for the accomplishment of thecurrent research.

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Content and Objectives of theProgrammeThe major objective of the Yamahoko programmewas to study the urban heritage of the Gion Fes-tival. The emphasis in the programme, which tookplace in four stages from 1990-93, was on the his-toric documentation work. The extensive field-work which took place in the hoko area in thefollowing years, was focused on three major re-search topics in the Gion Festival:

1) The documentation of the festival exhibitions, oka-zariba, and the common facilities, choie, thirty-five inall. In the field surveys all the festival exhibitions(every hoko neighbourhood) as well as their man-ifold display patterns were investigated and doc-umented in every detail. This included not onlythe measuring and documentation of the histor-ic structures that serve as exhibition facilities, butevery item that was on display. One example ofsuch measurement drawings is shown in Fig. 5.The drawing gives the plan and section of thefestival exhibition in Komusubidanacho. This isone of the altogether four pre-modern facilitiesthat has been designated as a cultural asset so far.

2) The documentation of the street decorations, whichadorn the streets and other public places during the ur-ban festival. One such street documentation isshown in Fig. 26, which shows the street decora-tions in Ashikariyamacho. As can be seen from thedrawing, all the various types of street decorations

deriving from pre-modern times, such as the lo-cation of the float in the neighbourhood, differ-ent types of lanterns, decorative clothes and otherdecorations have been investigated and docu-mented down to the smallest detail. The screendisplays with their screens and their position in thedisplay room are also indicated in the plans.

3) The documentation of the Screen Festival as oneexpression of the Gion Festival. In the extensive field-work all screen displays in or near the hoko neigh-bourhoods, which had been staged for public display,were recorded in the very detail including the ex-cact location of the displays, the name and field ofdisplaying person/enterprise and also the content ofthe displays. The reader can get some idea of thecomprehensiveness of the fieldwork from the inves-tigation form that is attached in Appendix 5. Thefieldwork provided the author with the opportunityto see a large number of historic screens (the totalnumber of which exceeded more than one hundred)and document many uniquely beautiful traditionalwooden townhouses and historic urban dwellings,a task that would otherwise have been impossible.

All these three pieces of fieldwork were an im-mense task and provided a fascinating insight intothe cultural and urban history of the hokoneighbourhoods. Among the documentation car-ried out by the Yamahoko programme, the majorfocus of interest for the author was the ScreenFestival. As an integral part of the urban dwellingculture, the festival is one of the outstanding cul-

FIG.3 INTERIOR VIEW OF THE FESTIVAL EXHIBITION,

OKAZARIBA, IN ENNOGYO JACHO. HK.

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FIG.4 THE SUGIMOTO HOUSE DECORATED FOR THE GION FESTIVAL WITH SHIMENAWA, A SACRED ROPE

AND MANMAKU, A DECORATIVE CLOTH WITH THE FAMILY CREST. RS.

tural traditions of the hoko neighbourhoods. Theauthor participated in the investigations carriedout on this festival during two basic field surveysin 1991 and 1992 and later, in 1996 and 1997, tocomplete the total picture of the festival. The in-formation that is provided in the thesis is thusbased on first-hand knowledge and personalrecords acquired on site.

Key Results of the ProgrammeAn integral part of the Yamahoko programme wasthe interviews that were carried out in the hokoneighbourhoods. Among the persons interviewedwere chairmen of preservation organisations andhoko neighbourhoods and also, many individualdisplaying kimono families. Most of those inter-viewed lived in the area and they had participatedin the festival from early childhood. In other wordsthey were first-hand living sources of the collec-tive tradition of the Gion Festival. All these fieldsurveys, in which the author participated as a mem-ber of the Yamahoko team, provided indispensableand authentic material for the current research.

As well as a mountain of photographs, site re-ports, texts and sketches, the Yamahoko pro-gramme produced a number of papers which werepublished in the annual meetings of the Architec-tural Institute of Japan (AIJ), four Master of En-gineering dissertation theses and a book, whichwas published in 1994. The Japanese title of thebook, which contributed to the celebration ofKyoto’s 1200th anniversary, is Machi, Gion Matsurito Sumai (‘The City, the Gion Festival and theUrban Dwelling’). Some of the field material, ifnot all, presented below was published in thebook. In the present thesis the material is availa-ble in English for the first time.

In 1992 the Master Thesis of Toshihiro Tanaka,Toshi Sairei ni Okeru Kukan no Riyo to Enshutsu(‘The Urban Space and the Urban Festival’), waschosen by the Architectural Institute of Japan asMaster’s Thesis of the Year. It also provided valu-able material for the current research. The list ofpapers that the Yamahoko programme publishedis given in the sources including the papers inwhich the author participated or was directly re-sponsible for.

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FIG. 5 FESTIVAL EXHIBITION, OKAZARIBA, IN KOMUSUBIDANACHO . ONE OF THE FOUR PRE-MODERN COMMON

FACILITIES THAT HAVE BEEN DESIGNATED AS CULTURAL ASSET. PLAN AND SECTION MEASURED

BY THE YAMAHOKO TEAM.

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Key Persons Met through theProgrammeThrough the Yamahoko programme the authorwas introduced to such influential persons inthe Gion Festival as Mr. Kojiro Yoshida. He isan enthusiastic soul who, as one of the coordi-nators for the local float (Kitakannonyama) inRokkakucho, is a living example of the devotedcommitment characteristic of the spirit of theGion Festival throughout the centuries. In addi-tion to his role in the city community, he haspainstakingly restored the screen display in hisown house. The display is now a superb exam-ple of the historic displays where one can seethrough the open facade deep into the house.Part of the marvel of such sights is due to theelegant Japanese interiors that during the festi-val are open to the public. The house is the onlyone that has kept the classic pattern in its basic,open form. Its vital role in the display traditionis studied below.

Furthermore, through the Yamahoko pro-gramme the author was introduced to Mr. Sugi-moto, a Professor in French literature and the headof an old kimono merchant family. He is the own-er of one of the most elaborate traditional town-houses or machiya structures in the hoko area today.In 1990 the Sugimoto house was nominated as acultural property by the municipal authorities.TheSugimoto house and six other townhouses weresurveyed by the Nishikawa laboratory in 1990 aspart of the municipal heritage documentationprogramme. This was why the Sugimoto houseand the neighbourhoods around it became thekey areas in this research.

The Sugimoto house is one of those incred-ible structures where the architectural and car-penter craft of the Tokugawa era is preservedright up to the present day. The house has beensuperbly maintained and is in excellent conditi-on. The understanding and knowledge of the so-phisticated carpenter and design methods, whichwere needed to build the house, were recognisedas guidelines for conservation when the housewas nominated as a cultural property. Compared

with other structures in the research, the Sugi-moto house is, therefore, in a category of its own.Besides Yatacho, two historic city neighbour-hoods around Yatacho, Shinkamanzachoand Kakkyoyamacho, were surveyed and docu-mented as part of our fieldwork (see part VII,chapter 19).

Author’s Contribution to theProgrammeThat part of the Yamahoko programme which theauthor initiated and was directly responsible for,was the measurement of the streetscapes of theabove-mentioned three hoko neighbourhoods in-cluding the facades of approximately one hundredtraditional Kyoto townhouses. The Yamahokoprogramme provided the author with the tech-nical assistance and the necessary authority toaccomplish the measurement work. The buildinginventory although common in historic preserva-tion areas, was the first systematic documentationof this kind in the grid-plan area sofar. InShinkamanzacho, besides the streetscape, the au-thor measured one kimono manufacturer house.The house is owned by Mr. and Mrs. Sugiura, akimono artisan family that is one of the display-ing families in the Screen Festival.

The family generously made their house andfamily treasures available to be examined for theresearch. The author was kindly provided the op-portunity to participate in staging the screens forthe festival with the family twice in 1991 and1992. In fact it was Mrs. Sugiura who first initi-ated me into the charming tradition of thescreen displays. The house and family play animportant role described below. In the thesis thehouse illustrates the unpretentious everydaybuilding stock which at the moment exists inlarge numbers in the city centre, especially in theinner parts of the urban blocks.Through theScreen Festival the house has gained the statusof a local landmark.

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The Cultural HeritageDocumentation Programme andthe Current ResearchWithin the Yamahoko programme the author par-ticipated in a field survey organised by the Cultu-ral Heritage Office of Kyoto City to investigateseven historic urban dwellings. The survey waspart of the municipal documentation programmeand it was carried out by the heritage authoritieswith the assistance of the Nishikawa laboratory.The field survey provided the author with valu-able information not only on the physical charact-er and architectural qualities of the woodentownhouses but also, on the documentation andevaluation methods of the heritage authorities.

All the houses studied are fine examples ofhistoric urban dwellings and the architectural

heritage of Kyoto, which still survives but is se-verely threatened by the modernization of thetown. All seven houses are described below andare used as examples through which the prob-lems of urban conservation and listing are dis-cussed. It is these kind of ordinary everydaystructures and their environments that the authorrequires to be more adequately protected andpreserved against unexpected and in most cases,a brutal change. Five of the structures have beenpublished by the Cultural Heritage Office butthey have not been designated as cultural prop-erties.12

The survey map, which shows the outlining ofthe Yamahoko area, the location of the measuredthree hoko neighbourhoods, the documented ur-ban dwellings and the screen displays, is shown inFig. 2.

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History and General Outline of theGion FestivalAccording to legend, in the 9th century (869) adisastrous epidemic broke out in Kyoto. In orderto calm it down, the citizens of Kyoto made sixty-six large decorated carriages, hokos, symbolisingthe sixty-six districts of Japan. The carriages wereofferings to the deities of the Yasaka Shrine to prayfor deliverance from the disease. The head priestorganised a procession of sacred carriages, wherethe halberds where enshrined. It is said that as aresult the terrible plague disappeared and peopleshowed their gratitude with the celebration of thefestival. Since 970 the ceremony, Goryoe, has beencontinued as an annual ritual of the shrine. TheYasaka Shrine is one of the oldest shrines of thecentral area and also, the ‘mother’ shrine of thehoko neighbourhoods.

Along with the Kanda Festival in Tokyo andthe Tenjin Festival in Osaka, the Gion Festival isone of the three greatest town festivals in Japanand the largest and the most splendid of them all.The festival floats, which are called Ugoku Biju-

Chapter 3

The Gion Festival

tsukan, ‘moving art museums’ by Japanese art his-torians, are gorgeously adorned with textile fab-rics, embroideries and other priceless ornaments.Alongside the many Chinese heroes, who appearas major symbols of the festival, many exotic mo-tives occur which were introduced to Japan forthe first time through the Gion Festival. Thenames of the floats such as the ‘Moon’ float(Tsukihoko), ‘Chrysanthemum Water’ float (Kiku-suihoko) and ‘Umbrella Shape’ float (Kasahoko)tell of the legends and rich history of the festival.Furthermore, there are luxurious brocades andtapestries imported to Japan in the 17th and 18thcenturies from different parts of the world.

The society of the Tokugawa period and thegrowing power of the urban merchant class re-flected in the art works that were displayed in thefestival. The increased industrial output of theperiod resulted in great advances in all industrialarts. Gorgeous silk brocades were produced by theexpanding textile industry, and lacquer ware ofgreat decorative beauty was made in quantity. Inthe industrial arts as well as in decorative screens


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and panels for building, the Japanese showed greatskill in using elements from nature. Sophisticateddesign verging on the abstract as is seen even to-day in many displayed screens during the ScreenFestival, gained great popularity together withluxurious gold and silver painted screens.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NewYork, which in the early 1990s undertook a six-year examination of the Gion Festival and its fes-tival collections, considers the festival float deco-rations to be one of most precious collections inthe world for their quality, volume and variety.1

Furthermore, many of the tapestries and othervaluable items found in the Gion Festival havebeen well cared for up to the present, though mostsimilar items still existing in the countries wherethey were originally made have been badly dam-aged or entirely lost. With its historic assets andtraditions, the Gion Festival is among Japan’spriceless cultural possessions. Parts of that herit-age may be considered to be of outstanding uni-versal value and as such might qualify even as‘world heritage’.

The Gion Festival and Thirty-FiveHoko NeighbourhoodsSince the 16th century the Gion Festival has beenorganised by the thirty-five city neighbourhoodsknown as Yamahokocho. The name of these neigh-bourhoods is derived from the yama (‘mountain’float) and hoko (large float) of the Gion Festival.The fact that the Gion Festival is organised by cityneighbourhoods and not by a shrine or templeinstitution as in some other great festivals in Ja-pan emphasises the historical importance of thehoko neighbourhoods.

The practice began after the civil wars in theearly 16th century, when the festival tradition wasinterrupted for more than ten years because of thedevastating civil wars. It has been estimated thatin these wars two thousand buildings were de-stroyed and the population of the city was reducedfrom half a million to forty thousand.2 The cen-tral areas were devastated and rebuilding of the cityafter the wars took a long period.

After the civil war the parishioners demandedthat the central government, shogunate, revive thefestival.3 According to a famous Tokugawa era de-claration, the Yasaka Shrine was forbidden to con-duct the festival. The citizens of the hoko area,however, insisted the procession should take placeand took the initiative in the organisation of thefestival. The revival of the festival after the civilwars was much due to the power and wealth ofthe hoko neighbourhoods. Even today, the thirty-five hoko neighbourhoods take the major respon-sibility for the organisation of the festival.

The Gion Festival, as we know it today, with itsrichly decorated festival floats and other elegantworks of art, became established in the middle ofthe 17th century. With the growing wealth of thehoko neighbourhoods the floats became more andmore elegant. The floats were given their fixed formmuch later, however, in the Tokugawa era. Until thistime the decorations were changed every year. Inthe Meiji era, with its radical social reforms, thefestival tradition and its institutions went throughmajor changes. In addition, many historic floatswere destroyed in the city fires of the period.

In the Showa era the festival routes werechanged from the narrow dwelling streets to thebroad main streets, Oike, Kawaramachi and ShijoStreets. The atmosphere of the narrow dwellingstreets can still be experienced in such places asShinmachi Street, through which all the festivalfloats pass in the end of the festival in order toreturn to their ‘home’ neighbourhoods. The lo-cation of the festival floats during the festivalweeks and the route taken by the floats in theprocession is shown in Fig. 7.

The key role of the hoko neighbourhoods as themain urban stage for the Gion Festival has beenobserved, for instance, by the Japanese NobelPrize winning novelist Yasunari Kawabata, who inhis novel The Old Capital (San Francisco: NorthPoint Press 1987) described their role in the fol-lowing way:

“... Tourists who came afar were apt to think that theGion Festival consisted of only the parade of floats onthe seventeenth of July. Many also came to the Yoiyama

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festivities on the night of the sixteenth. But the realceremonies of the Gion Festival continued all throughJuly. In the various districts of Kyoto, each of whichhad its own Gion float, the festival bands began toperform and the amulet rituals commenced on the firstof July.” 4

The Japanese names of the hoko neighbourhoodsand the names of the festival floats are given inFig. 13. The figure also shows schematically thelocation of these neighbourhoods. See also Ap-pendix 3, which gives the list of their Japanesenames and the names of the floats written inromanji-pronounciation.

The Screen FestivalAmong the continued cultural traditions charac-teristic of the Gion Festival, one of the most im-posing is the Screen Festival, Byobu Matsuri, thedisplay of folding screens. During this perform-ance the light wooden lattice partitions, koshi,which are the major architectural elements ofwooden-frame townhouses, are temporarily re-moved, and the interior of the house is exposedto the street as if it were a stage. The rooms, whichopen to the streets, are decorated with foldingscreens and other home treasures owned by ki-mono families. Dr. Morse, who visited Kyoto atthe end of the 19th century, described the ScreenFestival tradition in the following way:

FIG.6 FESTIVAL DECORATIONS BEFORE THE SECOND WORLD WAR. KB.

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“…On certain festival days, it is customary for the peo-ple bordering the wider thoroughfares to throw open theirhouses and display their screens; and in Kyoto, at suchtimes one may walk along the streets and beholdwonderful exhibitions of these beautiful objects”. 5

Many of the displaying kimono families were, andstill are, wholesale dealers of luxurious kimonosand other kimono textiles adding to the splendourand artistic quality of the displays. There are alsokimono designers and other kimono-related ar-tisans. In earlier centuries wealthy kimono mer-chant families served as patrons for Kyoto paintingschools. Even today there are screens which arespecially designed for the display. The woodentown architecture plays a vital role as the scenicstage of the festival. The history of the area alsoexplains the excellent quality of the displayed ar-ticles and screens. With this background the Scre-en Festival is unique, not only in Kyoto but in thewhole of Japan.

List of the Main Festival EventsJuly 2: Kujitori-shiki, the order of festival floats inthe procession is decided by drawing lots. Onlythe place of the first float in the procession is fixed.

The leading float in the procession is the Nagi-natahoko, which is also the float of the livingpageboy.

July 10 evening: Omukae-chochin, welcoming oflanterns. Parishioners go in a parade to the YasakaShrine to greet the palanquins and welcome theminto the festival.

July 10: Mikoshi arai, the rite of cleaning the sa-cred carriages, mikoshi. The ritual takes place in theKamo River by the Shijo Bridge.

July 10-11: Hokotate; July 13-14: Yamatate, theassembled parts of the festival floats are taken outfrom their storage and the floats are assembledusing traditional carpentry techniques in the hokoneighbourhoods.

July 13-16: Yoiyama, Yoiyoiyama, two last eve-nings of the festival. When the construction of thefloats begins, the streets around the hoko neigh-bourhoods are changed to pedestrian roads anddecorated for the festival. The festival floats appeareven more splendid after dark when the lanternsdecorating the floats are lit. Important elementsof the street decorations are the screen displays,Byobu matsuri, staged by the kimono families dur-ing the last two festival nights.

July 17: Yamahoko junko, the festival procession,which is the climax of the festival. In the proces-

FIG.7 THE LOCATION OF THE FESTIVAL

FLOATS AND THE ROUTE TAKEN

BY THE FESTIVAL PROCESSION. GFM.

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sion 31 floats are pulled along Shijo, Kawaramachiand Oike Streets.

July 17: Shinkosai, the procession of the sacredcarriages.

July 24: Hanagasa junko, the procession of flowersunshades.

July 24: Kankosai, the procession of the sacredcarriages. The palanquins are returned to the Ya-saka Shrine.

July 28: Mikoshi arai, the rites of cleaning thesacred carriages. This is the ending ceremony ofthe festival.

Cultural Protection and the GionFestivalOriginally, each hoko neighbourhood admin-istered the urban festival. In Rokkakucho (neigh-bourhood of the Kitakannonyama, ‘NorthernBoddhisattava’ float) historical document recordsall yearly donations that were collected by everyhousehold in the city community to support theorganisation of the festival. Parts of these dona-tions were used to acquire new ornaments for thelocal festival float. The ornaments are preservedand used even today.

After the First World War, the social standingof the hoko neighbourhoods weakened and themanagement of the festival became endangered.To be able to keep the priceless cultural propertysuch as the historic floats and their ornaments and

to secure the continuity of the festival, localpreservation organisations were established inevery hoko neighbourhood, the first ones in 1923.

Today these organisations, take the main re-sponsibility for the organisation of the festival andthe maintenance of the cultural heritage.6 In re-cent years the importance of the preservationorganisations has grown with the declining num-bers of inhabitants and the falling economy of thehoko neighbourhoods. Only eight floats are di-rectly owned by the hoko neighbourhoods.

Following the Second World War Kyoto artistsand artisans have attempted to restore many pre-viously destroyed floats to their original grandeur. Inaddition, proper conservation measures have beentaken to preserve and restore the priceless gobelinsand tapestries, which have deteriorated from theiroriginal splendour. In 1983 a special council was es-tablished to advise city communities about the la-borious and difficult restoration work. Many antiquetapestries have been restored since then.

Three of the floats that were destroyed inthe Meiji period city fires, have not been recon-structed.7 Despite the ravages of many city firesand having been rebuilt many times, from the thi-rty-five floats that existed at the beginning of theMeiji era, thirty-two still survive. This heritage ispreserved by law. The main nomination took placein 1962 when the Gion Festival was nominatedas an important cultural property of Japan. Thenomination consists of two parts:

FIG.9 A FESTIVAL FLOAT DECORATED WITH LANTERNS

IN ITS ‘HOME’ NEIGHBOURHOOD. RS.

FIG.8 RITUAL OF THE SACRED CARRIAGE, MIKOSHI.

THE YASAKA SHRINE. RS.

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1) the Gion Festival is preserved as an importantfolklore tradition

2) twenty-nine floats are preserved as importantfolklore assets8

The concept behind the twofold nomination isthat in addition to the material objects, which canbe designated as cultural properties, an essentialand important element of the system of culturalprotection in Japan is the protection of intangi-ble traditions, such as special skills, attitudes, andspiritual traditions. In the first group of preservedtangible objects are paintings, sculptures, historicdocuments, and also, historic buildings, groups ofbuildings and heritage sites.

In the group of intangible objects are not onlyfolk arts but also artistic or professional compe-tence. Japan is one of those few countries in theworld, which acknowledges personal competenceas having the value of heritage. Thus, Japan rec-ognises individuals as ‘living national treasures’ andJapan has acknowledged such individuals even inthe field of heritage conservation.9 In the GionFestival the intangible traditions are representedin the folk customs (such as festival dances, mu-sic and other rituals), religious rituals and otherspiritual traditions related to the festival. The re-ligious rituals include time honoured purificationceremonies that take place at the beginning andend of the festival. The author observed a numberof such ceremonies in the hoko neighbourhoods.

Besides the historic floats, the hoko neigh-bourhoods own numerous old documents andother valuables. Many of them are designated ascultural properties. The national list includes, amongother things, one piece of kimono from the Mom-oyama era, a 16th century gobelin in three piecesfrom Belgium and old armour.10 In addition, themunicipal list includes approximately nine hundredold documents or other historic assets.

Cultural Protection and the ScreenFestivalThe Screen Festival tradition, although an impor-tant part of the Gion Festival, is not included in

the above-mentioned law. Among the screens dis-played, besides many more modern or, laterscreens from the end of the 19th and beginningof the 20th century, there are many fine antiquescreens from the Tokugawa and Meiji periods. Inother words, the oldest screens are already morethan two or three hundred years old. Individual,historically valuable screens have been listed by arthistorians and heritage authorities. In this workthey are to be found in part VII, chapter 21, field-work no. 6. Screens owned by private kimonofamilies are outside the municipal restoration pro-grammes, except those that have been brought topublic museums.

The Yamahoko programme included, amongother things, a comprehensive recording of thescreens that are displayed in the current festival.A short description of the screens displayed isgiven in chapter 21. The scope of this research isnot, however, limited to the protection and con-servation of individual screens, but extends to theirurban and cultural context as well.

Municipal authorities and conservationists havepaid attention to the Screen Festival only whenit has been able to boost tourism as a clearlymeasurable tourist asset such as displays of manyyears of patronage or of special historic and aes-thetic value. In other words, the focus has beenon the few, carefully selected landmarks.The moreordinary home displays, as well as the whole ur-ban context, have been given less if any attention.There is an acute lack of appreciation of suchsocio-cultural values as the inter-relationship be-tween the house and the street and their culturalexpressions during the urban festival. City plan-ning having failed to enhance such values has notonly caused deserted spaces to be created in thecity but has also resulted in the disappearance ofcultural patterns and local landmarks vital for thecity. Moreover, a set of cultural values, the specialJapanese comprehension of space, has been sacri-ficed for more practical and material values.Among the ‘forgotten’ heritage is the woodentownhouse context as the indispensable ‘stage’ forthe festival.

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FIG.10 (PREVIOUS PAGE) INTERIOR VIEW OF THE BAN DISPLAY, HONEYACHO . HK.

FIG.11 THE LIVING PAGE BOY WITH ITS ATTENDANTS. THE GION FESTIVAL IN NAGINATAHOKOCHO AFTER THE

SECOND WORLD WAR. IN THE BACKGROUND THE COMMON FACILITY, CHO IE. TS.

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Historical Outline and Character ofthe Grid-Plan AreaThe thesis deals with the historic city centre ofKyoto, the basis of which is the grid-plan areaadapted according to Chinese city planning mod-els in the 8th century. From its founding in 794Kyoto was the capital of Japan for more than onethousand years until 1868, when in the Meiji res-toration, the capital was moved to Tokyo. The pres-ent day city centre corresponds very closely to thecity area as it was rebuilt after the civil wars in the15th and 16th centuries. This area is known inKyoto as Rakuchu , literally: inside the capital. Thearea outside the city centre, Rakugai, was suburbanfarmland almost until the late 19th century. Onlyin the past few decades has the urbanisation proc-ess reached the outer edges of the suburban land.

The Rakuchu -Rakugai relationship has had animportant cultural and spiritual significance in thehistory of Kyoto up to the present day. Since earlytimes, the city centre, the historic grid-plan area,and its environs, were spiritually regarded as one

entity. Unlike most Western cities, the fact that inKyoto the major temples and shrines were locat-ed on the outskirts of the city contributed to thecultural significance of the sub-urban land. By themiddle of the 13th century, there was a conceptof actually manipulating the landscape outside thecity centre for aesthetic or cultural effect.13

When considering the development and make-up of the natural landscapes on the outskirts ofKyoto, there was a well-known compositionalsystem, which was adopted in Zen temples andinfluenced by the Zen philosophical thought. Thesystem was made up of a number of landscapeelements, jikkyo, (literally: ‘ten stages’) as they werecalled. They were landmarks attached with a sym-bolic and spiritual meaning. The jikkyo, meaning-ful landmarks such as mountain tops, rivers,bridges were part of a culturally appointed envi-ronment with specific (Zen related) meaningsattached to them. In protecting and preservingthese landscape areas, they were acknowledgedto own a value of an important, culturally ap-

Chapter 4

The City Centre and theHoko Neighbourhoods

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pointed environmental heritage. How importanta similar kind of concept of an architectural her-itage layered in history would have been in thehistoric grid-plan area, is one of the key questionsof this work.

The cultural relationship between the city andits environs was interpreted in paintings knownas Rakuchu -Rakugai-e, paintings which depictscenes and landscapes inside and outside the cap-ital. Prof. Yamasaki, for instance, has remarkedhow the real distance between the outskirts andthe central areas of the city were distorted in allRakuchu -Rakugai paintings and how one cantherefore interpret this to mean that as far as peo-ple in those days were concerned, they were con-scious of their surrounding areas as being close tothe main parts of the city. This hinterland nowconstitute part of the heritage, the ‘garden land-scape’ as Prof. Yamasaki called it, that exists on theoutskirts of Kyoto today. The cultural significanceof the city centre, on the other hand, culminatedin such traditions as the Gion Festival.

Kyo-Machiya, the Kyoto TownhouseIn the Kamakura era, with the withering powerof the emperor and imperial court, the social standof urban merchants in Kyoto began to grow al-though their social status in the social hierarchywas low. By the 13th century city areas betweenMuromachi and Nishi no Toin Street had devel-oped to a flourishing trade and merchandise cen-tres. The residents of Kyoto were independentlyworking artisans and urban merchants and notbound to the land as peasants in the countryside.Free trade evolved. Urban blocks and streets thathad shops, began to be called as ‘machi’ and thetownhouses along them as ‘machiya’. Kyo-machiya,a townhouse which combines dwelling and shops,became the most common building type in Kyotoand also, one of the urban keys for Kyoto’suniqueness.

Traditional industries developed in Kyoto un-der conditions that were favourable to the pro-

duction and distribution of high-class consumergoods. They served not only people associatedwith the imperial court but also numerous head-quarters temples of Buddhist schools and sects, aswell as the headquarters of art schools for teaceremony and flower arrangement, and other ar-tistic activities in the service of the court andreligious institutions. When the central govern-ment was moved to Edo (the present day Tokyo)in 1603, the wealth of Kyoto became dependenton the Nishijin silk textile industry. The growthof the Nishijin silk textile industry and Yuzen dye-ing industries created the basis for the wealth ofKyoto and allowed Kyoto to continue to flour-ish as a national centre of production for finehandicrafts.

City Centre with Multiple CoresThe city centre of Kyoto, which consists of thehistoric grid-plan area and some historic urban-ised areas outside it, is characterised by small andmedium sized traditional industries such as theNishijin silk textile industry, Yuzen silk dyeingindustry, Kiyomizu pottery industry and the dis-tribution function of the Muromachi kimonowholesale district. In these areas there is a con-centration of people engaged in similar industrieswho live and work in certain geographically lim-ited city areas taking different roles in the produc-tion process from design to manufacturing andwholesale functions.

The basis for the decentralised urban patternwas created in the Tokugawa era with its highlydeveloped group-coordination and skills in co-operation, which are not only distinct features ofKyoto’s silk textile industry but for all Tokugawaera culture as, for instance, Edwin O. Reischau-er has noted.14 The group coordination meantthat every individual working phase in the pro-duction process was carried out by a differentgroup of specialised people so that each groupfocused on a relatively narrow field in the proc-ess such as design, weaving, painting, or carry-

FIG.12 (OPPOSITE PAGE) VIEW FROM SHIJO STREET. SHOP SIGNS AS STREET FURNITURE. RS.

46

ing half-finished products from house to house.There were even different makers for the differ-ent parts of kimono such as obi designers orthose who were specialised in making kimonostring. This developed system of productionprocess created the basis for Kyoto’s crafts andskills and thus, for the outstanding artistic qual-ity of the kimono craft and other handicraft. Inthis research the author will present a number ofsuch highly specialised kimono artisans andcraftsmen involved in the kimono productionsuch as kimono merchants, wholesale dealers,dyers, gold painters and kimono designers.

In the Tokugawa era with its general increasein national productivity and improvement in tech-nology, the chief consuming areas were the greatcities such as Osaka and Kyoto, each of which hada population of upward of 300 000 people. At thesame time, by the early 18th century, Edo had apopulation of at least a million and may have beenthe largest city in the world at that time. Despite

Edo’s leading economic role, most of the domainsin western Japan maintained economic agenciesin Osaka, which became the major entrepôt fortrade in that part of the country, while Kyoto re-established its position as the religious and culturalcapital of Japan, a position it still holds today.

During the 1860s, Japan’s first decade of for-eign trade, a silk blight in Europe created a strongdemand for Japanese silk and silkworm eggs. As aresult Japan developed a favourable balance oftrade with West. In the 1870s, Japanese silk entre-preneurs adopted the relatively simple process ofreeling silk by mechanical power thus producinga more uniform silk thread, superior to that ofother Asian countries. This small innovation gaveJapan the lion’s share of the silk market in theWest, and silk was to remain its largest export untilwell into the 20th century. 15 In Kyoto, the Nishi-jin silktextile area played a leading role in adapt-ing modern weaving machine techniques andnew technologies that were imported to Japan

FIG.13 CITY CENTRE AND THE 35 YAMAHOKO

NEIGHBOURHOODS. SCHEMATIC ILLUSTRATION OF THE

TRIANGULAR SHAPE OF THE RYOGAWACHO, ‘ON BOTH

SIDES OF THE STREET NEIGHBOURHOOD’, PATTERN. YT.

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from Europe creating the basis for new innova-tions in design and productivity.

Even today, as Prof. Mimura has noted, the tra-ditional urban structure of Kyoto is characterisedby multiple urban core districts of a medium scale,which together constitute the whole inner city.16

In other words, instead of a concentration of cen-tral city functions in a single city core, Kyoto hasmultiple cores and there are many traditional in-dustries in and around the historic city centre. TheMuromachi area with its concentration of kimo-no trade quarters is a typical example of these. Thespecial feature of these core districts in Kyotounlike many other world city is that these coredistricts are based on and continue to concentrateon some special handicraft skills or traditionalactivities.

Description of the Survey Area andthe Hoko NeighbourhoodsIn the city centre the thesis focuses, as describedabove, on the thirty-five city neighbourhoodsknown as Yamahokocho or hoko neighbourhoods.The location of the neighbourhoods is dominat-ed by two, partially contradictory characteristics:

1) The hoko neighbourhoods as part of the city’smodern commercial and business district. The core ofthis area is the crossing of Shijo and KarasumaStreets. The area is characterised by a large con-

FIG.14 A ROW OF TRADITIONAL TOWNHOUSES IN THE

SURVEY AREA. SHIJO STREET, KAKKYOYAMACHO . RS.

FIG.15 VIEW FROM SHIJO STREET. RS.

glomeration of banks, financial institutions anddepartment stores, such as the renowned depart-ment store Daimaru and representatives of someof the Japan’s largest banks and companies suchas Mitsubishi, Sakura, Sumitomo and Sanwa. Thelocation of the survey area in the Shijo-Karasu-ma district adversely affects land prices in the areaand thus indirectly, efforts to conserve the urbanheritage.

2) The hoko neighbourhoods as part of Muromachikimono wholesale district. The area is one of the city’straditional urban cores and one of the major cen-tres for Japan’s kimono merchandise and trade.Powerful urban merchants such as the house ofMitsui became established in the hoko area in the17th century. The original site is still owned bythe family in Rokkakucho. The wealth of the areagoes back to the Tokugawa period. It was theurban merchants who were in many ways theprime movers in Tokugawa culture and the largecities, Osaka, Kyoto and Edo, which dominatedthe culture of the period.

As part of the Muromachi area the hoko neigh-bourhoods take a highly traditional role. The wealthand sophisticated kimono culture of the area cre-ated the basis for such cultural traditions as theGion Festival. In both of these roles the hoko neigh-bourhoods are associated with unique artistic andcultural traditions. Besides the distribution andwholesale function, the hoko area exhibits a varie-

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ty of other kimono manufacturing functions suchas kimono design and dyeing as well as other tra-ditional industries such as making of traditionaldolls, fans, kimono accessories etc.

In Japanese literature the life of a traditionalkimono artisan has been described, for example,by Yasunari Kawabata. In his novel he observes,among other things, the cultural clash that existsbetween modernity and traditional craftsmanship

through the eyes of Kyoto’s traditional kimonofamilies. The Gion Festival and the hoko area playan important part in the book.

The survey area was lined by Imadegawa Streetin the north, Karasuma Street in the east, Hori-kawa Street in the west and Matsubara Street inthe south. The general outline of the survey areain the city structure is shown on the location map,Fig. 1.

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The Evolution of Kyoto’s Townscapeand the Rakuchu-Rakugai PaintingsThe aesthetically sophisticated and homogeneoustownscape of Kyoto as we know it now developedrather late, in the late 18th century, but was thenall the more sophisticated. The necessary prereq-uisites were created by the long peaceful periodafter the civil wars and the growing wealth of themerchant class. The builder-carpenters, who cre-ated the sophisticated architecture of the upper

Chapter 5

The Lattice Koshi Facade andEvolution of the Unified Townscape

class of earlier periods, now moved into the urbanconglomerations to serve the rising merchant class.The carpenters creating the new urban architec-ture were proud of their professional skills. Theywanted to build as if their houses would ‘neverburn down’.20 An important step in the develop-ment of the Japanese building code took place in1633 when the Office of Carpentry was set up.This institution established an unique Japanesebuilding code, the kiwari system. Through this

FIG.16 KAMAKURA PERIOD TOWNHOUSE. WT.


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system all architectural details, materials and di-mensions were exhaustively standardised through-out Japan (although there were local differences).

The major source of information on the evo-lution of the wooden facades and townscape be-fore the Tokugawa era in Kyoto are the Rakuchu-Rakugai paintings mentioned above, in chapter 4.These paintings were done between the middle ofthe 16th century and the end of the 17th century.These pictures depict, literally, as their name indi-cates, landscapes and urban scenes ‘inside and out-side the capital’. Number of Rakuchu-Rakugaipaintings are represented within the Screen Festi-val itself. They are among the most valuable his-toric screens that are found in the festival anddepict, among other topics, the celebration of theGion Festival.

Although the Rakuchu-Rakugai pictures are notprecisely dated, it is possible to date the eventsdepicted in the paintings on the basis of templediaries, which record major fires etc. The oldestpainting is thought to be the so-called Machidaillustration that probably dates from the first halfof the 16th century (1525). There are similar paint-ings in the possession of the Uesugi and Takahashifamilies. These paintings were done after theMachida illustration, but they show similar topicsand themes.

What is of particular interest to us here, is thatthe Rakuchu -Rakugai paintings were painted in aperiod when an overall view of the city becamepopular as a main painting theme. This is one ofthe first times that systematic illustrations of city-scapes began to be depicted. Before the Rakuchu-

Rakugai paintings the Heian period streetscape canbe found depicted, for example, in such famousillustrations as the Nenchu Gyoji E Maki (‘ScrollPaintings of the Annual Events’) published in thesecond half of the 12th century. In general, suchpictures were, however, few.

A very good (and probably the most authori-tative) analysis in English of the development ofKyoto’s townscape based on the analysis of theRakuchu -Rakugai paintings is provided by Prof.Yamasaki in his recent book.21 The descriptionbelow owes much to his analysis, as well as to thelectures given by him on the subject in the KyotoUniversity.

The City and its Outskirts - OneEntityIn the Rakuchu -Rakugai paintings the city centreand the suburban areas, in other words the historicgrid-plan area and mountains that surround Kyotoand the verdant countryside, were painted as oneentity. This symbiotic view of the city and itssurroundings emphasises, as has been analysed, thesymbolic and spiritual meanings which in Kyotowere already attached to the landscape and moun-tains in the countryside in early times. This sym-biotic view of the city was dominant during thefollowing centuries. It was not until after the mid-dle of the 18th century, when illustrations beganto appear where the city and nature are treated asindividual topics.

Another noteworthy fact is that the main an-nual events and the four seasons were painted

FIG.17 HEIAN PERIOD TOWNHOUSE. WT.

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within one picture and seasonal events were al-ways depicted in the same places and landscapes.Thus such places as Takano were always paintedin winter or autumn with maple trees. Likewise,the city centre was depicted in summer seasonwith the Gion Festival. This is one proof of thecultural significance of the urban festival sincecenturies.

Evolution of the 16th and Early17th Century TownscapeIn the Machida edition ordinary townhouses areplain wooden structures with only one floor. Thehouses follow a standard pattern: the buildings arelined up in an orderly way and their ridges areparallel to the streets. The width of the house isfrom 6.7 to10 metres. The roof is covered withwooden boards. Narrow bamboo poles have beenlaid in pairs in a grid, with a rock placed wherethe poles intersect. The entrance to the house is asimple opening in the wall. The wooden framingaround the opening resembles a torii gate, whichis commonly seen in Shinto shrines.

The shops are open to the street with a mise-dana, sales stand. This has been described as theorigin of the battarishogi, a sales bench that canbe lifted up, a fixture that is still seen in some ofthe houses studied (such as the Kojiro Yoshidahouse in Rokkakucho, described in chapter 21).The openings of the townhouses have a thickwooden sash and their base is at door level. Theopen wall pattern that plays an important role inthe Screen Festival, was thus one of the basic

urban patterns in Kyoto probably already in theHeian period.

The elegant wooden latticework facades weredeveloped much later, in the Tokugawa period.Many roofs are seen with projecting walls, udat-su, to isolate the roof of adjoining buildings incase of fire and also, to prevent rain from penetrat-ing the gap between buildings. Compared to theHeian period townscape there is considerabledevelopment in the wall treatment. For the firsttime there are plastered walls in the cityscape. Itis not until the first half of the 17th century, thatthe upper floor appears in the townscape, but inthe beginning it is still very low. One pictorialillustration from this period records a house withtwo floors and a terrace, but the house is with-out the canopy between the ground and upperfloor that later became one of the elegant char-acteristics of the Kyoto townhouses and town-scape.

Different types of roofing materials appear inthe cityscape. Roof tiles, as a result of the pervad-ing peace and improvement in the economic cir-cumstances of the citizens, become common. Dif-ferent styles of roof tiles are used in increasingnumbers, but wooden boards are also common.Later, following the great city fire in the Tokugawaperiod, the central government prohibited the useof wood as a roofing material. As a result, roof tilesbecome the dominant roofing material even in theordinary townhouses. Thin tiles became commonin the middle of the Tokugawa period. Today theelegant tile roofs are one of the distinct features ofthe Kyoto townscape.

FIG.18 HEIAN PERIOD TOWNHOUSE. WT.

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The Kaleidoscopic Edo PeriodTownscapeThe evolution of individual facade elements canbe observed, for example, in the Ikeda illustrationin the middle of the 17th century. The design hasevolved and together with the evolution in dye-ing techniques, colour appears in the townscape.Noren, slashed and dyed curtains, which are hungoutside the doors and which in earlier illustra-tions were black and white, are yellow and blue.Manmaku, large decorative cloths with the fam-ily crest, which are even today seen in front offacades on such festive occasions as the ScreenFestival, become colourful. Canopies appear asnew building elements between the ground andupper floor. The technique is known as hisashi-tsukuri: literally the construction of lower eavesor canopies.

Blue, ochre and yellow colours appear in thetownscape. Different wall surfaces are painted withdifferent colours in the same building. In the town-scape there are two storied houses but also narrowtowers with three floors (which Yamasaki called ‘athird floor for one person’). Also, some storehousesare three storeys high. In the fire-proof structuresthe wooden structural frames are completely plas-tered over.

The lively eclecticism of the period gets its ins-piration from such structures and architecturalstyles as the Katsura Villa, the Hiunkaku pavilion,the Manshu-in temple and the elegant sukiya sty-le. The design of the famous Kyoto Sumiya, a houseof a lordly entertainment in the western part ofthe city, mostly dating from the 18th century, ishighly representative of this playful aesthetic. It isone of the few buildings of the period, which hasbeen preserved up to the present day. The kaleido-scopic Edo period townscape is surprisingly dif-ferent from the images we usually have of Kyotoand the aesthetic integrity which is characteristicof later periods. Lattice doors and windows appearin the townscape in the middle of the Tokugawaperiod, but at the beginning only on the upper flo-or.

Towards a Unified Townscape Sincethe Latter Half of the 18th CenturyA change towards a more homogeneous and uni-fied townscape takes place relatively late, in themiddle of the 18th century, when linear perspec-tive appears in the illustrations of streetscapes.The first painter to introduce such pictures,kairokeikan, was Uta Maruyama (1760) a famousKyoto-based painter. Apart from being a newmethod of drafting technique, which is said to havebeen introduced to Japan from the West, the newmethod of visualisation opened up an entirely newway of looking at the city. Until then a streetscapewas always seen from above and the townscape wasdepicted using parallel lines as in the Rakuchu -Rakugai paintings. The new visualisation techniquebrought the viewpoint down to ground level.

At the end of the Tokugawa period the designgains homogeneity and elegance in a way that wasunknown before. From this period onwards, theupper storey is still low, but all townhouses have astandard ornamental opening in the upper floor,mushiko mado, a plastered lattice window (literally:‘insect window’). This becomes one of the aes-thetic foci of the wooden-framed townhouses.

On the ground floor there is a wooden latticework-facade, with its movable and standardisedlattice koshi partitions. The well-proportioned andfinely crafted lattice facades give elegance andcharacter to the whole townscape. The streetscapeis of great architectural integrity. The design be-comes more and more elaborate. Although thelower eaves still have wooden roofing, becausesupporting the heavy tiled roof has not yet beenresolved technically, the townscape is very simi-lar to what we now know as characteristic ofKyoto and praised for its superb aesthetic quali-ties. This unified townscape evolved in a veryshort period of time, after a creative period ofeclecticism when all kinds of styles and designmotifs flourished. It is this late Tokugawa eratownscape that we know consider as the typicalKyoto townscape.

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FIG.19 (ABOVE) STREET FACADE OF SHINKAMANZACHO. THE SUGIURA AND OKAO HOUSES AND THE COMMON FACILITY

OF KAKKYOYAMACHO ARE INDICATED IN THE DRAWING. MEASUREMENT DRAWING BY THE AUTHOR.

FIG.20 (BELOW) STREET FACADE OF SHINKAMANZACHO . THE SUGIMOTO SITE IS INDICATED IN THE DRAWING.

MEASUREMENT DRAWING BY THE AUTHOR.

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City Fires in the 19th Century andthe Evolution of the ModernTownhouseThe elegant and homogeneous townscape wasdestroyed in the great city fires in the Meiji era.In the big city fire which took place at the begin-ning of the Meiji period in 1864 almost all woodentownhouses in the city centre were burned down.Only few city quarters were saved. The woodentownhouses, which we see today, are virtually allbuilt after that period.After the fire, in the Meijiperiod, a modern townhouse evolves. In thesewooden townhouses there is still a continuity oftradition and the Edo period carpentry techniquesare still much alive. This is illustrated by such struc-tures as the design of the Gion Ichiriki, a famousrestaurant in the Gion part of the town and also,in the design of the Sugimoto house, one of thekey structures in this work.

After the Second World War, and at a growingpace particularly after the mid-1960s, with radicalchanges in the construction industry and city plan-ning standards, the historic townscape and

wooden-framed facades begin to undergo majorchanges. During the war the ornamental windowsin the upper floor, mushiko mado, are prohibitedbecause they are regarded as unsafe access ways incase of fire. This is one of the reasons why theseornamental openings are today found only in a fewwooden-frame facades. In our survey area, as wewill see below, in most facades the ornamentalopenings have been replaced by ordinary glasswindows and in many cases, with standard alu-minium frames.

After the war, prefabricated aluminium win-dows and doors, new wall-surface materials andother new architectural materials and details addto the visual turmoil of the wooden-frame facades.In some traditional houses the whole facade is de-signed as if it were a large shop sign. Some of thecharacteristic features of the traditional carpentryand craftsmanship are however, still very muchalive. Among them are the elegant tile roofs as wellas a number of traditional carpentry elements suchlattice windows and doors. These are separatelystudied and analysed through our field survey inpart VII, chapter 19.

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Japanism and Interpretations ofJapanese ArchitectureIn addition to the scrutiny of the subject of study,new cultural research sees the researcher’s ownsubjective self as a factor affecting the content ofthe work. Culturally conditioned attitudes andvalues affect the course of study and, thus, its con-tent. The position of a European researcher inthe Japanese cultural context is not entirelyunproblematic. A concept that needs to be ana-lysed is ‘Japanism’ through which Western ideasand concepts have influenced our idea of Japaneseculture and architecture.

Western architects have defined Japanesearchitecture from the beginning of the 20th centu-ry and our understanding has by and large beenshaped by those early views. These definitions havebeen geared towards geometric and abstract aes-thetic observation and have given less attention tosuch values and properties of Japanese architectureas decorative details, spatial properties dependent onthe observer and the meanings attached to Japanese

Chapter 6

The InterpretativeEnvironment of the Work

architecture. These features, combined with certainspiritual attitudes manifested in Japanese culture, arehowever, an essential part of the Japanese view ofthe world and Japanese aesthetics. Architect ChrisFawcett has sharply observed the matter when heanalysed the ritual patterns of a Japanese house:

“…The Japanese house ... appears monstrous to us, ifnot outright miraculous, for these specimens are presentedto us in arty volumes which eschew any reference to thehome culture which succoured them and without whichthey could no longer be. That a Japanese house does notappear grotesque and outlandish to the people who livein it, should be enough of a warning - the house doesnot exist as something unto itself but engages in a dai-ly exchange of social, economical and ritual gestures, andany attempt by the Western architect to try to come toterms with the Japanese house must start from this ba-sic anthropological understanding”.22

Japanese architecture is known in Europe mainlythrough the pioneers of modern architecture. Yet,

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FIG.21 THE YAMAMURA RESIDENCE IN ASHIYAKAWA, KOBE. ARCHITECT FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT. RS.

as architect Arata Isozaki has pointed out, thesearchitects have, in their functional analysis andaesthetic interpretation of Japanese architecture,developed an approach that elevated the actualarchitecture to the realm of myth.23 Above all,Isozaki meant that we are inclined to observe theJapanese environment through our own Westernstereotypes and abstract concepts. These inherit-ed observation models still burden our view ofJapanese architecture even though they have beenquestioned several times.

An avowed ‘Japanese’ quality in Wright’s work,for instance, declared to be self-evident, has alwaysbeen taken for granted as corroborating his infat-uation with Japanese art. In fact, this notion hasbeen carried so far from the mere influence ofprints, over the years, as to conclude in a quasi-reconciliation for many between the character ofJapanese traditional architecture and the revolu-tionary proposals on which Wright’s own spatialorganisation is based. David Stewart, for instance,in his critical analysis of Wright’s position on Ja-pan, has questioned this resemblance as ‘nothingcould be more of a mistake’.24

Furthermore, Rikiya Koseki has pointed out thedifficulties that Bruno Taut experienced when hetried to interpret and explain the characteristics ofthe Japanese house and life in European rational,systematic thinking. The main point of criticalargument in Koseki’s analysis is that although Tautcame very close to the Japanese concept ofproportion (Beziehung), he actually never used the

Japanese word tsuri-ai equivalent to ‘proportion’ inhis analysis of Japanese quality of space. 25

To avoid such basic cultural misunderstandingsthe author discusses the cultural background ofthe urban festival using those Japanese terms thatJapanese researchers themselves considered to beof importance and through which they describedthe cultural context of their own work. The ex-ploring the concept of heritage in a cultural con-text different from our own is, likewise, anessential part of the analysis of this research.

The Problematic ‘Otherness’Working in a different culture, not necessarilyJapanese, one unavoidably has to face thephenomenon Kristeva called ‘the experience ofotherness’ - working in a community and yet notbeing its fully authorised member. Japan, in par-ticular, is known to reject people, who are notmembers of their own group. Those who areoutside the group, belong according to Vesterin-en, who has observed the Japanese group-consciousness, to a special category of human re-lations. Even those who have lived in Japan formany generations and speak Japanese as theirmother language, are regarded as outsiders andthey might experience difficulties in becomingaccepted as full members of the group.26

Thus, the opinions of a foreigner, if listened to,are rejected or not taken seriously, since theycome from outside the group. To take only one

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example, the answer that the author was given ina meeting of the Architectural Institute of Japanwhen the author referred to the problems of ur-ban conservation in the hoko neighbourhoods, was‘shikata ga nai’; meaning ‘nothing can affect theway things go’. In the symposium the author actedas a member of a Japanese research group. Theother participants were Japanese architects.

The marginal position of a foreign researcherin the research community, on the other hand, isnot an especially Japanese feature, but is recordedand observed in many other places as well. In fact,Kristeva herself based her book on the experienceof this kind. It is clearly a mistake to try to offersolutions to situations where they are not willinglyreceived. The Japanese are reluctant to receive andtolerate dissenting views because dissidence bre-aks the group’s harmony. This feature is so prom-inent that it has even been seen as one of thereasons why Japan should develop a truly vigor-ous scientific culture of its own.27

Cultural differences can be defended if theyreveal a hidden or a meaningful side of a traditi-on or if they open up new tracks for interculturaldialogue. The world, however, has become small-er and more uniform, communication has in-creased and the changing values caused bymodernisation have spread everywhere. The sameproducts and brand labels encounter us every-where. Town planning that leads to the desertionof historic city centres, commercialisation andcommodification of cultural heritage and masstourism are connected to modern culture, not itsJapanese character in particular.

The neglect of a cultural viewpoint is as lim-iting as a view of Japan as ‘exotic’. If one wantsto avoid distorting reality with generalisations, thehistorical, cultural and social differences must betaken into account, but they must not be observedas separate phenomena. The author opposes anattitude towards Japanese culture and society thatleaves things Japanese completely outside Westernunderstanding. More than once I have heard anexpression: ‘Great, but it has nothing to do withus’. In fact, both East and West obstinately holdon to the difference between their cultures. In-

stead of accepting the diversity and richness ofmany cultures one only recognises one’s own.Seen in this context, a strong identity, whateverits nature, is ‘somehow awkward and old-fash-ioned’, as the Estonian poet Onnepalu put it.28

Regardless of who defines the objectives forpreservation, there is no authority with the powerto force others to preserve traditions against theirown will. A set of theses and questions can still bepresented, however. It is irrelevant how thesequestions are answered. Postulating the theses ismore important. Put in this way, the questions andtheses are in fact, much more; they help to iden-tify who we ourselves are and why we are doingthis work.

The Values of a Traditional ArtisanIn his work The Unknown Japanese Craftsman(1982) Soetsu Yanagi, a Japanese critic of indus-trial art, has dealt with questions connected tocraftsmanship in modern culture and the harm-ful aspects of modernisation and industrial capi-talism especially for Japanese traditional crafts.29

Yanagi is among those few members of Japanesesociety who warned of the destruction of Japan'surban and architectural heritage when thetransformation process of the urban environmentshad hardly yet begun. In his book Yanagi providesa sharp analysis of the modern sensibilities attract-ed by machine-made beauty and traditional hand-icrafts regarded as being out of date.

According to Yanagi modern values based onindividuality are alien to traditional craftsmanship.The craftsman refuses to submit to contemporaryvalues and beliefs which would mean an end toeverything he considers valuable. The craftsmanoperates on his own terms and it would be impos-sible for him to accept contradictory values.30

Therefore in the modern world, the artisan is nolonger an integral part of society and will even-tually lose his identity. The artisan is often seen byoutsiders as a relic of the past, contrary to the wayhe sees himself.31

Yanagi has named the experience achievedthrough the wisdom of generations an aggregate

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that can lift an individual above the limits cre-ated by his own mind. Poor and illiterate crafts-men were powerless alone, but supported bytradition, they were able to produce wonderfulworks of art. The breathtaking beauty of theseworks was not due to ingenuity but tradition. Foran artisan, tradition was both a saviour and abenefactor. The difference between the talentedand the less talented was meaningless in a tradi-tional society. Anyone could produce a work ofart that fulfilled all expectations. Thus the highartistic quality of artefacts was not a result of thepersonal abilities of an artisan, but of the wholeculture and society that surrounded him.Tradition, inherited skills and materials protecteda craftsman against mistakes and created the basisfor his professional skills. These traditional valuesare still the cultural basis for the kimono silktextile artisans as encountered in Kyoto and inthe hoko neighbourhoods.

Furthermore, the objects made by artisans hadanother important characteristic. They were util-ity objects made for use. The works made by ar-tisans were (and still are) primarily made for use.32

An outstanding example of such utility objectsapart from screens in the screen display traditionare the colourful and artistic kimonos that havekept their high symbolic value in Japanese socie-ty right up to the present day. The commodifica-tion of culture, treating art and antiquity asmerchandise denies the value of these authenticworks, thereby encouraging their disappearance.Later in this work, the author will pay attentionto the significance of continuous everyday use ofbuildings and artefacts for the definition of her-itage.

The Academic World and theKimono ArtisanIn addition to observing our own methods ofperception, it is necessary to discuss the relation-ship between the Japanese researcher and his sub-ject of research. Japanese culture or society shouldnot be understood as a homogeneous whole.Moreover, it consists of many subcultures whose

traditions unite only small groups of people.33 Thecultural differences between separate classes inJapanese society are equally large or even largerthan those between a Japanese and a Finn work-ing in the same profession. Traditional culture andartisans, which in the thesis are represented by theYamahoko kimono families and the academicworld, represent two different groups of modernsociety. Their values and customs are everythingbut unified.

Hierarchically orientated town planning whichoperates from the top down increases prejudicebetween residents and experts such as academicresearchers and heritage authorities. The research-er may have a distant way of approaching people,motivated by academic interest, rather than anhonest interest in his subject of research. Thisdanger was inherently present during the Yama-hoko programme. A kimono salesman bored withsuch a state of affairs said:

“...Every year there is another group asking the samequestions and taking the same photographs, but nobodyever hears of any reasons for the research or what theoutcome has been.” 34

It was characteristic of the efficiently orientatedresearch team that photographs seldom showedmembers of the kimono families, who were of-ten astonishing personalities with their elegantkimono costumes. Moreover, the photographswere often strictly limited to empty rooms orfestival objects. When the Japanese publisher in-sisted that people should appear in the photo-graphs, they turned out mainly to be members ofthe research team wearing traditional costumes.

When the subject of research is too complexor difficult to understand, the researchers frequentaim is to stabilise or justify one alternative as theonly way of thinking. ‘Truths’ or generally accept-ed arguments such as the ideas of modern cityplanning are, in the final analysis, products of acertain discourse. In other words, they are histori-cally determined and recognised. One way tomake the study appear objective and non-com-mittal is to write ‘a story of the past’. The histor-

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FIG.22 MR. SUGIURA, KIMONO ARTISAN. SHINKAMANZACHO . RS.

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FIG.23 FESTIVAL DECORATIONS IN SHINKAMANZACHO BEFORE THE SECOND WORLD WAR IN THE 1940S. SS.

ical facts are stated, but not their connection tocontemporary life or to us. The emphasis is on thepast instead of the present. Another way is to givean abundance of detailed information. This dan-ger was also present in the Yamahoko programmewith its excessive focus on historical details com-bined with the monolithic Japanese academicsystem with a minimum of analytical, critical dis-cussion. Historical facts are important, but not tothe point of being an end in themselves.

The explanation for the lack of cooperationand communication between social groups hasbeen analysed as lying in the Japanese social stru-cture. Japan is known to be a vertical society with

no horizontal relationships among groups. Eve-ryone works in his or her own field.35 Artisans anduniversity scholars traditionally represent twoopposite worlds. The universities were foundedduring the Meiji era as a part of Japan’s wester-nisation process. Their purpose was, and still is, toproduce civil servants for the state bureaucracyand private sector companies designed accordingto the European model.

Hierarchical thinking also prevails in the re-search world. Group consciousness is a vigorousfactor and multi-disciplinary projects do not usu-ally succeed.36 For example, many small researchgroups work in their own special fields like town

4

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planning or cultural heritage. There is nocooperation between separate groups, nor is thereany interest in, or even awareness of, the work ofothers. Although this trait was obviously presentalso in the Yamahoko programme, the programmewas, on the other hand, rather exceptional by Jap-anese standards because of its character as a jointproject between several universities and institu-tions.

If the attitude of residents was prejudicial, theposition of the academic researcher was notmuch better. The traditional houses as rudimentsof a pre-modern way of life may give rise tofeelings that the houses and people who live inthem are somehow inferior, that our world is somuch better than theirs. But residents were,however, important members of the researchgroup. This is because the Japanese evaluatemembers of their group on an emotional basis,rather than a rational one. The researcher, on theother hand, may lose some of his arrogance whenfacing the simple and refined style of these eve-ryday buildings that, superficially, may appearbare and unpretentious. At least, they must seethe elegance that far surpasses everything thatthey can find in their own, commercialised eve-ryday environment.

The Cultural Background of theUrban FestivalWe can recognise the characteristics consideredimportant and worthy of attention by certaintraditions, if we think of the vocabulary used bypeople when describing and analysing the eventsor objects of an aesthetic experience. When weget to know the meaning of the words we alsolearn what is considered important in a particu-lar culture. Aesthetic and cultural values are thustransmitted through language.37

The two Japanese concepts, which were essen-tial in the Yamahoko programme and throughwhich the Yamahoko team described the cultur-al background of the urban festival were hare andke. Hare expresses something generally beyondperception. It is often translated as ‘clean’, ‘bright’

or ‘clear’. Matsuri, the festival, and everything re-lated to it, is an expression of hare space opposedto the everyday space of ke.

Recently, for instance, Fred Thompson has an-alysed the matsuri concept and its consequencesto the Japanese concept of space, based on his ownexperiences in the Kakunodate festival in theAkita Prefecture. His article which was publishedin 1996 in Arkkitehti (‘The Finnish ArchitecturalReview’; nos. 1; 2/3) and in which he comparesthe Japanese and Western concepts of space, is veryilluminating.

In Europe the Japanese concept of space hasbecome known especially through the concept ofma. This concept has been a topic of several anal-yses during recent years. According to the maconcept, that which in the Western spatial con-cept is empty, may in the Japanese sense be dense,spiritual space.38 In Japan, space did not exist apriori, but it was seen as identical with things ex-isting in time. In other words, space was recog-nisable only in relation to the passage of time andthus as something, which space and function pro-duce together. This Japanese spiritual and nature-based concept of space is significantly differentfrom the modern spatial concept which strictlyseparates space from nature and time.

In a Japanese traditional house, no distinctionis made between the ordinary and profane, andthe sacred. A room, a part of a room or the wholehouse can be temporarily sanctified with certainrituals or religious ceremonies. Temporary spir-itual symbols such as a Shinto shrine or a Bud-dha altar may be placed in the room. Ordinaryobjects like a paper lantern of a certain shapemay be used as symbols. When the decorationsare removed and stored away the space returnsto its original use. The Japanese concept of spacealso explains why a Japanese town may from theoutside appear chaotic and complex, and yet,seen from the inside, prove to be a well func-tioning stage for social life. Symbols shared andrecognised by the community act as guidingsigns.


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FIG.24 A MODERN BUILDING DECORATED FOR THE

FESTIVAL. OLD AND NEW MEET. RS.

FIG.25 URBAN FESTIVAL THAT FAVOURS ACCIDENTAL

MEETING BETWEEN PASSERS-BY. RS.

The Temporary Character of theFestival SpaceA space used during the festival is not remarka-ble in itself, merely an ordinary room decorated- sometimes even quite superficially - to serve aceremonial purpose.39 The basis for everything isthe ordinary, everyday space. Thompson, for in-stance, has remarked how the route chosen for thefestival procession usually differs physically fromthose used everyday. This applies well to the dis-play tradition also, where rooms and spaces oth-erwise unseen or inaccessible to public view aredecorated and thereby given entirely new mean-ings and functions.40 During the festival weeks thefestival exhibitions and festival floats are changedto purified objects trough special decorations andrituals and thus given the status of a religiousobject. In other words, the festival exhibitions areregarded as temporary shrines, not as ordinary artexhibitions or museums. Decorating the display rooms during the fes-tival can be compared to dressing up in a brightand beautifully coloured kimono during the fes-tival nights as a contrast to the more monotonousand uniform dressing of everyday life. It is popu-lar in Japan, especially for young people, to weartraditional costumes during the festivals or theNew Year season. Colourful combinations of cot-ton kimonos that are seen in the Gion Festival, arein themselves exquisite works of art.

The author observed a religious ritual that wasenacted in front of a Shinto altar, temporarilyerected in a modern banking hall. Likewise, amodern ground floor flat served as an exhibitionroom for the Toroyama float. Many of the exhi-bition buildings owned by the hoko neighbour-hoods are used as ordinary tenant dwellings orrented for other purposes outside the festival time.Renting the buildings is one way of financing thefestival. Nor are these cult buildings different inappearance from ordinary townhouses. Moreover,they may appear even more unpretentious. Whenthe town community was small, the cult buildingswere also small.41

Until the Meiji era and the westernization proc-ess that took place at that time, there was seeminglya lack of town squares in Japanese cities. Stonemonuments were also relatively rare. In Japan theclosest equivalents of these monumental places areperhaps the successions of public spaces found inthe Shinto shrines or Buddhist temples with theirlong, elaborately designed approach routes. Buteven the monumental places, which are found inthe environment of great temples and other reli-gious buildings, has to be experienced primarily bywalking through these spaces, not only by lookingat them from a fixed point.

The temporary and vernacular character of thecult buildings is largely different from the Europe-an tradition where festivals and ceremonies haveusually been located in monumental town squares

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FIG.26 STREET DECORATIONS IN ASHIKARIYAMACHO . THE THREE SCREEN DISPLAYS IN THIS NEIGHBOURHOOD:

YOSHIDA (1), AOKI (2) AND YAMADA (3) ARE INDICATED IN THE MAP. DRAWING BY THE YAMAHOKO TEAM.

THE FESTIVAL FLOAT IN FRONT OF THE COMMON FACILITY (OKAZARIBA). YT.

and public spaces specifically designed for thepurpose. The temporary character of urban cultbuildings such as the common facilities in the hokoneighbourhoods may also explain why they haveonly seldom been discussed as special heritagestructures to be preserved.

During the last few decades, along withmodernisation and changing traditions, theJapanese spatial concept has moved towards thefixed Western spatial concept of ‘one room - onefunction’. Rooms with tatami straw mat flooringusually have no specific function and can be usedequally easily as parlour, study, dining or bedroomwith the simple arrangement of the few accesso-ries each use requires. In modern flats, on theother hand, the use of spaces is generally tightlylimited and mixing the functions is consideredundesirable. The function of a townhouse in thecity structure has also changed. Nowadays hotels,banqueting halls rented for weddings,42 res-

taurants, theatres and museums have largely tak-en over the functions earlier performed in privatehomes. The urban festival, however, is one of theoccasions where the flexible and temporarycharacter of a traditional space emerges, not onlyin old houses and antique structures but in mod-ern spaces and buildings as well adding to thecultural significance of the urban space.

Urban Festival that FavoursAccidental MeetingArchitect Masuhiko Hayakawa, who studied thescreen display tradition in the late seventies andwhose investigation the author uses below as animportant source of reference, referred to thehome display tradition by the Japanese term de-ai no matsuri: a festival that favours accidentalmeeting between the displaying person and a ran-dom passer-by.43 In a traditional society where

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human behaviour was regulated by a strict hier-archy and etiquette, the possibility of an acciden-tal meeting had a completely different meaningfrom that in the modern society.

Traditional Japanese women did not leave thehouse but resided deep in the inner parts of thehouse, so that they almost became part of thedarkness and shadows of the house. In this worldapart, as, for instance, Louis Frederick has noted,

“the feminine sex was sometimes kept socially so remotefrom men that brothers could grow up knowing noth-ing at all about their sisters”.44

As famous is the passage in Tanizaki’s novel InPraise of Shadows (1989) where Tanizaki describeshow a Japanese woman with her blackened teethwas almost as if she were an organic part of thedarkness of the house. Even now, during the Yama-hoko programme, one woman interviewed said

that she did not go outside the house much becauseof her inability to indulge in social small talk.45

In the display performance there is an invisi-ble gulf between the displaying person and theviewer. De-ai means a momentary crossing of thisgulf. Incidents that hold the possibility of such ameeting create a momentary illusion of belong-ing to something. Even today we can have thatexperience of the momentary illusion when thescreen displays and traditional home interiors sud-denly appear before us in the midst of a modernmetropolitan town. The unfortunate thing is,however, that in fear of damage done to the val-uables, more and more kimono homes have be-gun to close their doors to public view. Also, thereis an increasing number of window displays andthe intimate contact between the displaying per-son and the onlooker is lost. Below, the author willinvestigate the gradual change in the urban andcultural patterns of the displays.

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The Legislative Structure VersusLocal ContextIn Japan there is a set of city planning regulationsand laws, which are not specially intended orplanned for the historic environment, but whichdirectly or indirectly affect development and for-mation of it. All these laws which are coded un-der the Japanese Building Standard Law, take intoconsideration local circumstances and contextonly to a limited extent.46 Thus there are manylegal concepts that do not coincide with localvalues. Most of these laws emphasise technical orhygienic aspects such as fire protection, earth-quake resistance and light angles. There is overemphasis on material values and a minimal refer-ence, if any, to heritage or cultural values.

One such important group of laws are the reg-ulations concerning fire protection and safety. Inthe urbanised areas, cities and in other regionswhere a fire easily causes great damage, there is azoning system of fire prevention districts so as toprovide extensive safety measures. This zoning is

determined under the city planning law. Buildingsin fire protection districts must, in principle, be offireproof construction. According to these codes,except for some national monuments and specialdistricts, the use of wood as a major constructionmaterial is prohibited. In practice the whole citycentre of Kyoto is designated as a fire preventionzone ( Jun Booka Chiiki) and thus as an area wherethe use of wood as a construction material islargely limited. The consequences of such rules onthe heritage, which was based on and still largelydepends on the skilful use of wood, can only beguessed at.

In Kyoto every wooden building, which ismore than 13 metres high, is illegal according tothe fire-proof standards.47 In the case of repair orrestoration work, a building of over 13 metres inheight can in principle be demolished as illegal,even if it is of great historic or antique value.According to Japanese law any restoration or ex-tensive repair is equated with new construction.Buildings that are preserved by law are outside

Chapter 7

City Planning Policies and theHistoric Grid-Plan Area

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FIG.27 PARKING TOWER UNDER CONSTRUCTION IN 1992. IN THE

FOREGROUND SHOP FACADES IN KAKKYOYAMACHO, ONE OF THE

SURVEYED NEIGHBOURHOODS. RS.

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these regulations. In the case of other woodenbuildings (and they are numerous), special permis-sion must be obtained from the Ministry of Con-struction for these buildings to be preserved andnot demolished.

Because of the fire prevention system thatshows an obsession against wooden buildings, lo-cal carpenter skills in wooden construction areslowly disappearing. Reinforced concrete andsteel structures are becoming more and morecommon, not only when rebuilding and build-ing new, but also in repair and restoration work.This trend can be observed even in historic pres-ervation areas. In the Gion Shimbashi area thereare now buildings where wooden facades de-signed in a traditional style hide modern steel orreinforced structures inside. Existing townhousesand temples with their wooden architecturaldetails are in these circumstances doomed to bemere parodies of their former selves as, for ex-ample, Prof. Yamasaki has noted.48 The prevail-ing perception that modern buildings with steel,concrete and glass represent advanced lifestyle, isin Japan exceptionally strong. After the Kobeearthquake it might be even more difficult topromote the construction of wooden buildings.Most of the buildings that were ruined in thecatastrophe were ordinary wooden townhouseswhile the new high rise buildings were left al-most intact.

Only an increasing ecological awareness and arevival in the use of traditional materials couldchange attitudes towards wooden buildings. Manyof the existing wooden milieus and narrow lanes,which are characteristic of the historic city cen-tre, are actually illegal according to the fire pre-vention standards because the buildings are toonear each other. On the other hand, the regula-tion that is applied only to new construction haspartially helped to preserve the narrow lanes intheir old shape. One such well-preserved histor-ic urban environment (Shinkamanzacho) wasmeasured and surveyed as part of our fieldwork,(see part VII, chapter 19). It is estimated that thenumber of such narrow wooden lanes existing inthe central area is more than 5000.

In addition to the city planning legislation oth-er legislation also affects the willingness to pre-serve and maintain the old building stock. Thus,close ties exist between planning and regulationson the one hand and the taxation system on theother. They both influence the operation of theland and housing market. In particular, the inher-itance tax system has a substantial impact on thehousing market and thereby, influences the atti-tudes of the Japanese in the preservation of theirhouses. One of the most flagrant examples of thedisastrous effects of the inheritance tax on thevalues of land is the Hanamikoji geisha area inGion. The tea houses in the Gion area are locat-ed on tenant land, the surface area of which is ap-proximately seven hectares. The land is owned byone landowner only. In 1992 the rent of the landwas 1000 yen/tsubo (one tsubo, 3.78 sq. m.) amonth. However, when the owner of a teahousedies, the tax is paid according to the virtual priceof the land. In 1992 the virtual price of the landwas estimated to be 14 000 000 yen/tsubo. Almostall geishas are aged and many of them are overeighty years old.

The high inheritance tax may also be one ofthe reasons why residents in the hoko area werenot very eager to speak for the preservation oftheir houses, even when they had carefully main-tained and repaired the old house. Because of thehigh prices of land, the inheritance tax is especiallyhigh in the city centre and in the hoko neighbour-hoods. Japanese architect Kan Izue has remarked:

“…It is not reasonable of machiya residents to patientlylive in such uncomfortable places and be required to payhigh inheritance taxes. It wouldn’t be unfair for the lo-cal government to compensate them because they arehelping to preserve our tradition”. 49

Unconscious values and attitudes also play a pow-erful role. The prejudice against the pre-modernlifestyle has affected the way people think aboutor esteem their houses and sites. What is consid-ered of lesser value or even valueless can be moreeasily destroyed. Diane Durston has estimated thatwhile half of the population is enthusiastic about

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preserving the traditional character of Kyoto, theother half sees the old wooden dwellings as anom-alies that have outlived their time.50

Attitudes towards Heritage VersusModern LifeThe drawbacks of traditional building technolo-gy and the poor repair of many traditional hous-es do not make the preservation question easier.Kyoto's wooden townhouses are built of unpaint-ed wood and are usually two storeys high. In thesummer the light wooden partitions with mova-ble paper panels are a very attractive combinati-on. “It is like living in nature in the middle of the

city,” as one resident commented to me.51 In win-ter, however, these houses are cold because of thelight building technology and the lack of insula-tion. Heating these houses is expensive so that therooms are not heated continuously. In some tra-ditional houses the cold winds blow through theopen partitions in the upper part of the interiorwalls. The houses also burn easily. Furthermore,the lifestyle has changed. Younger people are tallerthan their parents and the use of Western stylefurniture has increased the amount of interior fur-nishing in the house.

Most of the old townhouses need repair andeven partial rebuilding to suit the needs of the eld-erly and ageing population. As many old houses

FIG.28 THE BUILT FABRIC OF KYOTO

AND THE PRE-MODERN URBAN CORES

SUCH AS THE MUROMACHI KIMONO

WHOLESALE DISTRICT ARE

SHOWN IN THE MAP. RS.

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particularly in the urban tenement type buildingstock lack well-equipped bathrooms and othermodern conveniences, the improvement of hous-ing standards will be one of the major tasks facingthe owners in the future. Furthermore, a real prob-lem is the reluctance of the owners to rent out theirproperties, fearing the traditional power of tenants,whose rights increase with the years until it is of-ten virtually impossible to evict them. As a conse-quence, many old houses stay abandoned or empty.

The amount of traditional architecture in ba-sic university courses is minimal.52 The youngergeneration seems to find it almost impossible tounderstand why anyone coming from outside Ja-pan could be interested in Japanese traditions. Thisphenomenon is well known and it has been calledthe Japanese version of the ‘not-invented-here-syndrome’. Nothing invented in Japan can begood53 - at least until Western approval has vali-dated it. In the 1920s an internationally acclaimedauthority, the German architect Bruno Taut, wasneeded to tell the Japanese how the badly dilap-idated Imperial Villa of Katsura ingeniously por-

trayed all the values the pioneers of modernarchitecture were searching for. Since those times,things have not changed much.

Perception of Place and ChangingMeaningsCompared with Japan’s traditional image abroad,general attitudes within Japanese society towardsthe traditional culture are contradictory, especiallyconcerning the way of living. Particularly after theMeiji restoration handicrafts and traditional in-dustrial arts declined and there was a sharp lossof beauty in all crafts. Traditional wooden housesare generally considered unfit for modern lifestyle.The life span of a house is generally consideredto be 40 years even in the case of reinforced con-crete buildings, after which the house will usual-ly be rebuilt regardless of its technical conditionor the values it actually represents.

An acquaintance of mine, a young Japaneselandscape architect, described the Japanese wood-en townhouses as genki-ga-nai, which means di-

FIG.29 ILLUSTRATION OF THE TOWN PLANNING REGULATIONS, YATACHO . THE SUGIMOTO HOUSE IN THE FOREGROUND. RS.

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lapidated, whereas old Finnish wooden housesseemed to her to be genki, well tended andhealthy.54 Most of the Japanese people I knew didnot consider traditional living to be tempting inany way, apart from those few who had inheriteda wooden house. Only very few had deliberatelychosen to live in one. The massive prefabricatedhousing production industry, with its highly de-veloped and industrialised ready-made houses, isa central factor in the Japanese economy, involv-ing nearly all the major Japanese companies.

Perception of place and historic identity are dy-namic and vary between groups of different so-cial and cultural backgrounds. This may createproblems when changing meanings come intoconflict with unchanging physical forms. In Kyo-to, the pre-modern concept of neighbourhood isburdened in many ways and seems for manyJapanese to be connected with times when tightpolitical pressure and control were easily exertedin closely knit communities. The Americanoccupation army ended the system after the Sec-ond World War, since it was considered to havefanned the enthusiasm for war. That is partly whythe pre-modern phase of urban history has beenwidely disliked and it has only rarely become thetopic of academic research.55 Modern town plan-ning lacks the concept entirely. The pre-modernconcept of neighbourhood is, however, not entire-ly out of use but still operates in a form of coope-ration between people living, for instance, in thehoko neighbourhoods. In the hoko area, the systemwas not limited to traditional townhouses, but ap-plied to modern blocks of flats as well.

City Planning Directives and theHistoric Grid-Plan AreaAfter the Second World War, Japanese society wasdirected towards modernisation and city-planninglegislation was aimed to serve the same purpose.The key principles of urban policy, even in suchhistoric places as Kyoto, were largely determinedby modernisation, general legislative structure andaccepted standards of modern town planning.Historic preservation, if it existed at all, was mostly

concerned with maintaining the infrastructureand the basic features of the gridiron layout. Withthe exception of a few areas, continuous main-tenance and care of the existing environment hadno place in the legislative system and in the cityplanning procedures. Prof. Yamasaki has com-mented on this state of affairs in the followingway:

“… It seems that there was very little resistance to thoseplanning procedures from among the more historic cit-ies and consequently, the same new set of values per-taining to modern city planning were applied carteblanche over the whole country and in time, even be-gan to affect Kyoto”.56

Modern town planning in Japan does not recog-nise or acknowledge the value of the urban her-itage, which exists in the historic grid-plan areaand which, de facto, is regarded as if it did not ex-ist. This tabula rasa principle is not entirely un-known even in European countries and hasactually led, for instance, in the late 1960s and ear-ly 1970s to the destruction and degradation of thetownscapes of many Finnish wooden towns. InJapan the idea that new buildings should contin-ue old wooden building traditions in the spirit ofthe historic environment was, and still is, an en-tirely foreign concept. In Kyoto an obvious factis that the present construction policies favourspeculative development projects completely un-connected with the historic environment they areoperating in - precisely the kind of developmentthat do the most irreparable damage to the placeand the cultural identity of the city.

The Master Plan 1983The key document in defining land use and build-ing ratios in Kyoto during the past 20 years hasbeen the master plan that was enacted in 1983.According to this, city areas around the majorstreets of the city centre such as those in the Sijo-Karasuma and Shijo-Kawaramachi areas weredesignated as a Central Business District (CBD).Central commercial/business districts are areas,

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which concentrate key commercial/business fa-cilities such as financial institutions, departmentstores and the main office functions of all typesof businesses. In these areas the plan strove to re-tain the street plan of the historic city area but italso accepted replacement of old buildings, par-ticularly buildings bordering the grid layout ofmain streets, with high rise buildings of modernstandards.

In the plan, the existing wooden building stockand everyday buildings were given considerationonly in the sense that major urban developmentand land readjustment target areas were plannedoutside the historic city centre. Although thepolicy has been partially successful in preventinglarge-scale urban renewal operations where wholecity areas are razed for new developments or

conglomerations of high-rise buildings, it has notprevented a continuous transformation process ofindividual sites.

The only limiting thing has been the general-ly small size of the construction sites and thecomplicated ownership conditions. According toa municipal survey 41% of sites in the city centreof Kyoto were between 100 and 200 sq. m. and12.7% of sites were smaller than 50 sq. m.57 Fur-thermore, the average size of building sites in Kyo-to (approximately 300 sq. m.) was notably smallercompared with other Japanese large cities andmetropolitan areas such as Osaka and Tokyo ingeneral. However, even the extremely small sizeof the construction sites has not been able to pre-vent a radical reshaping and change of the city-scape. As one result of the narrow building sites

FIG.30 SHINKAMANZACHO. A NARROW URBAN LANE

THAT IS ILLEGAL ACCORDING TO THE FIRE PREVENTION

STANDARDS. ONE OF THE THREE NEIGHBOURHOODS THAT

WAS MEASURED BY THE AUTHOR FOR THE SURVEY. RS.

FIG.31 URBAN TRANSFORMATION PROCESS

PROGRESSING IN THE CENTRAL AREA. BECAUSE OF THE

LIGHT ANGLE REGULATIONS, THE HIGH-RISE BUILDING

MUST BE RECESSED FROM THE STREET LINE. RS.

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are now the absurdly narrow high rise buildings,that stick out in the historic neighbourhoods ofKyoto in the midst of the otherwise horizontalwooden town. One example of such narrow highrise towers and the damage caused to the cityscapecan be seen in Fig. 31.

In 1945, in the aerial photographs taken afterthe Second World War, 92% of buildings werewooden. Now, in the historic grid-plan area thereare city neighbourhoods that have no woodenbuildings left. In 1989, altogether 6441 woodentownhouses were demolished in that year alone.As the old saying goes, “it only takes a day todemolish an old house”. Since the end of the1980s whole city quarters have begun to move in-to the hands of real estate investors. Toroyamachois one such historic hoko neighbourhood, whichhas been razed for empty parking areas so thatonly a few old buildings remain. According toarchitect Riken Yamamoto:

“…If no effort is made to preserve the building herit-age (of Kyoto), the transformation process will destroythe traditional cityscape sooner than we think”.58

Durston has recorded an interesting, although inmany ways, controversial struggle that tookplace in Tokusayamacho, another hoko neighbour-hood.59 The battle arose when one of Japan’s larg-est real-estate developers announced their plans toconstruct a massive high-rise apartment buildingamid the wooden frame houses of the neighbour-hood. To prevent the company from executing theirplans, the residents made a request to the city gov-ernment for a city ordinance that would restrictbuildings in the Yamahoko area to 20 metres inheight. Although the task failed, it was one of thefirst occasions when the residents tested the citygovernment over the restriction of building rights.The residents also demanded that the tenants of thenew building to sign an agreement to participatein the Gion Festival. They could not, however, pre-vent the construction of the high rise buildings.

FIG.32 URBAN TRANSFORMATION PROCESS IN PROGRESS. OLD HOUSES ARE DEMOLISHED TO GIVE WAY TO A

PARKING PLACE. TOROYAMACHO, ONE OF THE HOKO NEIGHBOURHOODS. RS.

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The Grid-Plan Area after theSecond World WarDuring and after the Second World War manylarge Japanese cities experienced dramatic changesbut Kyoto had a period of relatively stable growth.Kyoto was the only large city, which was sparedthe destruction of the war. During the 1960s inthe period of intensive growth of the nationaleconomy, there were many who feared that Kyotowould be left behind. They advocated large-scaleindustries and raised expressways even in the im-mediate vicinity of the historic city centre. His-toric preservation, if it existed at all, was a far cryfrom the realities of everyday life. In one schemethe old buildings were emptied of their inhabit-ants so that the historic structures could be fur-nished as museums. Karasuma Street was linedwith high rise buildings that reached the skyline.60

According to Dr. Tapio Periäinen, who stud-ied in 1962-63 at Kyoto University, Departmentof Architecture, in this period there was no con-cept of urban preservation in Kyoto. City plan-

ning was dominated by prevailing Western ideas.61

The citizens, however, refused to take this path.Industrial policy was focused around the promo-tion of traditional industries and small and medi-um-sized enterprises. The measures which weretaken for the city centre and its immediate sur-roundings were effective in promoting balancedand internally generated growth. Due to theseefforts Kyoto has been able to maintain both thehighest population density and the largest popu-lation ratio within the central area of all the Jap-anese metropolitan cities.

Since the 1970s living conditions in the citycentre and the historic grid-plan area have dramat-ically worsened. Large-scale building investmentsby nation-wide companies and investment cor-porations fleeing the high land prices in Tokyo haveconcentrated in the historic city centre. The in-crease in the price of land has driven small andmedium-size enterprises and ordinary residentsoutside the central area. During the constructionboom of the 1980s when the price of land, the

Chapter 8

The Profile of CurrentCity Development

78

‘crazy land price’, reached its peak in Tokyo, theincrease in the value of land in the city centre ofKyoto was the highest in the whole of Japan. Bythe beginning of the 1990s the price of land hadtripled compared with prices before the boom.

This has influenced the level of inheritance tax,among other things. Before the constructionboom, the Authorised Land Price (ALP) on whichthe inheritance tax is calculated, was lower thanthe real land price. Now, although the land pricehas come down, the authorised land price, whichmoves more slowly than market prices, is at ahigher level than the real land price.62 This has hada negative effect on the willingness to keep andmaintain the old building stock. It has also in-creased land speculation.

The author accomplished a survey on the de-velopment of land ownership in two hoko neigh-bourhoods, Yatacho and Shinkamanzacho duringan 80-year period 1912-92. According to the sur-vey the character of land ownership was largelydifferent now from 80 years ago. The large, pre-modern land ownership had collapsed and landownership was much more fragmented now.However, particularly in Yatacho, inherited landeven today played an important role. Many of theold landowners continued the kimono trade,which added to the socio-economic stability ofthe neighbourhood. In opposition to Yatacho, inShinkamanzacho the activity in the sales of landhad increased since the 1980s and with it, landspeculation had began to play a growing role. Ofthe 18 sites, which changed ownership during thesurvey period, 61% of the land was purchased byreal-estate developers who were not living on thesites. In addition, with oscillating land prices, nineback-lane sites changed ownership three times in1990-91. An Osaka-based developer now ownsthem.63

In the 1970s the major targets of city planningwere focused outside the historic city centre, inthe new town areas which were planned aroundthe suburban areas of Kyoto. In this period newhousing production took place mainly outside thecity centre. Since the 1980s the focus of newhousing production has changed and it has begun

to move from the suburban areas back to thecentre. During the five-year period 1987-1991 atotal of 963 new multi-storey apartment buildingswere built in the city centre of Kyoto.64 In 1990the total number of multi-storey residential build-ings in the city centre totalled 1678 buildings. Inother words, a significant number of all multi-storey buildings has been built in recent years.

Exact information about the volume and pro-file of new housing production is available in a re-port published by the Housing Bureau of KyotoCity in 1992. The statistics below are based on thisreport.

The Profile of Housing Productionin the Late 1980sThe dominant feature of housing production wasthe building of ‘one room mansions’. These weresmall apartments for single persons. In addition,the number of expensive small luxury apartmentsgrew.65 For the most part, housing production wascarried out in the name of providing badly neededaccommodation. In spite of Japan’s high industrialproductivity, Japan’s housing market is still in manyways characterised by a considerable amount ofhousing poverty. Prof. Hayakawa has, for exam-ple, described the general housing conditions inJapan in terms of ‘overcrowded housing’, ‘longdistance commuting’ and ‘environmental destruc-tion’.66

In Kyoto, land speculation promoted the con-struction of high rise apartment blocks, whichwere built, as Prof. Yamasaki has ironically noted,with the very scenic land they had been built ongiving them extra prestige. This was particularlyso with regard to sites in close proximity to en-vironments of historic value. Family apartmentswere mainly built outside the city centre.

Furthermore, since the middle of the 1980sthe construction market was dominated byapartments for rent.67 Before this, in all dwell-ing statistics the number of owner occupiedapartments was larger than the number of ten-ant apartments. As a result of the land specula-tion which has taken place in Kyoto since the

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era of the ‘bubble economy’, 15% of Kyoto’sresidential accommodation was unoccupied in1994. There was also plenty of empty officespace.68 Our observations in the sample quarterscoincided with the trend (see part VII, chapter19, fieldwork no. 2).

The rocketing land and property prices, highinheritance tax and high rents have become a bur-den to those who live in the historic city centre.The value of land is on the land, not the houses,as Barry B. Greenbie has noted.69 Even for thosewho want to continue their living in the citycentre, it is often too expensive. For those own-ing land the sudden rise in the value of land com-bined with the Japanese taxation system has meantin fact that their heirs have faced the prospect ofhaving to pay hundreds of millions of yen in in-heritance tax. The inheritance tax was listed in theMimura survey that is more carefully describedbelow, as being one of the primary causes for theimpossibility of passing on traditional structuresto succeeding generations.

Public investment policies, changes in theurban transportation system and the rapid trans-

formation of the urban fabric have weakened thetraditional inner city structure and have encoura-ged the transformation of Kyoto into a city witha single core. The state of equilibrium betweenland use and the built environment has begun todisintegrate. One example of the tragic conse-quences of the current development is thecentrally located hoko neighbourhoods. The newmulti-storey buildings that have been built in thearea in the past recent years have not onlydestroyed the traditional townscape but alsoweakened social ties and institutions and thereby,the capacity of the area to keep the Gion Festivalas a living tradition.

The Disintegration of the BuiltEnvironmentWooden architecture was dominant in Kyoto andNara until the beginning of the 20th century.With the opening up of Japan in the middle of19th century, foreign architectural styles, entirelynew building types such as post office, church anduniversity buildings as well as new building tech-

FIG.33 EXISTING WOODEN TOWNHOUSES OF MACHIYA

SHAPE IN THE CITY CENTRE ACCORDING TO THE

MIMURA SURVEY (MIMURA ET ALS., 1991.) THE HOKO

AREA IS MARKED BY CIRCLE.

80

nologies were introduced to Japan. This broughta new element to the traditional cityscape. Brickand stone became common as building materials.The number of these buildings remained, how-ever, low. Moreover, the new buildings were wellintegrated in the traditional townscape. Theirdesigns originated with their foreign prototypes,but they were realised by Japanese builders, name-ly traditional carpenters and house fitters. DavidStewart, for example, has given a good analysis ofthe Meiji era architecture in Japan. According tohim

“…What is nowadays known as ‘Meiji-architecture’(and as such, studied for its own sake), was a versionof contemporary post-1850 European practices, butwith certain idiosyncratic differences ongoing to Japa-nese variations in climate, technology (or lack of it),and local customs. Many of these Meiji era structuresare now important cultural properties and their valueis generally if not always acknowledged and recog-nised”.70

The new brick buildings that were built in Japansince the end of the last century were not strongenough to resist earthquakes, as had been hoped.In the great Tokyo earthquake in 1923 the brickbuildings that had been built in large numbers inthe Ginza area of the town collapsed like cardhouses with only a few exceptions that were saved.One of these brick buildings was Frank LloydWright’s Imperial Hotel building in Tokyo. Thebrick buildings were also impractical in the hotand humid climate of Japan. In residential archi-tecture, wood was the major building materialuntil the Second World War.

After the war a dramatic change in the con-struction industry took place. Reinforced con-crete, steel and glass replaced traditional buildingmaterials. New materials and construction techni-ques removed the obstacles to build earthquakeresistant structures with practically no limit on thenumber of floors. These new buildings began tobreak down the low silhouette of the townscape.In such historic places as Kyoto the damagecaused by these modern high rise buildings has

been even greater than the damages ever causedby the war.

The Profile of TraditionalTownhouses TodayInformation about the current profile of the tra-ditional townhouses, machiya, in the historic grid-plan area is available in a study carried out inKyoto University at the laboratory of Prof. Hiro-shi Mimura in 1991.71 In the questionnaire pr-oblems and research needs concerning the futureof the wooden townhouses were examined froma number of perspectives.

The survey area was bordered by Imadegawa,Sembon, Gojo and Kawaramachi Streets, in oth-er words one of the core areas of the historic grid-plan area and including the hoko area. The sampleof houses to which the questionnaire was sent wascarefully chosen to maximise the results. Therewere altogether 466 wooden townhouses witha well-preserved machiya shape. In addition therewere 271 houses with minor architectural changes.The selection was made as a facade survey. Str-uctures with major changes in the facade wereexcluded.

Questionnaires were distributed to 737 hou-ses and there were 519 (70 %) responses. Theresponses thus covered a notable part of theexisting traditional townhouses. Because thequestionnaire gives useful information from theviewpoint of the thesis, it is referred to brieflybelow.

To identify the current profile of the peopleresiding in traditional townhouses the question-naire investigated the occupational category of theresidents. As an area with a large concentration oftraditional industries72 , there was a high propor-tion of self-employment that is associated withthem. This employment model still surpasses allother occupational categories (33%). In addition,10% of residents were employed in other indust-ries. As a whole, the self-employment pattern washigh. Furthermore, the manufacturing functionwas high, particularly in occupations associatedwith traditional industries.

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The questionnaire focused on three groups ofproblems related to the maintenance of traditionaltownhouses:

1. Which are the problems in upkeep andmaintenance of townhouses?

2. Which are the future problems?3. Which are the necessary measures to be

taken?

The answers given were as follows:

Presently, which are the problems in upkeep and main-tenance of townhouses ?(answers in more than one class accepted)Repair and rebuilding costs are too heavy. 272Air conditioning and other household equipmentdo not work well. 250The plan of the house and the rooms are incon-venient. 231Humidity, and hot or cold temperature make liv-ing difficult. 142There is no garage. 119No problem points. 97Difficulties in finding repair materials and man-power cause troubles. 78

Future problems were expected as follows:(answers in more than one class accepted)There is no money to cover the costs of repairand upkeep. 300Worry of not being able to pay the inheritancetax. 226High-rise office buildings or apartment housesmay be built in vicinity which make the livingdifficult. 199Rise of property tax. 178The house is not suitable for the modern life-style.142Too much traffic in the street in front of thehouse. 100

The necessary measures to be taken:(answers in more than one class accepted)Lower taxes are necessary. 253There should be building regulations to prevent

construction of office buildings for protecting thetraditional cityscape. 219Money should be paid on application to help inthe repairs and restoration of excellent, registeredtown houses. 179It is necessary to support the continuity of the(traditional) craftmanship, materials and construc-tion methods. 119Even within the fire prevention districts woodenrebuilding should be allowed in special cases. 97In any case I want to do as I want. 51City planning regulations should be eased. 28Do not know. 48

As can be seen from the answers, the problemsthat residents mentioned when answering thequestion “What are the gravest problems in themaintenance of the wooden townhouse tradi-tion?” were mostly focused on the technical draw-backs and poor repair of the wooden houses. Half,272, of those interviewed mentioned high repairand renovation costs of their houses. Also, air-con-ditioning and other facilities were old and did notwork well (250 answers) or, moisture/humidity/coldness/darkness (142 answers) were a cause forcomplaint.

When asked what will cause the greatest prob-lems to live in traditional townhouses in the futu-re, the worsening of the city’s environment,unfavourable city development and rise ofproperty tax were most often mentioned. 300 saidthat that there is no money to cover the costs ofrepair and upkeep. 199 said that new high risebuildings may be built near the old buildings andit will be a great disturbance for the living. Asmany as 142 said that the traditional townhousedoes not fit the modern lifestyle.

To the question of what measures should beundertaken to defend the wooden townhousetradition, consideration in city planning regula-tions for more favourable treatment of woodenbuildings was mentioned. Standards and laws re-lated to construction activity were also mentioned.As many as 253 respondents said that lower taxesare necessary and 179 said that renovation andmodernisation of listed buildings should be ba-


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cked by loans and other public subsidies. 219 saidthat there should be building regulations to pre-vent construction of (high-rise) office buildingsfor protecting the traditional cityscape.

In spite of the environmental changes duringthe past recent years and the often poor techni-cal condition of their houses, a majority of

residents were attached to their old houses andtheir quiet way of life. More than half, 62%, saidthat the wooden townhouse tradition is good orit should continue. However, as many as 25% ofresidents said that the machiya tradition has nospecial significance for them and, 13% of residentsapproved high rise buildings.

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Kyoto as a Pioneer of HistoricPreservationBefore the collapse of the Tokugawa governmentsevere social disturbances had occurred in Japanand the persecution of Buddhism had begunthroughout the country. At the beginning of theMeiji era Japan experienced a violent period,when Buddhist temples and statues were destroyedby an anti-Buddhist movement.73 In the Hieitemples of Kyoto Shinto priests threw out antiqueBuddhist statues revered as objects of worship andBuddhist scriptures were destroyed.

After the Meiji restoration, at the end of the 19thcentury, Japan adopted the European value-con-cepts and preservation theories related to historicbuildings following similar efforts that had takenplace in Europe. In the United Kingdom the So-ciety for the Protection of Ancient Buildings(SPAB) had been established in 1877. In Japan thefirst initiatives to preserve historic monuments tookplace ten years later, at the end of the 1880s, whenthe government raised funds to preserve antique

temples and shrines. One of the first antique Bud-dhist monuments to be conserved in Japan was theKofuku-ji temple in Nara. The National Museumof Nara was established in 1895 and in the follow-ing year a law for the preservation of ancient shrinesand temples was enacted.

In Japan’s first phase of conservation outstand-ing antique buildings were the major centre of con-cern. The scope of the law was limited to landmarksin certain ancient Shinto shrines and Buddhist tem-ples, objects that even today dominate the nation-al and local registers of tangible cultural properties.This law was followed by a law for preservingmonuments, places of historical interest and histor-ical landscapes (1919), national treasures (1929) andobjects of art (1933). In 1975 all these national pres-ervation laws were replaced by an umbrella law forthe protection of cultural properties, bunkazai hogoho. This is a systematic law that covers both tangi-ble and intangible properties.

On the municipal level, Kyoto was given theright to register cultural properties in 1981. In

Chapter 9

Historic Preservation in Kyotoup to the Present Day

84

Kyoto 384 buildings were preserved as cultural as-sets in 1987. Of these, 197 buildings were preservedby national laws, 129 by prefectural laws and 58 bymunicipal laws. The majority of protected build-ings were temple and shrine buildings. Five yearslater, in 1992, municipal laws preserved 277 assetsaltogether.74 In other words, the number of pre-served assets had increased quite dramatically. 70buildings were under protection, of which 30 werefound in the historic city centre: 10 in Kamigyo,14 in Nakagyo and six in Shimogyo districts. Inaddition, the list mentioned eight protected areas,which were mainly historic environments and sitesaround the listed buildings.75

From Conservation of HistoricMonuments to Preservation ofLandscapeWhile the focus of conservation was, in the be-ginning, on the protection and preservation ofmajor historic buildings and monuments, the fo-cus has gradually shifted to the protection andpreservation of the historic environment and land-scape.

The Scenic Zones Designation, Fuchi ChikuEfforts to protect the historic landscape that sur-rounds Kyoto in the north, east and west startedin Kyoto as early as 1930 with a city ordinancecreating scenic zones. About 34 sq. km were des-ignated as scenic zones forming a horseshoe ofgreen space around the city. The scenic zones havebeen later gradually extended until by 1981 theycovered 145 sq. km, in other words a quarter ofthe total city area. These key measures which werecarried out at a relatively early stage have guar-anteed the city the beautiful forested backdropthat the mountains surrounding Kyoto provide.76

The Ancient City Preservation Act, Koto niOkeru Rekishiteki Fudo no Hozon niKansuru Tokubetsu Sochi HoA new turn in the landscape preservation move-ment took place with a national law that was en-acted in 1966 and named the ancient city

preservation act. This law was especially aimed atprotecting the cultural landscape and the historiclayers around the three ancient capitals of Japan; inother words the cultural landscape around Kyoto,Nara and Kamakura. As a result of the new lawareas totalling about 60 sq. km were in Kyoto des-ignated as historic landscape preservation areas.

The landscape areas included into the act werefurther classified into two major categories: his-toric landscape preservation areas, rekishiteki f udohozon chiku, and special historic landscape preser-vation areas, rekishiteki f udo tokubetsu hozon chiku,according to their environmental heritage valueand the type of interventions that were allowed,or limited. The historic landscape preservationareas included scenic areas of special cultural his-toric interest such as environs of famous templesand shrines.

At the moment the historic landscape preser-vation areas, rekishiteki fudo hozon chiku, cover al-together 4552 hectares. The number of preservedareas is altogether 12, including such famous land-scape areas as Saga and Arashiyama in the west-ern outskirts of Kyoto; the environs of theKamigamo Shrine and Shugaku-in ImperialVilla in the northern part of Kyoto and theDaimonji and Amida mountains in the easter hills(Higashiyama area). The preservation areas alsocover the historic landscape areas around the Sen-nyu-ji, Daigo-ji, Kinkaku-ji and Kiyomizu tem-ples.

The second category preservation areas designat-ed as special historic preservation districts, rekishitekifudo tokubetsu hozon chiku, cover 1473 hectares andinclude eight cultural landscape areas: the Higashi-yama, Ohara, Kurama, Takao, Saga-Arashiyama, Ka-migamo-Matsugasaki areas and the historiclandscape area around the Daigo-ji temple.

Preservation of Historic TownscapeAlthough the ancient city preservation act ack-nowledged the value of Kyoto’s environmentalheritage layered in history, what it failed to do,however, was to protect and cover similarly thoseparts of Kyoto, that correspond to the original

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Heian capital, in other words, to the urban fab-ric in the grid-plan area of the town. The changein the concept of historic preservation has tak-en place only gradually and has been coinciden-tal with the social changes of the recent decades.While at the beginning the historic preservationwas an exclusive concept that concentrated onhistoric landscapes and some individual build-ings, it has become an inclusive concept com-prising groups of buildings, urban fabric andeven whole towns. The new development thattook place first on an international level, has af-fected preservation efforts in Kyoto, too.

Because Kyoto was spared by the destructionof the Second World War, the preservation of thetraditional cityscape in Kyoto has taken on a spe-cial historical significance. In the grid-plan areaand in the immediate vicinity of it, the value con-cept was in the early 1970s widened to includesuch things as the preservation of the historictownscape and also representatives of urban quar-ters and rows of traditional townhouses and theirstreetscapes. The Kyoto urban landscape ordinance,Kyoto shi shigaichi keikan jorei, enacted by the citygovernment in 1972, was the first Japanese legis-lation that brought protection to pieces of the

FIG.34 URBAN CONSERVATION

IN KYOTO. THE MAP SHOWS THE

LANDSCAPE PRESERVATION

AREAS TOGETHER WITH OTHER

HISTORIC PRESERVATION AREAS.

CPD, REDRAWN BY SARI BERG,

ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY THE

AUTHOR.

86

built urban fabric. The law protected certain partsof the grid-plan area such as the historic environsaround the key national monuments in the citycentre. The law restricted building heights andauthorised the creation of certain areas as histor-ic preservation areas.

The Aesthetic Areas, Bikan ChikuThe regulations were aimed to protect environsaround major key national monuments in the cen-tral area by limiting the height of new buildingsaround them. The aesthetic areas were classified intwo categories depending on the historicalimportance of the preserved object. According tothe regulations, the height of new buildings aroundthe major monuments such as the imperial palaceand Nijo palace was limited to 15 metres. The pres-ervation radius was 100 metres. The law also tookinto consideration historical landscapes and viewsof the eastern banks of the Kamo River and also,the historic townscape at the foot of the easternhills (Higashiyama). In these areas the height ofbuildings was limited to 20 metres.

The Height Restriction Areas, KyodaiKosakubutsu Kisei KuikiMore than half of Kyoto’s built urban core hasbeen designated as areas with special control overbuilding heights. The ordinance limits the maxi-mum height of buildings in the city centre to 31metres and in maximum to 45 metres. The mainobjective of the ordinance was to prevent therecurrence of such eyesores in the cityscape as theKyoto Tower, a building of 131 metres height. Thebuilding was built in front of Kyoto station in theearly 1970s. The concept behind the ordinancewas to prevent any building in the city silhouettebeing higher than the pagoda of Toji, which is56 metres high and for centuries the tallest build-ing in the city centre. The area covered by theheight regulations is about 6000 hectares.

The Historic Preservation Areas, DentotekiKenzobutsu Gun Hozon ChikuSince the beginning of the 1970s the value con-cept has been actively widened to include pieces

of urban quarters or groups of traditional build-ings and streetscapes which are found in the builtfabric. This development followed the generalevolution in the international conservation move-ment. Thus, in the United Kingdom the civicamenities act of 1967 legalised the ‘group value’of buildings and acknowledged the importance ofarea conservation. In 1972 the Sanneizaka area(known also as Sannenzaka) at the foot of theeastern hills was nominated as the first historicpreservation district in Kyoto. This fine group oftraditional wooden-frame buildings is part of thetraditional pilgrim routes of the Kiyomizu tem-ple. It was the first urban area in Japan to bepreserved by law. Sanneizaka was followed byGion Shimbashi in 1975, Saga Torii Moto in 1979and Kamigamo Shakemachi in 1990.77

In 1975 historic districts or rows of traditionaltownhouses became eligible for subsidised protec-tion under the national law that defined groupsof historic buildings as a new type of culturalproperty. These areas are known in Japan as na-tionally important preservation areas that consistof groups of traditional buildings, kuni no ju yonadentoteki kenzobutsu gun hozon chiku. Because of itsactive role in urban preservation, in 1979 Kyotowas granted the award of the Institute of JapaneseArchitects for its pioneering work in urban con-servation. In the beginning of 1990s the historicpreservation areas were further extended to in-clude a number of new preservation areas such asFushimi outside Kyoto, Honganji-Shimabara inthe central area and parts of the Nishijin silk tex-tile district.

Critical Evaluation of TownscapeRegulationsThe success of the townscape regulations thatwere created for the preservation of historicenvironments in the grid-plan area has been onlypartial. In many areas the regulations have notworked as expected. Examples of this are, for in-stance, the aesthetic areas. Although in its timeprogressive and an important step towards preserv-ing the historic townscape in the built urban area,

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the success of these regulations has been onlypartial. The regulation that limits the height of thebuildings to 20 metres is not nearly enough toprotect the historic townscape where most of thebuildings consist of low, one to two storey woodenbuildings. Thus, many new high-rise buildingsblock the traditional views of, for example, theDaimon-ji hill when the landscape is viewed fromsuch famous sightseeing spots in the city centreas the antique bridges of the Kamo River. Con-struction activity also endangers environments ofgreat symbolic value such as the historic urbanlandscape around the Yasaka pagoda in theHigashiyama area of the town.78

Furthermore, the high building policy, while itdiscusses both immediate and distant visual effectsof the over-scaled buildings, nowhere refers tomore general conditions of dwelling environment,such as, for instance, privacy, the consequences ofunexpected shadows and views and the possibledamage caused to historic structures and environ-ments by the construction of new ones. Moreo-ver, there are important spiritual and culturalvalues that are neglected or totally ignored by thehigh building policies.

Traditional Kyoto offered panoramic vistas ofnatural splendour and constant visual contact withthe mountains’ moods and seasons, which sensu-ally enclosed and integrated all elements of thecity. The verdure that surrounds the city and themoods of the changing seasons and climate werethus an essential part of the cultural ‘experience’of Kyoto in a way that might be unsurpassed inother cities of the world. Therefore, the opposi-tion to high-rise buildings is not merely a matterof nostalgic principle. It is largely driven by con-cern for the very survival of Kyoto’s threatenedenvironment and cultural identity. The destructiveeffect of the high-rise policy does not apply onlyto the vistas in the built central area but actuallyeffects more distant areas of the town too, as Ital-ian Prof. Giovanni Peternolli has observed:

“...High-rises destroy the ambience and meaning of thetraditional gardens especially those which used shakkei(borrowed landscape techniques). These gardens are con-

ceived and created in relation to some distant elementin nature (often the outline of a far mountain) thatbecomes an integral part of their ‘experience’...” 79

One such treatened shakkei garden is in the Entsu-ji temple in the northern outskirts of Kyoto withits famous garden views that ’borrows’ the Hieimountain as an integral part of its garden lay-out.The new construction projects that are plannedin this part of the town represent an immediatethreat to these views. Only one insensitivelyplaced and over-scaled building is needed to makeirreparable damage and destroy cultural values thatfor centuries have been admired and cared for.

New Building Code and the KyotoHotel ProjectIn 1988 the city government passed a new build-ing code for the city centre, that has rather wors-ened than improved the preservation situation.The new code relaxed the civic ordinance limit-ing the height of buildings in public spaces to amaximum height of 60 metres. In addition, thebuilding code granted builders a bonus. The grosscube was increased by nearly a third provided that20-30% of the ground floor of the building wasused as public area. Public parking, for example,was counted as such area. The height relaxationwas applied to sites over 1000 sq. m. in area. Whena typical site in the city centre is usually signifi-cantly smaller, the reform deliberately aims to joinsmaller sites together. Because of the small size ofthe construction sites, it is difficult, if not impos-sible, to use the gross cube to its full potential.80

On the other hand, the small size of the build-ing sites in Kyoto is one result of the historic landdivision system and as such, one of the featuresthat international lists and charters generally con-sider as one of the essential features, that shouldbe preserved. It has until now effectively preservedthe cityscape from the most radical urban transfor-mation operations and thus indirectly helped topreserve the architectural and urban heritage ofthe ancient capital. It is also questionable wheth-er public parking can serve as successful public

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space. The obvious aim of the relaxation of theheight rule can thus only be a radical reshapingof the town centre to allow free construction ofnew over-scaled high-rise buildings.

One of the precedents for the new buildingcode was the rebuilding of the Kyoto Hotel at thecrossing of Kawaramachi and Oike Streets in frontof the city hall. The hotel project, which is billedas the ‘finest traditional hotel in Kyoto’, drew vi-olent opposition during its planning and con-struction. Among the protesting groups of citizenswere Buddhist priests, who were worried aboutthe destruction of their landscape views.81 Thenew hotel building blocks traditional views espe-cially around those Buddhist temples and tradi-tional landmarks that are located in the easternmountains. The massive and ugly hotel buildingis not only disproportioned with surroundingstructures but through such buildings the townalso gradually loses one of Kyoto’s loveliest aspects:the vantage that once allowed everyone views ofthe opposite mountains from any edge of the city.

Another, perhaps even more controversial,project is the Kyoto station project with its 470metres length and 59 metres height. Whatever thearchitectural pretensions and qualities of thisbuilding (designed by Japanese architect Hiroshi

Hara, who won the first prize in an Internationalarchitectural competition) might be, its hollowmassiveness and dimensions quarantee that theresult is a vast incongruous wall of dead concretein the middle of a city where moderation and re-strained elegance were the ruling principles ofdesign even for such monumental buildings as theimperial palace. The new station building has alsoradically changed the hierarchy and views aroundsuch national monuments as the Higashi Hongan-ji temple in front of the Kyoto station.

The loosening of the height restrictions islikely to result in further destruction of the builtfabric and at worst, to the disfigurement of themorphology of the urban quarters that are stillrelatively well preserved. The land developmentthat has taken place, for example, in ShinmachiStreet behind the Sugiura site since the fieldworkwas carried out, is only one example of the un-fortunate consequences that may result fromsuch proposals. Behind the Sugiura site there isnow a new multi-storey building with eightfloors and the neighbourhood building was razedto make way for a parking plot. The result ofsuch operations is nothing less than a gradualdestruction of the urban morphology of theancient capital.

FIG.35 KAMIGAMO SHAKEMACHI. ONE OF KYOTO’S HISTORIC PRESERVATION AREAS WITH RESIDENCES FOR SHINTO PRIESTS. RS.

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Fig. 36 illustrates the hierarchy that existedamong buildings of different heights in the tra-ditional Kyoto townscape. The Sugimoto house,representative of the height of ordinary, everydaybuilding stock, is illustrated on the left. The ma-jor religious symbols of the historic townscape, theYasaka pagoda and the five-storey pagoda of Tojiare, with their respective heights, also depicted inthe figure. The purpose of the figure is to showthe consequences that the implementation of thenew building code and the over-scaled buildingswill bring to the city and the entire townscape.The planned 120 metres height for the new Kyo-to station building can be seen in the figure leftof the Kyoto Tower. Thanks to opposition by thecitizens, the height of the final project could,however, be limited to 59 metres. The building isstill three metres higher than the five-storey pa-goda of Toji, Kyoto’s major historic landmark.

Selective View of Heritage and theConservation of Everyday BuildingsWith the expanding urban conservation activitiesthat have taken foothold especially in Europeancountries, there are critics who have began todoubt if we are even conserving too much of ourheritage. According to Peter J. Larkham there nowexists a ‘conserver society’ that creates its ownlandscapes and is particularly manifest in the rapidgrowth of the conservation movement worldwide.82 Although the ‘conserver society’ is now a much-discussed concept in the perception of heritageand our attitudes towards past, the concept is,however, most valid in the western cultural cir-cles. Present day Japan can hardly be described insuch terms.

Until now, with the exception of historic mon-uments, only very few everyday structures havecome under protection in Japan and in even thosecases, the buildings have been mainly preserved asmuseum objects. Even in Kyoto, where the citygovernment has been sensitive to preservinglandscapes and historic neighbourhoods of specialhistoric and architectural value, efforts to preserveless famous and architecturally less distinguished

vernacular buildings and architecture have beenfew, if any. In the city planning policies and meth-odologies, the preservation and protection of eve-ryday buildings has played a marginal role, if any.

In spite of the many progressive steps in the sys-tem of cultural protection that have been takenin Kyoto in the protection and preservation ofhistoric monuments, there are still a large numberof temples and shrines, which are without prop-er protection. Among the estimated two thousandtemples and shrines which existed in Kyoto in1986, only 193 buildings had been preserved bylaw. In addition, municipal laws preserved 34buildings. Thus, the large majority of even thesemost historically valuable buildings were withoutproper protection and preservation83 .

When resources for heritage evaluation workare limited, the problem of choice becomes veryconcrete. How many and which buildings shouldbe preserved and on what criteria should decisionsbe based? Should the focus be on historical andarchitectural values or should preservation have abroader basis? In these circumstances qualitativemeasures tend to rise to the fore. In particular, thepreservation of everyday buildings becomesproblematic.

Urban Preservation and the KyotoTownhouseIn Kyoto the number of everyday buildings pre-served is far below that of preserved monuments.In 1991, in the list of cultural assets of Kyoto,besides temples and other historic monuments,altogether seven privately owned buildings wereregistered.84 Among them were five ordinarytownhouses.85 Meanwhile it was estimated that inthe grid-plan area alone there were altogether 80000 wooden townhouses left.86

Furthermore, because everyday buildings arenot listed, they have also remained outside any of-ficial financing policies. According to Japanese law,if the property is not registered as a cultural asset,it is outside public subsidiaries. In addition, thebanks and other financing institutions have fo-cused mainly on the financing of new construc-

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tion activities. The failure to preserve traditionalKyoto townhouses and the greatest damage causedto the historic neighbourhoods is most evident inthe historic grid-plan area, the representative ofwhich the hoko area is. As architect GuntherNitschke has noted:

“…Kyo-machiya (typical Kyoto townhouses) have sofar received little attention in the preservation movementto protect historically valuable buildings”.87

Although the concept of historical neighbourhoodwas essential in preserving the historic districts, theconcept has been limited to areas with special ar-chitectural or historical value. Except the Hongan-ji Shimabara and the Nishijin new preservationareas all the historic preservation areas are outsidethe city centre and the historic grid-plan area. Al-though fine representatives of Kyoto’s architectur-al heritage and historic environments, they are allareas which illustrate some specific type of urbanenvironment. Gion Shimbashi is one of the threegeisha areas, Saga Torii Moto and Sanneizaka partsof the pilgrim routes and Kamigamo preservationarea consists of dwellings for the Shinto priests.

The protection of these areas is naturally wel-come but the protected districts concern mostoften outlying parts of the city, which were notand even now not are, in immediate danger in away the urban quarters in more central areas are.Saga Torii Moto and Kamigamo Shakemachi arelocated in rural areas in the northern outskirts ofKyoto with no extensive building pressures com-pared to those areas that exist in the more cen-trally located areas. Moreover, the limitations inthe protected areas leave too many areas forboundless damage. From the viewpoint of theordinary townhouses, which survive in largernumbers in the central area, the protection of afew selected areas is far not enough. To be fullycompatible with city’s history and character, theprotective measures should thus necessarily beextended - to include essentially larger entities ofurban fabric.

At the moment the number of well preservedbut historic everyday environments that are not

listed far exceeds the number of protected envi-ronments. Prof. Yamasaki, who actively contrib-uted to the development of the currentpreservation strategy for the historic preservationareas, mentions in his book published a few yearsago, that in Kyoto altogether 51 such historic en-vironments or groups of buildings and their sur-roundings which were worthy of listing andgreater protection but are now outside any preser-vation and protection measures.88 One of thesehistoric environments listed in the book is that ofthe thirty-five hoko neighbourhoods

Shifting the Focus: Conserving theUrban HeritageAt the present moment Kyoto’s urban heritage isfaced with various threats which all have delete-rious effects on its character and on its life.

With the overemphasis on material values, thecity planners have been unable to identify con-servation and protection of the urban heritageas a potential attraction for the city and its life.This has led to a gradual degradation of livingtraditions and to the deterioration and destruc-tion of the dwelling environment. Limiting thescope of protection to certain carefully selectedareas, the conservationists have been unable tocreate a wider impact that would benefit protec-tion of the urban heritage as a whole. The pro-tected pilgrim routes and geisha areas, they areall aimed at those who are visiting the ‘foreignpast’, promoting the ‘exotic’ and its market val-ues over living tradition.

City planning clauses and regulations thathave dealt entirely with technical controls suchas height constraints, floor-area ratios and lightangles may have worked effectively from the ra-tional point of view. What they have failed to dois to identify the role of urban morphology,building typologies, dwelling patterns and theirdisposition in the urban space, in other words,the whole character of Kyoto’s urban heritage.The unfortunate conclusion that an outside ob-server has to do is that Kyoto seems to sufferfrom an inferiority complex. The authorities

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appear to be convinced that a city without high-rise buildings and skyscrapers is not modern andin pace with demands of times. However, whatmay appear imposing and positive in Tokyo orOsaka, does not necessarily have the same mean-ing in Kyoto with its own special history andbeauty.

The conservation of areas in the city centre(as is the case with our sample quarters), is com-plicated and difficult. The socio-economic andcultural changes must continue. Time cannot behalted and it even should not. In other words, itis a planning situation that renders the assessmentof authenticity and any conservation policy more

than difficult. This should not, however, be re-garded as an obstacle to urban conservation butas an inspiring challenge to develop tailoredplace-oriented and context-oriented urban con-servation methodologies. The problem, evidently,is not to stop the desirable and inevitable mod-ernisation, but to render it compatible with thecity’s cultural heritage and the correspondingresponsibility it imposes. As Prof. Eugene Bendaput it:

“... Many love Kyoto, but love can be blind. Kyotodeserves more - an open eye and a creative commit-ment”.89

FIG.36 SCHEMATIC ILLUSTRATION OF THE HEIGHT OF BUILDINGS IN THE CITY CENTRE. LEFT THE SUGIMOTO HOUSE

ILLUSTRATING THE SCALE OF THE ORDINARY BUILDING STOCK. THE FIGURE ALSO SHOWS THE HEIGHT OF YASAKA

AND TOJI PAGODAS, THE MAJOR LANDMARKS OF THE HISTORIC TOWNSCAPE.

DRAWING BY MASAFUMI YAMASAKI, KYOTO UNIVERSITY.

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The Cultural Significance of theKyoto Townhouse and UrbanHeritageKyoto’s wooden townhouse architecture and ur-ban heritage in the grid-plan area is in many waysunique, both as regards the stages of its citydevelopment and as an architectural phenomenon.Scores of sophisticated analyses have examined theJapanese quality of space and its indigenous build-ing types. In these analyses traditional Kyototownhouse, kyo-machiya, has been a superb exam-ple, which has even affected the concept and de-velopment of modern western architecture. InJapanese architectural history the evolution of theKyoto townhouse, the wooden lattice facade andthe multiplicity of its dwelling patterns are regard-ed as superb examples of elegance unknown inother Japanese cities.

Among Westerners, one of the earliest and keen-est observers of the Japanese townhouse and itsarchitectural qualities was Edward J. Morse whowent to Japan in 1877. In his book Japanese Homes

and Their Surroundings, Morse described the archi-tectural patterns of a traditional Japanese house ina scientifically exact way which for the most partis accurate even today. In his book we can also finda description of the art of screens including theartistic mountings, the elegant silk bags in whichthe screens are kept when not in use.

The position of Frank Lloyd Wright in inter-preting Japanese architecture to Westerners andthe influence of Japanese architecture on his ownarchitecture is well known, although the charac-ter of this influence has also in recent times beenquestioned (as observed in part II, chapter 6, theinterpretative environment of the work). In AnAutobiography, Wright composed what he called “ASong to Heaven”, which deals with Japanese re-ligion, aesthetics and lifestyle. The spiritual lessonsthe East has the power to teach the West thatWright propagated in his writing, turned mainlyon two themes: the Japanese dwelling house andthe lifestyle it engendered, and the print, togeth-er with the subjects it portrayed. Wright definedthe native house in Japan “as a supreme study in

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elimination - not only of dirt but the eliminationof the insignificant”. In addition he noted:

“…I found this ancient Japanese dwelling to be a per-fect example of the modern standardising I had myselfbeen working out”. 17

Beside Frank Lloyd Wright, a well-known andrespected advocate of Japanese architecture wasthe German architect Bruno Taut, who lived andtravelled in Japan in the early 1930s. In the Ka-tsura Villa Taut found all the architectural quali-ties that modern architects had been looking for.In his work People and Houses of Japan Taut prais-es, among other things, the Japanese townhousefor its aesthetic qualities and Kyoto’s prominencewith regard to delicacy and taste. It would not bean exaggeration to say that the great enthusiasmand interest of the modern architects towards Jap-anese architecture and aesthetics that has contin-ued right up to the present day is very much resultof Bruno Taut’s appraisal of this heritage.

‘Living Tradition’ versus ‘LivingHistory’‘Living Tradition’ versus ‘Living History’ are in thisthesis understood as fundamentally different, evenmutually contradictory concepts. By ‘living tradi-tion’ the author means all those cultural practicesand skills that still are an integral part of people’severyday lives in the hoko neighbourhoods. Thisincludes the wooden town heritage as an integralpart of Kyoto’s living testimony. The continuityand sincere appreciation of these traditions is oneof the major concerns in the work.

The traditional Kyoto townhouses were neverjust architectural forms but always a living com-bination of residential and working spaces. Thiswas reflected in the dwelling plans of the houses,where the front (omote) of the building served asa showroom and workspace and the back (oku) asliving quarters for the owner’s family. Townhouseswere once central components not only of thecityscape, but of the community life as well. Thecultural and social significance of the traditional

townhouses has been stressed, for instance, by Prof.Atsushi Ueda, who even described the pre-mod-ern, Tokugawa period town culture as a machiyasociety, in other words, a town culture where theindividual townhouse played a key role. The backrooms of machiya were used for appreciating artobjects and holding tea ceremonies – culturalpractices to in a large extent still take place eventoday.18

Currently the general public interest, on theother hand, is seen in the growth of ‘living histo-ry’ projects. This has been big business in Ameri-ca and in Japan as well. This Zeitgeist is for apopular demand for history, as a means of relaxa-tion, history seen as an easy and immediate formof entertainment, as if it were detached from thereality of the past. This search for the past is hav-ing an effect on urban form, on urban landscapesranging from central areas to high-class residen-tial suburbs and industrial areas. In some westerncountries and especially in the United Kingdom,the urban conservation itself has become an im-portant tool in our various forms of using andreuse the past. Peter J. Fowley has observed thephenomena:

“...Indeed, so great has been the visual impact of such(conservation) schemes that the latter 20th century hasalready selectively left his mark on the urban fabric al-most as much as in conservation terms as in the com-mercial redevelopment widely regarded as its morecharacteristic trait“...In so doing, let us not deceive our-selves that we have done anything other than create a‘now’, not recreate a ‘then’…”.

‘May the past be with you’ could well be today’sthematic intonation as Peter J. Fowler has ironi-cally noted.19 Caring or not, a lot of people arenow interested in the past one way or another;and whereas it used to be mainly academics, nowthe interest takes on all forms, consuming variouskinds of pasts which can be used to the point thatthe popular past really is the ‘foreign country’ asDavid Lowenthal called it, with its own curren-cy, and not the ‘history’ controlled by academics.Tourism is a great promoter and user of such ec-

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lecticism and plays important role in Kyoto too.The controversial, even contradictory, relationshipbetween the demands and needs of mass-tourismand the cultural heritage and the local residentson the other hand, ‘the Panda’s cage’ as Japanesearchitect Arata Isozaki called it, is one of the keyissues that the author will point out and analysein this research.

Definition of Urban ConservationThe author’s major contribution to the Yamahokoprogramme, and that part, which had a lesser, oronly supporting role in the Japanese research pro-gramme, was in the formulation of the conserva-tion thesis, which promotes urban conservation inthe city centre and in the hoko neighbourhoods.Conservation is in this research understood as

“… an umbrella concept, meaning all the processes oflooking after a place so as to retain its cultural signifi-cance. It includes maintenance and may according tocircumstances include preservation, restoration, reconstruc-tion and adaptation and will commonly be a combina-tion of several of these”.

This definition follows international standards andbesides preservation, might include other support-ing operations as well.11

The goal of the dissertation is not to make eachand every home in the survey area a protectedcultural property, but rather to help citizens andheritage authorities to work together to solve someof the key problems faced by traditional Kyototownhouses and the urban heritage. By emphasis-ing heritage values of everyday buildings and theordinary building stock the dissertation questionsthe selective, monument-oriented evaluation ap-proach. The protection of individual landmarks ornarrow stripes of the city is, for sure, extremelyimportant, but far not enough. The protection andurban conservation to be fully compatible withcity’s history and character it should not be limit-ed to a few number of selected groups of architec-turally or historically qualified houses but includerepresentative entities of urban fabric.

Such an approach is especially important inthe central area of Kyoto where most of thehouses lack distinct or clearly definable architec-tural or historical values, but are still importantexamples of traditional dwelling patterns andlifestyles of the ancient capital. The emphasis inthe thesis is thus not only on landmarks, but alsoon the protection and preservation of Kyoto’sextraordinary cultural heritage as a whole. Theimprovement of housing is understood as one ofthe basic and essential objectives of urban con-servation work. The perception of heritage andthe basic approach of this work are exploredcloser in part IV, where the author focuses on themethodology of the work. The interpretation ofthe Japanese context and its implications forurban conservation work are an essential part ofthis work.

The Objectives of the ResearchIn recording and studying the conservation ofeveryday buildings and the urban vernacular inthe hoko neighbourhoods, the author had fivemajor objectives:

1) The major objective of the thesis is to raisegeneral awareness of the importance of the citycentre and of the need for better conservation andprotection of the city as a whole. In the thesisurban conservation is seen as an important toolnot only to keep traditional carpentry skills andlayers of the urban fabric alive, but also to recog-nise cultural values and properties. By emphasis-ing the necessity of bringing cultural values to thecentre of decision-making to produce a meaning-ful protection of urban heritage, the research at-tempts to reinforce city life through urbanconservation.

2) In the field of architectural history the the-sis experiments with ways and means of record-ing everyday buildings and the urban vernacular.Recording is the preliminary step in the moni-toring process of historical neighbourhoods. In-stead of focusing on landmarks or individualbuildings, the inventory consists of whole street-scapes and urban neighbourhoods.


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3) In the field of urban conservation and herit-age argumentation work, the objective of the the-sis is to widen the value concept to includevernacular everyday buildings. Exploring the con-cept of heritage and new areas of interpretation arean essential part of this work. The current listingsystem and value criteria are critically examined.The emphasis is on the preservation of the wholeinstead of some selected, (expert) valued parts.

4) Philosophically, the thesis investigates thechanging ‘stage’ of the tradition, including us asobservers of the process. The discussion on thefeatures of a different cultural context and their

implications for the definition of heritage are anintegral part of this research.

5) Among the cultural testimony of the GionFestival, the thesis focuses on the tradition of theScreen Festival. The inter-relationship between thestreet and the urban dwelling and the importanceof place are defined as major cultural values to befocused on.

The hoko neighbourhoods are selected as thecase study area because of their great cultural sig-nificance. The recording presented in the researchis the first systematic architectural inventory in thecity centre and in the hoko neighbourhoods.

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New Areas of InterpretationThe post-modern interpretation of contemporaryhistory research has brought forth areas of studythat purely measurable, empirical research methodshave left unexamined.90 For example, in the past,certain cultural values and attitudes, often even sub-conscious ones, may have inhibited research. Adescriptive research method cannot explain men-tal images or aesthetic values. Thus, the value of abuilding is not solely based on its primary signifi-cance or function as a dwelling or a public build-ing, but also on the individual and collectivereadings and value judgements it represents.

Philip Hubbard, for instance, has noted that re-liance on formal theories of architectural assess-ment has largely been replaced by studies ofarchitectural meaning, as it has been realised thata building or townscape cannot be seen withoutsome significance being ascribed to it. Such an ap-proach to architectural assessment stresses that themeaning of architecture and architectural styles isin the observer and their interpretative mecha-

nisms rather than being intrinsic to a set of phys-ical characteristics.91

A new way of interpretation requires a differ-ent kind of research. Thus, the aim of the currentresearch lies not only in the identification of thephysical urban space: dwelling patterns, streets,interior spaces, verandas and rooms, but also inidentifying their legible images and culturallydependent inter-relationships, in other words,everything that is a result of an evolving socialorder. A conservation approach that aims to pro-tect such qualities has the advantage over one thatfocuses solely to the architectural qualities and thephysical fabric.

Ideas of the essence of architecture areconstantly changing and it is important to widenthe research to areas presently forgotten or offi-cially underrated. A value-free, ‘objective’ dis-course does not exist. Subjective, partialviewpoints are always present and they affectamong other things, the choice of the topic ofresearch. Per Kirkeby, for instance, has argued:

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“…Immaculate, objective observation does not exist. Thereis no objective observation in that naive sense of the mean-ing that it would be a thing or an object in itself. Theoryis, instead, a prerequisite for observation, as observationis for theory. We live in the whirl of the stream”.92

The Sugiura display (described in part VII, chap-ter 21, fieldwork no. 9), for instance, is instructivein exploring the meanings and interpretations anindividual person and/or community may havefor the festival. Such meanings are in addition toother values, such as the evidence of valued (ex-pert) aspects of art history or architectural beau-ty. These meanings may not always be obvious inthe fabric of place, and may not be apparent tothe disinterested observer. Thus, even the observerhimself, consciously or unconsciously, adds to thevalue of a place or to its absence of value.

It is also essential to recognise that each groupor community chooses its own symbols and ref-erence points and these may not accord with oth-er reference categories. To take one example: theattitudes towards the urban festival of a tenantfamily in a hoko community may essentially dif-fer from those of the house and landowners, whotraditionally were considered the privileged classin the organisation of the festival. This social clashbetween different classes and social groups is, toa certain degree, still observable in the hoko areaas the author noticed during the fieldwork. Ac-tually, a special festival evolved in the central area(the so-called Jizo Bon) as a substitute for theGion Festival for the tenant families.

The Importance of PlaceAn important and essential part of the approachis acknowledging the importance of place. Aspecial attachment to place may include a long-standing spiritual or religious attachment or oth-er long-standing categories such as a continuoususe. The Gion Festival tradition, which has con-tinued for centuries, is itself already such a val-ue-category. Within the major tradition theremight also be minor traditions, such as, in ourcase, the Screen Festival.

Local Shinto shrines and Buddhist altars arean important group of structures, which are ex-amples of continued religious traditions and nowamong the ‘forgotten’ heritage. Traditionallyevery family in the community was committedto take shared responsibility for the care of them.This habit is still followed, for instance, inShinkamanzacho, where bringing rice cakes,green tea and other offerings to the local shrineis one of the daily routines, for instance, of Mrs.Sugiura.93 The urban transformation process thatis progressing in the area and the consequentmove of the street altars back to their mothertemples far away from the area and their ‘home’threats and degrades the value of the originalplace.

A different example of the continued tradi-tion is, for instance, the rule allowing only themale members of the community to participatein the rituals of the Gion Festival as is still prac-tised in Rokkakucho even today. This is also anexample of the conflicting values within thecommunity. The traditionalists hold on to the oldhabit as a religious tradition, which cannot beviolated; others blame the tradition for the sex-ist attitudes and demand free participation offemale members in the religious rituals of thecommunity. Even the values are thus not some-thing fixed or homogeneous, but depend on whois the observer and whose value it representswithin the community.

Expert Values Versus thePreservation of the WholeThe usual pre-occupation of architects and con-servationists with physical shapes and determina-tion to build and protect masterpieces of art haveforced them to preserve conserved buildings as‘such’ or to restore them, in both cases placingpriorities with the physical fabric in order topresent it at the cost of its life. The preoccupationwith the physical space has been so dominant thatthe ‘preservation’ itself has almost become a syn-onym implying ‘no change’. Harsha Munasinghe,for instance, argues how

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“...The present consciousness of urban space has limitedits focus to the outdoor space, neglecting the indoor urbanspace and the inter-relation between these two”. 94

The Oaxaca Declaration (1994) has, for exam-ple, expressed its concern about the limited rangeof places identified as heritage, noting that manyelements in the historic environment are not val-ued as ‘heritage’.95 Many of the elements thatmake up the ‘whole place’ remain unidentified,despite the fact that it is the whole rather thanthe parts that will have social value and mean-ing. Studies and analyses on historic places tendto focus on physical structures and architecturalproperties. This applies to the Screen Festival tra-dition as well: focusing on individual, historicallyvaluable screens or individual buildings, for ex-ample, leaves a whole range of value categoriesoutside.

In Kyoto in the city planning level among the‘forgotten heritage’ are, for instance, such elementsas pre-modern land use subdivision patterns andstreet furniture. Although the town plan of Kyo-to was adapted from the classic Chinese town planmodels in the 8th century, one of the main pointsand characteristic features of the town plan ofKyoto even today, appears to lie in the almostexclusive use of the separate one-family house.The extremely small size of the sites in the grid-plan area and the typical land division patternscaused by that fact are characteristic features of theurban fabric and thus also, bearers of importantheritage values.

The Character of the JapaneseIndoor/Outdoor RelationshipThe present western consciousness of urban spacehas limited its focus to the negative and positive,solids and voids, the outdoor space as voids andthe buildings and volumes as solids. A classic ex-ample of such a framework of thinking is, forexample, the map of Rome by Giambattista Nolli,from 1748, La Nuova Topografia di Roma (‘TheNew Topography of Rome’). The map consists ofsolid and evenly distributed urban quarters and

contrasting with them, the public and semi-pub-lic spaces depicted as if they were carved out fromthe solid physical space. Such a picture, althoughhighly illuminating in the urban context of Rome,is however, not valid in the Japanese cultural con-text and does not truly reveal the relationshipbetween the two.

In Japan, the indoor and the outdoor space can-not be approached through dualistic concepts, butthey have to be regarded as one entity. A well-known expression of such a non-dualistic ‘in-be-tween’ space is the Japanese veranda, engawa,which is space under the eaves. It is a transmit-ting space between the indoor and outdoor space.In other words, it is a space which has the quali-ty of both of these spaces. Bruno Taut, for instance,has with great sensitivity observed this distinctivequality of Japanese space. For him the most inter-esting feature of a Japanese house was not itsmaterial appearance but its life. In his analysis, Tautcompared the Japanese dwelling space to a stagein an open-air theatre, the background of whichvisible through the open wall, is nature.

In his analysis of the Katsura Villa, Taut saw thequintessence of Japanese architecture as lying notin its material values, but in the relationships (inGerman: Beziehungen; emphasis by the author)which the different parts of the building and itsrelation to nature expose. In other words, in thenatural and organic way the architectural elementswere interrelated and were designed to fit natureand to become an organic part of their surround-ings. This observation by Taut is still valid today,although Taut, as a modernist, missed many essen-tial values of Japanese architecture, such as deco-ration as an organic part of Japanese architecture,and the active role human beings have in the ex-perience of Japanese space.

In the hoko area, in particular, the role of streetas communal space and the pre-modern townshipconcept ryogawacho, ‘neighbourhood on both sidesof the street’, are instructive in analysing the cul-tural significance and character of the urban space.The ryogawacho pattern, which was established inthe hoko area in the 16th century, is studied indetail below, in part VI, chapter 15.

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The Inter-Relationship between theUrban Dwelling and Street as aCultural ValueThe Japanese word for town is identical with theword for street, machi. This fully expresses whatthe author has pointed out above, namely that asharp distinction between street and house doesnot exist. In Japan, the dwelling space and streetspace are not separate spaces but there is a closeinter-relationship between the two. They are partof the same spatial entity. In the urban space, the open wall with its flex-ible and movable lattice facade takes a key role.The built-unbuilt ratio or the open-space vs. builtspace relationship is thus far not the only relation-ship between the two, as spatial interactions andtheir cultural readings do account for significance.Everyone who has visited Japanese cities musthave been struck by the delicate charm of Japa-nese home life, the natural way people move be-tween lying, sitting and squatting positions and theproportions between the man and the house, andthe house and the street that these interior viewsexpose. Coding and decoding of the outdoor-indoorrelationship is not something fixed. It is constantlychanging and culminates in such traditions as theScreen Festival. The urban dwelling that duringthe festival days is exposed to the street takes asignificantly different role from its everyday ap-pearance and use. Yasunari Kawabata, for instance,observed this phenomena in the following way:

“…The day of gathering at Gion had arrived. AtSada’s shop they had removed the lattice door, busy withpreparations for the festival”. 96

In the hoko neighbourhoods the Screen Festival,in particular, is instructive in identifying the char-acter and quality of the Japanese urban space. Themethodological step taken in the present researchthus aims at an approach where the dwelling pat-terns and cultural patterns are identified as aninseparable entity. The inter-relationship betweenthe urban dwelling and the street, and the mani-

fold expressions this relationship takes during theurban festival, is one of the major topics to beexamined in the research.

Critical Evaluation of HeritageArgumentsThe value criteria, which in Kyoto worked wellfor historical monuments, caused problems inevaluating ordinary everyday buildings. In thethesis, through the examples of the fieldwork, theauthor will examine and analyse, in particular, theselection criteria that the heritage authorities usewhen a building is to be registered. The authorfocuses especially on three selection criteria:

1) the test of authenticity2) the age rule3) the architectural beauty of the streetscape

Confirmation of AuthenticityUntil now in the heritage evaluation work inKyoto, the question of confirmation of the au-thenticity of historic structures and buildings hasbeen relatively unproblematic. In the case of eve-ryday buildings, the question becomes, however,more complicated. There are very few ordinarystructures which are intact without later changesor remodelling. The current criteria for authen-ticity in Kyoto leave most ordinary structuresoutside the evaluation and listing programmes andthus, indirectly, inhibit their protection. The interior of a house, if we take just oneexample, cannot be changed if the house has beennominated as a cultural asset. However, there arevery few people who can afford or are willing tolive in a museum. As Prof. Nishikawa has com-mented:

“... the fact that buildings must keep their characteristicoutside appearance does not mean that their inhabitantsmust also follow an outmoded way of life”.97

In fact one of the fascinating features of the or-dinary townhouses in Kyoto and in other placesas well is that they have been changed and that

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we can now observe the different traces of life intheir outward appearance left by earlier genera-tions and lifestyles. Below, through the examplesof our fieldwork, the author will observe anddescribe a number of such everyday structures.

Age of BuildingAnother point today is that, if a building is goingto be registered as a landmark or cultural asset, itshistorical value must be confirmed. An importantcriterion is then the age of the building. Most ofthe everyday buildings in the city centre weredestroyed in the city fires in the Meiji era. Onlya few areas around Rokkakucho were preserved.This means that even the oldest structures exist-ing in the historic grid-plan area are not muchmore than a hundred years old. In the municipallisting system, where structures originating fromthe Edo era, in other words buildings which aretwo hundred or three hundred years old, are con-sidered ‘far too young’ for listing, the chances foreveryday buildings to be registered are extreme-ly small.98

The age rule also to a large extent explains whysuch structures as the common facilities have sel-dom been discussed as objects to be preserved.They are all too young to qualify and lack thenecessary antiquity. During the Yamahoko pro-gramme the problem of age was encounteredmore than once and it is one of the issues focusedon in the research through the examples of thefieldwork. In general, the age of buildings, in re-lation to usefulness of desirability, is to be per-ceived as an extremely relative thing as, forinstance, Jane Jacobs noted in her famous bookThe Death and Life of Great American Cities alreadyin the early 1960s.99

The Beauty of the Streetscape as aHeritage Value One of the major criteria in the architectural ar-gumentation work in Kyoto has been the archi-tectural beauty of streetscape. In other words,protecting and preserving certain carefully cho-sen key areas with outstanding architectural uni-ty. The four historic preservation areas are

illustrative of this approach. On the other hand,the neighbourhoods in the city centre such as thehoko neighbourhoods, for instance, have been con-sidered too much changed and thus, too hetero-geneous in their townscape elements. In otherwords they lack the basic architectural integrityregarded necessary for evaluation or designation.The heritage authorities have seldom seriouslyquestioned the city-planning conception. Theselective approach is evident even in the urban pr-eservation schemes carried out by the Nishikawalaboratory. A good example of these attitudes is,for example, a proposal which the laboratoryworked out for a municipal architectural compe-tition. The laboratory won first prize. In thecompetition scheme Yatacho was used as a sam-ple area to illustrate urban renewal methods forthe historic city neighbourhoods. The only structure which was given consider-ation and preservation status was the Sugimotohouse. Apart from the Sugimoto house, Yata Kan-non, the small neighbourhood temple was dis-cussed as a potential site to be preserved. Most ofthe still existing wooden structures in the areawere replaced in the scheme by new multi-sto-rey buildings without any consideration given tourban conservation. In the competition schemethe ground floors of new steel-reinforced concretebuildings were redesigned in the spirit of the tra-ditional wooden frame style in order to restore theatmosphere of an ‘authentic’ hoko neighbourhood. Although interesting as a competition proposal,there can be no doubt, that a conservation ap-proach of this kind can be by no means satisfac-tory in the framework of the current research.

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Definition of Recording inInternational StandardsThe international principles and standards for re-cording cultural heritage were laid out by the 11thICOMOS General Assembly in Sofia in 1996. Ac-cording to the text, recording and documentationis considered as one of the principal ways availa-ble to give meaning, understanding, definition andrecognition of the values of the cultural heritage.In the Sofia text the

Recording is defined as a “capture of informa-tion which describes the physical configurations,condition and use of monuments, groups of build-ings and sites, at a point in time, and it is an es-sential part of the conservation process”;

Cultural heritage refers to monuments, groups ofbuildings and sites of heritage value, constitutingthe historic or built environment.

The Sofia declaration requires the prepara-tion of analytical studies and inventories in or-der to explain the meanings of the heritageconcerned and to justify the proposed methodsof using it. According to the above mentioned

standards, the recording of the cultural heritageis essential:

a) to acquire knowledge in order to advance theunderstanding of cultural heritage, its valuesand its evolution;

b) to promote the interest and involvement of thepeople in the preservation of the heritagethrough the dissemination of recorded informa-tion;

c) to permit informed management and controlof construction works and of all change to thecultural heritage;

d) to ensure that the maintenance and conserva-tion of the heritage is sensitive to its physicalform, its materials, construction, and its his-torical and cultural significance.

Recording as a Method in theCurrent WorkIn the present research, recording is used as a ba-sic method to define the character and quality of

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the heritage. The on-site fieldwork, which wascarried out in the hoko neighbourhoods, includ-ed three major documentations:

1) Recording and measurement of the street fa-cades of three hoko neighbourhoods. The focusof interest was, above all, on the traditional car-pentry elements such as the lattice, koshi, fa-cades.

2) Recording the major dwelling patterns includ-ing the unagi no nedoko, ‘sleeping places of aneel’ pattern and the nagaya, urban tenement.

3) Recording of the Screen Festival as an exam-ple of cultural values and practices character-istic for the hoko neighbourhoods.

In the architectural analysis the author applied,primarily, the same methods and building cate-gorisations as were used by the Nishikawa lab-oratory in the historic preservation areas.Yamasaki has given a description of these meth-ods in English. This definition is referred to be-low (see part V, chapter 13). For the currentresearch, however, the author had to develop themethod further so as to better suit the needs ofthe rather heterogeneous building stock of thestudied neighbourhoods. The thesis is, thus, apioneer in the field.

Its purpose is to show the characteristic out-lines of the city’s transformation process in thesurveyed quarters during the past 20-30 years. Forthe municipal authorities the method presentedhere provides information for making sensitiveplanning policies and for developing buildingcontrol policies. It also provides information uponwhich appropriate use of heritage may be iden-tified and the effective conservation plans andmaintenance programmes may be planned. Therecording method is described in detail at thebeginning of each fieldwork chapter.

The recording of heritage sites or structures it-self is not entirely unproblematic. It may havemany stated purposes, but it may also have unfore-seen side effects. For fear of having their houseslisted as cultural objects, many of those, who ownan old house decline the questionable honour of

documentation.100 A remarkable number of bea-utiful townhouses just disappear without everbeing documented as the author observed inKyoto during the fieldwork.

Also, there is always the danger of the record-ing becoming an end in itself. Even in the Yama-hoko programme it sometimes seemed that theinventory was more a ‘conscience salvaging pro-gramme of the investigator’101 than a real actionto save the heritage sites. For such work, the handsof the investigator were all too tied and the meansavailable all too limited. However, at its best, aninventory can be an inspiration to see thesurroundings in a novel and fresh way and to stim-ulate the owners and public alike to seriouslyconsider protection of sites and structures, whichthey perhaps previously regarded unworthy ofpreservation.

The Use of TerminologyThe author is aware of the dangers of proposalscoming from outside the Japanese preservationcommunity. Every proposal depends on the cul-tural context within which it is applied. The com-ments or observations that are expressed in theresearch, therefore, in the first place, are intendedto stimulate thought and discussion instead ofgiving direct proposals or answers. Many of thequestions and problems, if not all, voice the con-cerns that were expressed by Japanese scholars,heritage authorities and residents alike.

The language of the Yamahoko programme wasJapanese. The Japanese language has given somedistinctive perspectives to the work but also madeit vulnerable to errors and misunderstanding. Theauthor bears full responsibility for whatever errorsof fact and interpretation still persist. The Japaneselanguage has made communication possible notonly with the members of the research team butalso, with the subject of the work, the many fas-cinating kimono families.

The work operates in and uses Japanese con-cepts and terminology which Japanese resear-chers themselves use in their research. In otherwords, the terms are used in their authentic

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context, and as precisely as possible. In this way,the thesis helps to make the Japanese ter-minology known and more available to the West-ern reader. Furthermore, because the language isan essential part of the culture, the use of Ja-panese terms itself illuminates and helps us tounderstand the cultural context within which wemove through the work. This is true not onlywith terms that describe the traditional woodenarchitecture, but also, and especially, with the spe-cial terms of the urban festival.

All the key terms used in the thesis are listedwith their Japanese pronunciation, Japanese kanjicombination and English translation to form aglossary, attached at the end of the work asAppendix 1. The large number of Japanese termsand their variety in itself illustrate the richness ofthe urban culture and architectural testimony ofthe hoko neighbourhoods. The English Japanesedictionary, that was compiled for the thesis, isgiven in Appendix 2.

Sources and Related ResearchBecause of the specificity of the research, sourcesin Western languages have been few. Except forKyoto’s traditional wooden townhouse, the classickyo-machiya, and the mountain of books whichfocus on Japanese gardens, Japan’s town traditionsand urban heritage are much less known. In thehistory of architecture one of the most influentialones is perhaps Bruno Taut’s inspiring book Hous-es and People of Japan, where Taut praised Japanesetown architecture and the aesthetics of everyday life.It has become one of the classics in the field,through which our image of the Japanese city andits unique town traditions has largely taken shape.

Compared to the mountain of articles that inthe past few years have been published about To-kyo, Kyoto has played only a very minor role inthe architectural debate, despite its great spiritualand historical significance. Among the few pub-lications is Prof. Eugene Benda’s exhibition pub-lication where he comments on the urbantransformation processes of Kyoto. His way oflooking at the matter is critical.

Prof. Yamasaki provides a very scientific andprecise approach in his recent book (1994). Thebook contains a fine historical analysis on the for-mation and make up of Kyoto’s cityscape throughhistorical illustrations, paintings and other authen-tic documents. The active role of Prof. Yamasakiin the laboratory of Prof. Nishikawa in develop-ing the urban preservation methodology of Kyo-to has already been mentioned above.

In addition to the two above-mentioned anal-yses, architect Gunther Nitschke has contributedgreatly to the understanding of Kyoto’s urbanheritage and the nature of the urban festival. Hiscomments have provided valuable insights also forthe thesis. Nitschke is among those few memberswithin the circle of architects and urban plannerswho has consistently advocated wider urban pres-ervation of Kyoto. Moreover, his article ‘Ma’ inArchitectural Design published in the middle ofthe 1960s, which concentrates upon the Japanesespace concept, has already become a kind of classicin its field.

In the field of academic research ClaireGallian’s doctoral thesis at Kyoto University in1989, which deals with the urban preservationmethodology of Japan, and Prof. Tamara K.Haveren’s research work in the United States arenot without merits. Both works operate in thefield of urban preservation and are closely relatedto the theses of this research. Gallian has given avery good analysis of the system of historicpreservation in Japan. Furthermore, Gallian’s workcontains a historical analysis of the Sugimotohouse, which is one of the key buildings in thecurrent work. Gallian’s description of the houseis excellent.

Haveren has focused on one important part inthe city centre: the kimono quarters of the Nishi-jin silk textile industry. Among other things, Ha-veren discusses changes that have taken place inthe production processes of the kimono textile in-dustry. These changes directly or indirectly affectthe wholesale function and thus also, the life ofthe hoko neighbourhoods.

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Perceptions of the PastVarious versions of contemporary relationshipswith what has been, and very much is, have beenexpressed in analyses, which have subsequentlybecome landmarks in the development of a late20th century perception of the past. DavidLöwenthal’s The Past is a Foreign Country (1986)was one of the first to provide a solid academicfoundation and Robert Hewison interpreted thephenomenon in cultural and political terms in theHeritage Industry (1987). These two books haveserved as an important background analysis in thecurrent work.

Furthermore, in analysing the values and aes-thetics of an traditional artisan, the major sourceof reference are the writings of Soetsu Yanagi, acritic of Japanese industrial arts. His internation-ally best known work, The Unknown Craftsman, hasbecome a kind of classic in its field. According toYanagi the modern values and sensibilities basedon individuality are in great contrast to the val-

ues of a traditional artisan. The most interestingpoint in Yanagi’s analysis on the traditional aesthet-ics is its relationship with the everyday values anduse. The objects created by an artisan were pri-marily appreciated for their qualities in everydaylife and use. This notion is particularly importantfor the thesis, which stresses the value of the dis-play items and antiquities in their place - not ascollector’s objects or as mere museum pieces. Inother words, the everyday use of buildings or ar-tefacts is seen as an important measure of theircultural significance.

The greater part of the thesis and wheneverpossible, the research is based on authentic sourc-es in the Japanese language. The sources are dis-cussed in the context of each topic. Thebibliography, which is given at the end of thethesis, includes only works that apply directly tothe topics of the research or describes some spe-cial aspect found in the work. General literatureon traditional Japanese architecture has beenexcluded.

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DEFINING THECONCEPT OF

HERITAGE

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Preservation in the JapaneseContextIt has been suggested that the Japanese idea ofpreservation and building conservation wouldessentially be different from that of the West.102 Proofof the statement has been sought in the tradition ofperiodically rebuilding the Ise Shrine. The Nor-wegian Professor Knut Einar Larsen has, however,recently objected to the view. According to him, therebuilding of the Ise Shrine is not primarily to beconsidered as an example of building conservationpractice but rather as a religious ritual. The Japaneseresearcher Nobuko Inaba too has agreed with thelatter view. She has stated in relation to the meaningof the reconstruction practice of the Ise Shrine:

“...Many people have assumed that periodic reconstruc-tion is an accepted general conservation method - whereasIse is an isolated case in which the only purpose is thetraditional ceremonial one”. 103

As Prof. Larsen points out, using the conservationof the Oyamadera Temple in the Ibaraki Prefec-

ture as a case study example, the Japanese meth-ods of restoration and conservation of authenticmaterials and the upholding of long-establishedhandicraft skills are an extremely fine and highlydeveloped tradition from which Western countriescould benefit and learn. For Larsen, these Japanesemethods indeed represent the most significant andfascinating aspect of contemporary architecturalpreservation work in Japan. 104

The technique of dismantling, which is used inJapan throughout the building repair process, isbased on the principal structural characteristics ofJapanese architecture. With a post-and-beam con-struction the structure has the inherent capabili-ty of being taken apart and reassembled with nocompromise to the integrity of the structure it-self. The attitude towards preservation and build-ing conservation in Japan cannot, therefore, beinterpreted simply through some religious atti-tudes or traditions, but as a tradition of its ownwith its own particular practices and philosophies.

As Larsen points out, the basic idea in Japan isthat it is not only objects or buildings as such that

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The Concept of Heritage in Japan

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are worth preservation, but also the knowledgeand methods which were used to produce them,and which are crucial for their continued exist-ence and preservation. Since 1975, acknowledg-ing the problem, the Japanese Governmentincluded a new chapter in the law for the protec-tion of cultural properties providing for ‘protec-tion of traditional techniques’. Thus, the Japanesedo recognise that the traditional techniques arenecessary in order to preserve the historic struc-tures and conversely, traditional techniques arebeing preserved through actual preservation andconservation work. 105

In the thesis, which operates in the field of ur-ban conservation, the context of preservation is ex-plicitly and unambiguously defined. The attitudestowards urban preservation are observed throughthose preservation efforts and practices as adaptedin the history of urban preservation in Kyoto.

As was observed above, in part II, chapter 9,among the large Japanese cities Kyoto not onlyhad the oldest but also the most effective anddeveloped system of urban preservation. In thelaboratory of Prof. Nishikawa the problems ofpreserving historical urban environments havebeen determinedly discussed since the early 1970s.In general the author, thus, takes a critical viewof the opinion that Japan would entirely lack theidea of preservation in the Western sense.

Universal Values Versus the ContextIn recent years, with the growth of exchange andinformation, the dominant Western centre-pe-riphery-thinking, of which Japan too has been anobject, has been seriously questioned. Japan is nowperhaps the most interesting example in theinternational debate on building conservationwhen the concept of heritage, the question ofauthenticity and the universal values of preserva-tion have to be evaluated. Where are the originsof authenticity, the genuineness of architecture inthe Japanese context? Even within buildingconservation practice, scholars are not unanimousabout the answer.106 Neither will the thesis striveto present a solution.

Practices which differ from our own shouldalso be subject to criticism, however culturallyfounded they may appear to be. In Japan, con-fronted with one of the world’s most refined andadvanced architectural traditions, one is closer tobeing an apprentice than a master. On the otherhand, the sight of the chaos of the modern Japa-nese environment and the ruthless destruction oftraditional milieus can be a cause of severe spir-itual shock. There are not a few Western writerswho have commented on the ugliness of mod-ern Japanese towns and observed the lack of beau-ty in new buildings with their elusive looks ofbizarre, cosmetic surfaces and images. Accordingto Prof. Benda, for instance, the present day Kyoto“…represents a fashinating confluence of beauty,nightmare and challenge”. This is another of thoseissues with which the author has struggled sincefirst coming to Japan.107

The concept of authenticity itself is verycontradictory and not at all obvious, even in West-ern cultural circles. ‘The authentic is always outof date’, as David Lowenthal put it in his article“Criteria of Authenticity”.108 Those involved inwriting the Venice Charter in 1964 came from afairly homogeneous Western world, with a Euro-pean background and building traditions based onmasonry and stone. Wooden town traditions andarchitectural heritage such as is found, for instance,in Finland and in other Nordic countries, wasgiven little or no consideration.

Larsen, for instance, has doubted whether we cantalk about principles and theories even on theEuropean level. Perhaps the national level would bemore adequate.109 Compared with most Europe-an states, for example, Australian heritage focusesless on elite than on vernacular remains. As wasobserved in part II, chapter 6, when the authorexplored the cultural background of the urban fes-tival, the attitudes towards the built environment inJapan and thus also, to the definition of the herit-age, might essentially differ from that of our own.

The Nara Discussion in 1994 confirmed au-thenticity as a relative concept the application ofwhich depends on the cultural context withinwhich it is applied.110 As Herbert Stovel points

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out, the Nara meeting acknowledged the need toprovide a new framework of universal principleswhich could accommodate both the broad rang-es of cultural expression to be found in differentregions of the world and our increasingly broaddefinitions of heritage now including vernacularexpressions. Of paramount importance to thethesis, however, are not the various preservationand building conservation practices and their re-lation to the question of authenticity, but ratherthe fact that no prerequisites exist for the preser-vation of everyday buildings.

Authenticity of Design VersusAuthenticity of MaterialReconstruction or copy has a different meaningin general in Japanese culture compared with ourown. Throughout history the Japanese have re-paired their temples and other important wood-en buildings by partially replacing decayed orrotten parts with new ones. The fact that a part isold or new, authentic or replaced has never beenconsidered as relevant as in the Western culturalenvironment. Furthermore, reconstruction is notlimited to any specific areas but is widely used invarying degree throughout the building repairprocess. Many of the sample houses to be dis-cussed in the thesis are fine examples of thepractice. Without partial renewal and evenreconstruction they would have been lost or de-stroyed.The same applies to the conservation ofhistoric monuments and edifices. One of the mostrenowned is the rebuilding of the Golden Pavil-ion of Kyoto to its former glory after the build-ing was destroyed by arson in the early 1950s. TheJapanese who come to visit the temple regard itnot as a new building but as a revered part of aliving testimony.

In Japan, when restoration is allowed, the em-phasis of the project is the authenticity in design,by which the Japanese mean the original state orthe most significant state in a building’s develop-ment through history. In most cases the buildinghas to be dismantled in order to be repaired. Thewide use of partial reconstruction as an essential

part of conservation and repair technique doesnot, however, mean that the Japanese would notvalue the genuineness of material and hold it tobe key aesthetic ideal.

The patina of old objects and the passing oftime symbolised by it has been a dominant aesthe-tic ideal in Japan throughout the ages. Since the16th century it has been closely linked to the phi-losophy and aesthetics of objects in the tea cere-mony. The author personally observed the livingcult of patina, when her tea ceremony teacherburied a new ceramic vase deep in the templegarden, where the pot was later ‘excavated’ for aflower arrangement exhibition. The only purposeof the act was to achieve a beautiful aged patinaon the surface of the pot.

The two Japanese terms used to describe theaesthetic ideal, are sabi are wabi, a combinationof ‘poverty and profoundness’. Leonard Koren,for instance, has argued that wabi-sabi is the mostconspicuous and characteristic feature of whatwe think of as traditional Japanese beauty. 111 Formany Japanese wabi-sabi almost means everythingthat is quintessentially Japanese. In the field ofbuilding conservation the interpretation of theIse Shrine as an example of the Japanese attitudeto historic buildings would imply that the Japa-nese would not be concerned with the conser-vation of authentic materials in historicbuildings. A look at Japanese architectural history,however, shows that the Japanese have indeedappreciated ancient objects and buildings fortheir patina, and treasured them just because oftheir ancient materials. 112

Cultural Adaptation and theJapanese PreservationMethodologiesIn Japan the foreign ideas of conservation werenot only imported and imitated, but the Japanesehave gradually transformed them in such a wayas to suit Japan’s natural and cultural conditions.This transformation and adaptation fits well intothe context of Japanese transformation of foreignideas and cultural impulses in general. The pres-

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ervation methodologies adapted in the four his-toric preservation areas of Kyoto are a case parexcellence of a cultural adaptation which can befound in the field of urban conservation. In thehistoric preservation areas, in particular, the testof authenticity was solved in an interesting,though contradictory way.

With the help of architects and preservationauthorities, the residents were given access to his-torically accurate models for restoration in thedesignated areas. The instructions were based onpattern books designed separately for each area.113

Yamasaki described the method in the followingway:

“... So, in Kyoto we decided not to preserve the build-ings themselves but to preserve the traditional stylesof wooden houses which are characteristic to eachdistrict of historic townscape... This attitude impliesthat the townscape is regarded as a result of historyshowing a stage of changing process and such atownscape is also worth being conserved without exactreconstruction. In this case, the word ‘conservation’almost means to keep traditional sense and carpentryalive”. 114

According to this method, what is considered per-manent and important is the original design con-cept, not the authenticity of building materials orindividual building components. Instead ofauthenticity, the method focuses on the atmosphereand the aesthetic integrity of the cityscape. Theemphasis of preservation is in the continuity of local(Japanese) building traditions based on the habit ofpartial dismantling of building components.

Accordingly, in the historic preservation areasthe individual facades can be repaired and reno-vated rather freely, if the reparation methods co-incide with the traditional design patterns andbuilding techniques. The method stresses flexibil-ity and aesthetic integrity though at the expenseof authenticity. The preservation is also limited tothe outer appearance. Thus, behind an authenticwooden facade there might be a new steelconstruction building or, for image or other rea-sons, an old wooden facade is replaced by a still‘older’ one. We can find examples of both casesin the protected areas.

What is problematic about this facadism, notonly in Kyoto but in other places too, is that inthe name of aesthetic integrity or for image rea-sons even the slight amount of authenticity whichpossibly has survived from the past, is ruined inthe eagerness to make more ‘authentic’ facades.The preserved environment is changing to a shellor a coulisse. On the other hand, the methodcoincides with the cultural context and gives theconservation method flexibility unknown in theWestern conservation praxis.

In this thesis the question of authenticity getssignificance, when the author investigates contextualchanges taking place in the screen display tradition.How can the authenticity and character of displaysbe retained in the changing circumstances? Untilnow, the wooden townhouse context has played acentral role in preserving the contextual values of theScreen Festival. Modern construction methods anddisplay techniques, especially the notable increaseof window displays, are, however, essentiallyimpoverishing the scenic values of the festival.

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International Charters andStandardsFaced with the dramatic changes which have leadto cultural and economic losses of many historictowns and urban areas particularly after the Sec-ond World War, the International Council onMonuments and Sites (ICOMOS) deemed itnecessary to draw up an international charter thatwould enhance the preservation of urban patri-monies and aim for a better protection of urbanheritage. The principles laid down at the ICO-MOS seminar held in Brazil in 1987 marked aturning point in urban conservation by identify-ing the need to protect cities as cultural entities.115

An international charter was enacted in thesame year, in 1987. This text the name of whichis ‘International Charter for the Conservation ofHistoric Towns and Urban Areas’ and known asthe Washington Charter defines the principles, ob-jectives, and methods necessary for the conserva-tion of historic towns and urban areas. The textconcerns historic urban areas, large and small,

towns and historic centres and quarters, togetherwith their natural and man-made environments.Beyond their role as historic documents, theseareas embody the values of traditional urban cul-tures. The charter seeks to promote the harmonyof both private and community life in the herit-age areas and to encourage the preservation ofcultural properties, however modest in scale, thatconstitute the memory of mankind.

The international charters and standards dealwith the conservation of historic cities and sitesby giving general principles and approaches as tohow they should be handled as the testimony andheritage of the past. They do not, however, de-scribe in detail what kind of planning principlesor methods should be used, or how historical cit-ies should be preserved. As a planning tool theyare all too general. Although these kinds of char-ters are important in that they remind the publicof the heritage values of the sites, it is however,impossible to read from these texts all those de-mands and needs that are necessary in the pres-

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ervation and conservation of the historic cities andareas. Opinions about heritage values and theirtreatment are changing and the charters may beleft behind the quickly changing practices andanalyses.

Recent discussion on the concept of authen-ticity or the reshaping of our perceptions of thepast, for instance, are examples of the rethinkingcurrently taking place. Instead of keeping thecharters as an absolute truth, they should be rel-ative and mirror the thought and ideas of theperiod in which they are created. One thing,however, is certain: every conservation task shouldbe planned separately, from its own starting pointsto suit its own requirements. There should be dif-ferent principles, for instance, for such cities asOsaka and Kyoto and even in the limited hokoarea it is impossible to give general planningmethods or principles that would be appropriatefor the whole area, but the chosen methodologiesshould vary according to each historic area andits own particular characteristics.

Although the charters and guidelines do nottell how and by what specific methods urban con-servation should take place in individual cities,they do give basic outlines and principles of ur-ban conservation, which Japan, as a membercountry of ICOMOS, is also committed to fol-low. These texts, as international guidelines, arethus an important point of reference in the cur-rent research.

The Wooden Town Heritage andthe World Heritage ListingWooden towns are acknowledged to be animportant part of the world heritage. In theUnesco Conference on Cultural policies for De-velopment in March-April 1998 hosted by Swed-ish Government, Mr. Henry Cleere, the WorldHeritage coordinator of ICOMOS, stressed in hispresentation “Wooden Architecture in the WorldHeritage Convention” the need for a global in-ventory of wooden towns. Although the defini-tions of cultural heritage in the World HeritageConvention are broadly drafted, the process of

compiling the World Heritage List has proceed-ed within a more restricted perception, derivingfrom largely European aesthetic notions relatingto major monuments and sites. As Cleere states:

“...There is an urgent need to accord due recognitionto this important and highly vulnerable sector, which hasso far not figured adequately on the World HeritageList”.

Thus, although there is a vast cultural heritage ofwooden towns and buildings in many parts of theworld, these are not systematically represented onthe list, unlike gothic cathedrals and the historictowns of the Mediterranean Basin, almost exclu-sively constructed of stone or brick. At the presentmoment there is an urgent need for a more sys-tematic approach to the wide spread of the wood-en building tradition in its diverse manifestationsand forms across the vast areas of the globe wherewood predominated as a major construction ma-terial until the advent of steel and reinforced con-crete in the 20th century. Present day Kyoto, withits surviving wooden townhouses, is one exam-ple of such ‘forgotten’ heritage.

The Importance of EverydayBuildingsIn recent years there has been an increasing aware-ness and a desire to widen the field of conserva-tion to areas until now forgotten or underrated.Indeed, the indications are that the balance ofpower is shifting within conservation philosophyas the categories of structures thought worthy ofconsideration for conservation have been extend-ed to include not only monumental high-classarchitecture but also whole new groups of struc-tures recognised as equally meritorious: vernac-ular, folklorist and industrial. This new perceptionof environment and conservation values suggeststhat buildings and environments should not bejudged and preserved solely for their historicityor artistic value, but also for their value to thewider community and their capacity to make‘place’.

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One of the earliest advocates of the better ap-preciation of ordinary everyday milieus and dwell-ing environments and their socio-cultural merits,was Jane Jacobs, who argued that, although citiesneed old buildings, they should not all be ‘muse-um-piece old buildings’, but a good lot of plain,ordinary, low-value buildings including some run-down old buildings. Jacobs indeed saw the need foraged buildings as one of the basic conditions whenshe discussed the generators of necessary diversityfor socially and culturally sound cities. As she noted:

“…Improvement must come by supplying the conditionsfor generating diversity that are missing, not by wipingout old buildings in great swathes”.116

and,

“... Cities need a mingling of old buildings to cultivateprimary-diversity mixture, as well as secondary diver-sity. In particular, they need old buildings to incubatenew primary diversity”.117

Even the enterprises that can support new con-struction in cities need old construction in theirimmediate vicinity. Otherwise they are part of atotal environment that is economically too lim-ited - and therefore functionally too limited to belively, interesting and convenient. This has beennoted even by the building enterprises in Kyoto,who exploit the very scenic land and the histor-ical neighbourhoods in the vicinity of their newestates in marketing and selling them.

The Value of Continued EverydayUseThe value of place is related to the usefulness ofthe place: The places are valued because they areused; because they are part of the everyday life. Ifdemolished, as individuals or as ordinary wood-en structures the loss might not be so great, butthe demolishing of a great number of such homesand life patterns would necessarily also reduce thevalue of the whole place. This viewpoint is espe-cially important in Kyoto, where the urban tra-

dition is not based on any planned physicallyclearly definable urban spaces and entities, but onthe groups and rows of individual sites whichtogether make up the whole place.

Furthermore, there is a difference between theobjects of everyday appreciation and use, andthose purchased as collector’s objects. The removalof relics, where lineaments are indissoluble fromtheir place annuals their testamentary worth andforfeits their myriad ties with place. Artefacts andre-enacment substitute for lived memory. 118 Ma-terial objects - at their best - can in these circum-stances become icons of cultural identity ratherthan exemplars of it, as David Lowenthal has not-ed.119

In another context Soetsu Yanagi argued on thevalue of objects that are used everyday:

“… The works of an artisan are made to be lived with... objects of beauty create an atmosphere of spiritualrefinement”.

Within the festival tradition there are many cul-tural interpretations and readings which directlyrefer to or speak for the importance of the place.As the author will explore later in the fieldwork(part VII, chapter 21), a large number of the an-tique objects and relics displayed in the ScreenFestival refer directly or indirectly to the festivaltradition, or to their place such as a picture scrolldepicting a festival float, or screens that refer tothe family (kimono) business.

Furthermore, some of the references are less ev-ident but still speak of the importance of place.Thus, among the painting topics there are themesthat refer to the special season of the festival. Inparticular, a popular topic is the water element,which is depicted through such themes as waterwheels or screens floating under water. Thesethemes are used not only as a seasonal reference(after the rainy season the climate in Kyoto chang-es to dry and hot) but also to their (believed) pro-tective properties against fire. These are examplesof meanings that are directly culturally and con-text bound and not always evident for an outsideobserver, even for the Japanese.

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The Needs of Local People VersusVisitors

In most cities local people and communitieshave spoken up about places that they value,despite the dismissal of such places as insignificantby the experts. Such fights are not unknown evenin the hoko neighbourhoods as was described inchapter 7. The author personally participated insuch a fight in 1997, when she defended the pro-tection of the common facility in the Naginata-hokocho together with the local residents.

Many buildings lose their connection with ourdaily lives by being allocated new uses. Loss oftraditional activity (such as kimono productionand trade in our case, for example) often meansthat such places are reallocated to meet the needsof visitors rather than locals, increasing thedisconnection between the community and place.

The revitalisation of the old building stock thathas taken place in the hoko neighbourhoods overthe past two or three years although welcome assuch, has generally meant new locales for tourists,souvenir shops (although in Kyoto of extremelyhigh artistic quality!) and cafes in a traditionalcontext, rather than a serious attempt to answerthe revitalisation and renewal needs of the degen-erating old building stock. In only a few cases havethe renewals directly served or improved the liv-ing standards of those who use the environment,in other words, the local residents.The commod-ification of culture and the poor position of thelocal resident against the heritage industry werethe main points that architect Arata Isozaki wasmaking when he compared Kyoto to a Panda’scage. It seems that in his analysis he was not veryfar from the truth.

Social Value as a Measure ofCultural SignificanceThe widening of the scope of the conservationfield has not only brought forth new areas of con-servation, but it has also enhanced the assessmentof criteria that are used in the heritage argumen-tation work. The deep sense of attachment to

place of the users has not been adequately definedby our current heritage assessment methods. In-terest groups have remained under-represented inthe evaluation process and some views may nev-er be represented by ‘experts’. In current heritagepractice conservation is largely based on architec-tural and historical criteria rather than on accom-modating some of the perceptions and reactionsof everyday users of historic environments.120

Hubbard’s notion of conservation practices as anelitist activity, conservation as ‘high art’ rather thanas a setting for everyday life, applies to Kyoto’surban vernacular traditions more than well.

In 1994, the seminar ‘What is social value?’ heldby the Australian Heritage Commission acknowl-edged the need to define social value as a com-ponent of cultural significance and the need toprotect places despite the dismissal of such placesas insignificant by the experts. Many of the ele-ments that make a place remain unidentified, de-spite the fact that it is the whole rather than theparts that will have a social value.121

In our sample areas there are a number of ele-ments that are not valued as ‘heritage’ althoughthey are essential for the cultural significance andmeaning of the place. These include such thingsas the hoko area as a public gathering place fortime honoured rituals and its ability to enhancecommunity values that are meaningful not onlyfor the area but for Kyoto as whole. The ‘minor’traditions within the major ones, such as theScreen Festival, add to and are an essential part ofthe heritage.

Social value is about collective attachment toplaces that embody meanings important to and val-ued in a community. These places may be commu-nity owned or publicly accessible or in some otherways ‘appropriated’ into people’s daily lives. In theScreen Festival the exhibition places take on a dualrole: they are temporarily accessible to the widerpublic but they are simultaneously private homesas well. This adds to the charm and significance oftheir sense and ‘experience‘ of place.

Cultural values themselves may inhibit protec-tion and the idea of material preservation. A pop-ular argument is that in Japan, where the

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impermanence of material objects is regarded asa central spiritual idea, it is not necessary to pre-serve old buildings. In that case the only way tokeep true to this spirit would be to document theold buildings and then let them be destroyed. Theirony, however, is that even when there is a will-ingness by the heritage authorities to documentold buildings, as in the present circumstances, onlyvery few structures actually become document-ed.122

The value criteria, which were developed forhistoric monuments leave most ordinary structu-res outside the municipal documentation prog-rammes. The limited resources, where perhapsonly one architect is engaged for the documen-tation work, are focused on historic monuments.Special programmes for the documentation of or-dinary everyday structures do not exist. At thepresent rates of urban transformation and use ofthe resources at hand, it is more than likely thatmost of the everyday buildings worthy of closerexamination will probably cease to exist before allof them have been properly documented. In thepresent research the dangers of basing conserva-tion policies solely on architectural or historicalcriteria are pinpointed, as such approaches large-ly ignore the importance that townscapes andurban neighbourhoods play in maintaining livingsocieties and cultural identities.

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The Pre-Modern Township Systemand the Concept of RyogawachoAmong the urban patterns that have shaped thelife of pre-modern neighbourhoods in the hokoarea, one of the most important is the introduc-tion of the system of self- governing townshipcommunities, ryogawacho, ‘neighbourhood on bothsides of the street’. This took place in Kyoto afterthe civil wars at the end of the 15th century, whenthe citizens established a system of self-defendingtownship communities. The purpose of the sys-tem was to protect the parishioners against ene-mies, who were robbing and murdering in thedevastated town. This was the beginning of theryogawacho. The new system changed, among otherthings, the organisation of the township unitsderiving from the Heian period, and also themeaning of the street. In the establishment of thenew township system the hoko neighbourhoodsplayed a key role.

In the new township system the neighbour-hood unit was redefined along a street and not,

as in earlier times, by city blocks. Town gates werebuilt at the end of each neighbourhood and with-in the new township units a developed form ofself-government was established. At a stroke a radi-cally new urban order was created, which is per-ceived even today in the triangular shape of thehoko neighbourhoods. Where town blocks hadpreviously been bounded by streets, the urbanunits were now made up of rows of houses on theopposite sides of the streets. This change was byno means trivial. In the new scheme the smallestorganisational units were no longer enclosed bystreets but they now incorporated the street spa-ce. Even today streets and alleyways in residentialareas of Japan serve the function of communityspaces and they are also regarded as extensionsof private space in a way almost unknown toEuropean countries.123

The gradual change and development of theTokugawa urban quarters towards ‘on both sidesof the street neighbourhoods’ is shown in Fig.38.

Chapter 15

Streets as Communal Space and theSelf-Governing Township Communities


130

The Self-Governing TownshipCommunitiesThe new system not only contributed to rede-fining the geometrical shape and reorganisationof the urban quarters but also radically changedthe social and cultural status of the pre-moderntown communities. The neighbourhood unit didnot only imply the actual physical dwelling space,but it became the major cooperative unit in themanagement of the township communities. Inthe hoko area a new type of local administrationwas developed. The previous aristocracy or tem-ple/shrine-bound relationships, which had dom-inated the life of urban quarters in the city centresince early times, were replaced by local admin-

istrative organisations. The meaning and socialstand of the township community was signifi-cantly changed.

As a social background for the reorganisationof the neighbourhoodship was the growing powerof the urban merchant class. The facades of thetownhouses had gained importance because of theshops that were located on the ground floor. Thesocial meaning of the street as a public space hadgrown. The Tokugawa township reform was inharmony with this change. In the city centre hou-sing density was intensified and both the spatialorganisation and the social organisation support-ed urban life. In other words, a great deal of self-governing took place. Prof. Tani, for instance,

FIG.37 THE COMMON FACILITY, CHOIE, IN NAGINATAHOKOCHO. THE FLOAT IS ENTERED THROUGH A TEMPORARY

WOODEN BRIDGE FROM THE UPPER FLOOR OF THE COMMON FACILITY. TS.

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writes of this self-governing system in the follow-ing way:

“… A system was built in which life management andspace management and control of the residential space wereorganically operated. Such control over the residential areawith the initiative of townspeople is a noteworthy historicalfact concerning urban history in Japan”. 124

The purpose of Prof. Tani’s study was to elucidatethe social and spatial structure of the townshipcommunities of Nara, Osaka and Kyoto of theTokugawa period and to describe the pre-mod-ern urban dwelling system. Sample quarters in-cluded the hoko neighbourhoods.

As the wooden townhouses easily burneddown, an important function of the townshipcommunities was fire protection, especially in thehoko neighbourhoods where the reassembled partsof the festival floats and their cultural assets werestored within the community in the local store-houses. Even today, there is a significant local con-trol over the storing function (and thus, over thewhole heritage) in the hoko neighbourhoods. Asit proved out in the Yamahoko field survey, a re-markable number of the cultural assets are stillpreserved in their local storehouses and not con-trolled by the municipal authorities.

Among the occupations controlled by the town-ship communities era were, among others, publichairdressers and barbers, which due to the compli-cated hairstyle (the men’s hairstyle was a symbol ofclass), were an important lower class occupation.The barbers’ premises also acted as local adminis-tration offices and information centres for the cen-tral government. For the Tokugawa government theland reform was one of the keyways to extend itscontrol and power of influence even among thesmallest administrative units of the society.

The system disappeared quite late, in the Meijiera. According to the Second Land Use Act in1889, in the first neighbourhood records after theMeiji restoration, the public barbers had began tomove out of their businesses or change occupa-tions. In 1900, all the earlier cho, township, con-trolled facilities had been changed to ordinary

barbershops. Today the hoko area is the only areain the historic grid-plan area, where the spatialarrangement that was characteristic of the pre-modern phase of the city centre’s urban historyhas been preserved adding to its historic signifi-cance. The system becomes alive during the ur-ban festival and is visible, for example, in thedecorated festival streets.

Street as Communal SpaceThe ryogawa system stressed the meaning of streetas communal space. The street in front of thehouse served as a playground for children as wellas an area where adults could socialise. The mean-ing of street as communal space culminated insuch traditions as the urban festival. The architec-tural development of the townhouses echoed theevolution of community events that took place inthe street. The social events unfolded in the in-termediate spaces between the centre of the streetand the inner recesses of the townhouse.

The sense of community within a townshipwas demonstrated in the unified style of architec-tural elements like the type of standardised rooftiles, the depth of the eaves, and in the pattern andnumbers of slats in the window grilles. A highlyadvanced system of standardisation was possiblebecause the social organisation and the buildingorganisation were controlled by the same admin-istrative unit. At the end of the Tokugawa periodevery townhouse was based on an unified dimen-sioning. The size of the rooms was counted ac-cording to the number of tatami mats and all thestructural members of the house were calculatedon the dimensions of the tatami.

As a result of the standardisation, all buildingelements in the house such as sliding doors, win-dow slats and mats were exchangeable with anyother house in the town. Among the western-ers, Heino Engel, for instance, has in his bookgiven an excellent description of this Japanesebuilding standardisation system, the basis ofwhich was created in the Tokugawa period. Theunity of style of traditional townscape can stillbe observed in such places as the historic preser-

132

vation areas of Kyoto. From the hoko neighbour-hoods the architectural integrity of style has,however, largely disappeared, as the author willdemonstrate below.

The Pre-Modern Common FacilityAn important local institution, which developedin close relation to the pre-modern township sys-tem, was the common facility, known as chokaisho.Because of its important role as public exhibitionfacility, okazariba, during the urban festival, theauthor will briefly describe this institution below.The first consultations took place in the fifth yearof the Bunroku era (1596) in Niwatorihokochowhere, according to a historical record stipulatingthe township rules

“ ... all in the neighbourhood should gather together ina place designed for this purpose”.

The first meetings were held in Rokkakudo andKodo temples, two famous temples still existing inthe city centre. In Kyoto the chokaisho facility is usu-ally known as ‘kaisho’, ‘choie’, or after the Meiji res-toration also: as ‘chokai gisho’. The Meiji governmentordered the change of the old name because of itsundertones of the hated Tokugawa system. The newname, however, never came into common use andthe old name, chokaisho, is kept even today. The smallpublic space, the ‘noman’s land’, that was left be-tween the town gates at the crossing of the resi-dential streets, is thought to be one of the startingpoints for these facilities. A permanent structure de-veloped in the Momoyama era and spread to be-come established at the beginning of the Tokugawaera. The Gion Festival played a central role in theformation of these facilities.

In the pre-modern era the common facilitieshad an important role in the administration andmanagement of the township communities. Theyserved as local administration offices and also, asinformation centres for the central government.In the Meiji era many common facilities were soldwith the erasing of the pre-modern neighbour-hood organisations. In the hoko area, owing to the

Gion Festival, the institution has, however, sur-vived to the present day.125

After the Second World War many common fa-cilities were sold because of the uncertainty in thefuture of the hoko neighbourhoods. At present,however, the common facility survives in morethan half of the hoko neighbourhoods. The facil-ity continues to be of great local importance es-pecially because of the Gion Festival126 . Duringthe festival week the common facilities arechanged to temporary exhibition facilities, wherethe cultural assets and other paraphernalia ascribedto each festival float are displayed to public viewbefore the festival procession.127 These festivalexhibitions, as already noted, are among the im-portant cultural and urban testimony of the hokoneighbourhoods. The analysis of the festival ex-hibitions, inspiring as it might have been, washowever, not possible within the scope of thecurrent work.

Besides the exhibition function, the common fa-cilities take many other public functions as well.128

The extensive field survey material related to thecommon facilities and their function in the citycommunity which was carried out during theYamahoko programme could not, because of thevastness of the material, be included in this workbut is available to those interested from the author.

The Heritage Value of CommonFacilitiesThe field surveys, which were carried out by theYamahoko team on the common facilities, includ-ed, among other things, a thorough inventory ofthe pre-modern building types and spatial pat-terns, which exist on these properties. Thanks tothis monitoring we now have a very precise andexact picture of these facilities and their pre-mod-ern building types. They are often the only wood-en structures that are left from the historicneighbourhoods and the wooden townhouse tra-dition. According to the Yamahoko investigationthe total number of wooden structures existing onthese properties was 63. In addition, there weremany structures of other materials such as rein-

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forced concrete.129 The fireproof storehouses oftraditional shape and small temples and Shintoshrines add to the cultural significance and her-itage value of these facilities.

At the present moment the common facilitiesare threatened in a number of ways. The legislativeand management mechanisms are inadequate toensure their conservation. Many of the commonfacilities are of low technical standard and they arenot up to standard as regards fire protection, hu-midity and safety that is required for the properstoring of cultural assets. There is serious deterio-ration of the wooden structures and materials thathas taken place over a long period. The repairs havebeen carried out carelessly and do not fulfil thestandard that should be expected in the repair andconservation work on cultural properties.

In 1991 the common facility of Naginatahoko-cho was closed as the access to the float becauseof its poor technical condition and resulting dan-ger to the public. Moreover, dismantling the old

structures and developing the site with high-risebuildings is in many hoko neighbourhoods regard-ed as the only way to improve the falling eco-nomy. In other words, to keep and secure thecontinuity of the festival the heritage is destroyedand sold. So far the common facility has alreadybeen rebuilt in five communities130 . Among struc-tures that are endangered, are such fine pre-mod-ern wooden structures as the common facility inHashibenkeicho.131

Questioning the Heritage Criteriaof the Common FacilitiesAmong the pre-modern common facilities onlyfour have so far been preserved by law and desig-nated as cultural assets.132 The small number ofprotected structures is not nearly enough to savethe heritage as a whole. The arguments that herit-age authorities have used and that finally have pre-vented their registration have been such as the

FIG.38 THE TOKUGAWA ERA LAND REFORM

AND TRANSFORMATION OF URBAN SPACE.

ABOVE, LEFT. THE BIRTH OF NARROW AND

DEEP PLOTS, TANZAKU. IN THE TOKUGAWA

ERA LAND REFORM THE HEIAN PERIOD

TOWNSHIP UNIT, CHO IS HALVED BY

NORTH-SOUTH RUNNING STREETS.

THE SIZE OF THE NEW URBAN UNIT

IS 120 M X 60 M AND THE SIZE OF

INDIVIDUAL SITES 30 M X 60 M.

ABOVE, RIGHT. THE ORIGINAL HEIAN PERIOD

TOWNSHIP UNIT, CHO , 120 M X 120 M

SURROUNDED ON FOUR SIDES BY

THE STREET.

BELOW, LEFT. THE HEIAN PERIOD TOWNSHIP

UNIT, CHO , IS DIVIDED INTO FOUR SUB-

UNITS BY DIAGONALS.

BELOW, RIGHT. THE SUB-UNITS ARE UNITED

AND RENAMED AS RYOGAWACHO,

‘NEIGHBOURHOOD ON BOTH

SIDES OF THE STREET’.

DIAGRAMS BY THE YAMAHOKO TEAM.

134

lacking criterion of age and the lack of architec-tural integrity. No concern has been given to suchheritage values as the continued use and the valueof the wooden town house context in the middleof changing townscape. In Naginatahokocho, forinstance, as has been planned, the demolishing ofthe old storehouse and other authentic woodenstructures with such traditional rooms as the prac-ticing room for the living page boy, would makean irreparable damage to the tradition as a whole.

Among the members of the international pres-ervation community who have been worriedabout the ongoing destruction process of thecommon facilities and who have clearly voicedtheir opinion for the protection of this culturalheritage is architect Gunther Nietschke, who hasstated in relation to these facilities:

“... The Yasaka Shrine is protected as an ImportantCultural Property and the yamahoko floats (in otherwords, the festival floats, clarification by the author) areprotected ...The only aspect which is not protected inthis unique festival are the cho-ie (the common facili-ties) and the few traditional kyo-machiya (in otherwords, the traditional Kyoto wooden frame houses;specification by the author) left in the Muromachi dis-trict”.

In the thesis the common facilities illustrate se-vere urban conservation problems that are char-acteristic of the whole hoko area today. What thiscultural heritage needs, is not only special researchprogrammes to solve their technical problems, butalso a questioning and re-evaluation of their pro-tection priorities.

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FIG.39 SECTION AND PLAN OF THE COMMON FACILITY IN URADEYAMACHO . LEFT SHIDO , SMALL BUDDHIST HALL. ONE

EXAMPLE OF THE HERITAGE VALUES OF THE COMMON FACILITIES. DRAWING BY THE YAMAHOKO TEAM.

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Unagi no Nedoko - ‘Sleeping Placesof an Eel’Kyoto’s most typical townhouses, kyo-machiya,were merchant houses, characterised by narrowand deep lots. The basis for the plot division pat-tern was created in the Tokugawa era when, as aresult of the extensive urbanisation process and thegrowth of the large cities, the housing density wasintensified. As possibilities for the town’s expan-sion outside the city walls were highly limited, thetown had to grow inwards within the existingurban blocks.

The basic necessities for a more effective landuse in the central area were created through a landreform that was initiated by Toyotomi Hideyoshi.In the land reform urban blocks in large areas inthe historic grid-plan area were halved throughnorth-south running narrow streets (roji) that wereplaced in the middle of the urban blocks. Thedepth of new urban urban units was 60 metresand the depth of sites 30 metres. It was this nar-row and deep building site, tanzaku (literally, ‘nar-row stripes’), that became the dominant plot

division type in Kyoto. These densely built nar-row and deep sites are in Kyoto commonlyknown as unagi no nedoko, ‘sleeping places of aneel’. This pattern is one of the basic urban patternsof Kyoto. It gives character and identity to the citystructure as a whole and as such, is an indispen-sable part of the heritage value of the town.

The spatial evolution of the urban blocks in theTokugawa era was shown in Fig. 38. Together withthe tanzaku system, ryogawacho kept its position asa basic land division pattern in the hoko neigh-bourhoods.

The Tokugawa Era Dwelling PlanIn the narrow and deep sites a complicated andsophisticated plan type evolved that was essen-tially different from its more ‘primitive’ Heianand Kamakura period forerunners. The narrowand deep building site set limitations but it alsocreated new possibilities to new interesting plantypes. From now on, it was possible to grow in-wards in depth within individual plots. One new

Chapter 16

Dwelling Patterns

138

invention in the plan was toriniwa, a long and nar-row corridor that runs on either side of the house.This space became an intermediate space be-tween the outdoor space and the interior of thehouse.

With the upper class shoin style, narrow build-ing types got popularity and began to be regard-ed as ideal. The spatial layout of the Kyototownhouse was consisted of a number of sub-structures which were joined together with roofedcorridors. The in-between spaces that were leftbetween structures were laid out as small innergardens. The interior was differentiated betweena number of different functions; the private zonein the inner parts of the house; on the street sidewas the shop or working space. In the wealthymerchant homes employees slept upstairs, makingthe townhouse the home and workplace even formaybe fifteen people.

Within the Japanese building traditions theKyoto townhouse represents the western typebuilding typology in contrast to the Kanto areaor eastern type. One of the distinct features of thewestern building typology was the above men-tioned toriniwa space. In addition, narrow and deepsites forced all houses in Kyoto to use basicallyuniform plan types. In Tokyo the plan types weremuch more incoherent or accidental and there isno standard plan type. Bruno Taut observed thisbasic difference between plan types in Tokyo andKyoto in a following way:133

“...In Kyoto the houses are generally built with nar-row fronts around the squares (in other words, aroundthe inner gardens; specification by the author) into whichthey stretch narrowly and deeply. The southern orien-tation of the living rooms, without which the Japanesehouse is almost useless, has consequently to some ex-

FIG.40 UNAGI NO NEDOKO , ‘SLEEPING

PLACES OF AN EEL’ IN YATACHO . PLAN

OF THE MIKAMI, TAKEHANA, SHIBAYAMA,

NAKATA, TAKANO AND KATO-HORIBE

HOUSE. YT.

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tent disappeared. In many houses the verandas are nolonger in the sun. Consequently in Kyoto a special typehas developed, in contrast to which the typical plan ofTokyo”.

On the narrow and deep building sites each mer-chant building in Kyoto can be classified into sev-eral sub-groups according to the floor-plandominantly decided by the lot size, lot form anddevelopment of the housing layout. The authorwill analyse a number of such plan types throughthe examples of the fieldwork (see chapter 20).

Dwelling Patterns in YatachoInformation about the character of the pre-mod-ern dwelling patterns that exist in the hoko areais provided by the fieldwork carried out by theNishikawa laboratory in Yatacho. The survey wasaccomplished in 1990. In these field surveys, theSugimoto house and six other wooden structureswere investigated and their dwelling plans meas-ured for the survey in cooperation with the her-itage authorities. Through these structures it ispossible to get a preliminary picture of the man-ifold spatial and dwelling patterns of the tradition-al building stock. The dominant dwelling patternin Yatacho as in other hoko neighbourhoods is theunagi no nedoko, the ‘sleeping place of an eel’ pat-tern. Beside this pattern a tenement pattern, na-gaya, can be found. The Sugimoto house, as anexceptionally large structure, is in a category ofits own.

The Sugimoto HouseThe most important structure among the inves-tigated buildings in Yatacho, and the ‘king’ amongthe wooden townhouses even in the wider area,is the Sugimoto house, which with its 30 metreslong facade dominates the urban landscape ofYatacho. The house was built by Sugimoto Shinz-aemon in 1870. 134 The house was constructedonly a few years after the great city fire in 1864.Therefore, in the building we can still find the ex-cellent architectural and carpentry craft of the Edoera which at that period still survived in Kyoto.

FIG.41 YATA KANNON.LOCAL

SHRINE IN YATACHO . YT.

140

The house has altogether 19 structures in whatis, by Kyoto standards, an exceptionally spacioussite. These include the main structure, moya, thestreet elevation, omoteya, and three elegant store-houses of traditional shape. The house is not onlyan important architectural and historic landmarkbut also the core of the city community. Not onlyis the public exhibition staged and performed inthe house during the Gion Festival, but almost allhistorical documents from pre-modern times arekept in the family storehouse and not, as is usual,in the municipal archive.

The house has been superbly maintained withits spacious and semi-dark interior spaces, lovelyinner gardens, delicate building materials and ele-gant details and proportions. These dark interiorspaces reminded Gallian of the darkness of a tra-ditional Japanese house which Tanizaki has prai-sed in his novel In Praise of Shadows(1987). Exceptfor the Western style kitchen-dining room whichwas built during the Second World War and a newbathroom which was built in a room formerlyused for the tea ceremony, very little has beenchanged. This is mostly due to the Sugimotofamily, who has adapted their lifestyle to fit in withthe historic house and its conservation objectives.The house has neither modern heating nor air

conditioning. In the winter, cold northern windsblow through the house through the open ranma,the decorative wooden partitions between thehorizontal lintel and the ceiling. 135 In winter, al-though all lattice partitions are closed, the roomsare as cold as outdoors.

The Takehana, Mikami, Shibayama, Nakataand Takano HousesAmong the structures, which were investigated bythe Nishikawa laboratory, the Takehana, Mikami,Shibayama, Nakata and Takano houses are repre-sentatives of the ‘sleeping places of an eel’, unagino nedoko pattern. The depth of the surveyed sitesvaries from 16.5 metres to 46 metres. In otherwords the depth of the deepest site is almost threetimes that of the shortest site. The variation itselfis a typical feature of the hoko neighbourhoodsand it is explained by the triangular shape of theryogawacho. The deepest sites were in the middle,while the depth of the plots was decreasing to-wards the borders of the neighbourhood. Thewidth of the houses varies roughly around 6.7metres. In other words, the width of the housesis notably smaller than that of the Sugimotohouse. In the Tokugawa era Kyoto the width ofthe sites was greatly influenced by the shortage of

FIG.42 FACADE OF THE

SUGIMOTO HOUSE. YATACHO . RS.

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land. As a result, the most typical Kyoto sites wererather narrow. In addition, the tax was paid ac-cording to the width of the house, which alsoinfluenced and regulated the length of the house. Among the structures investigated are such finebuildings as the Mikami house, which is locatednext to the Sugimoto house. With its well-pre-served wooden frame facade and its fine tradition-al interior spaces the house is a good example ofKyoto’s surviving vernacular traditions. Otherhouses surveyed show a more or less renovatedand renewed facade. In part VII, chapter 20, field-work no. 1, the author presents a number of una-gi no nedoko type dwelling patterns that completeour picture of the variations and richness of theKyoto pre-modern dwelling patterns.

The Kato-Horibe HouseAmong the surveyed houses the Kato-Horibehouse is a representative of the nagaya-pattern, theurban tenement which developed, in particular, inthe inner parts of the urban blocks. Unlike theunagi no nedoko pattern, the site is shallow, and theplan relatively simple lacking the spatial richnessand variation characteristic for the classic Kyotodwelling plan. A characteristic feature of the ten-ement pattern is that it has shared walls with theadjoining buildings. The sample plan, the Kato-Horibe house is a multi-family house, which con-sists of two identical residences, which weredocumented in the field survey. Although not ascommon as detached houses, the tenement pat-tern illustrates a common type of urban dwellingfrom pre-industrial times. One such unpretentiousurban tenement dwelling, the Sugiura house, issurveyed and described in detail as part of ourfieldwork (see part VII, chapter 20, fieldworkno.5).

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Screens and the Japanese DwellingSpaceScreens have been used as space dividers in Japa-nese residential architecture since the Heian pe-riod. Japanese architecture is based on light andmovable wall partitions and on the use of screensthat can take on the role of screening walls. As iswidely known, traditional Japanese rooms aresparsely furnished and lack decorations except forsome cushions or tables, which are used tempo-rarily when required. The cultural significance ofscreens in the Japanese dwelling space can bedetected in many quotations that occur in classicliterature and which refer to the important roleof screens. Famous for example, is, a passage in theTale of Genji written at the beginning of the 11thcentury:

“... Kobai was consumed with curiosity: If only I couldsee what she looks like! he thought. It really is a pitythat she always has to be hidden!... One day, when therewas no one about, he stole slyly along to the youngwoman’s bed chamber, hoping to catch a glimpse of her,

but, peering through the screen which was concealing her,he could not get the last idea of her shape (it was sovery dark…)”.136

Beside their role as space dividers the decoratedscreens were often the major visual foci of therooms. Many of the masterpieces of Japanese arthistory are actually made on such screens, whichemphasises the visual significance of the screens.The Tokugawa period, especially the late 16th andearly 17th centuries showed a special love of gran-deur and display quite unlike that of earlier times.Gorgeous decorative screens and panels, withhighly coloured scenes and designs laid on back-grounds of gold leaf (the so called kin-gin byobu),were typical of the time and also became popu-lar at such events as the Screen Festival.137

History of the Screen FestivalOriginally, the festival decorations for the GionFestival were made to celebrate the deities of theshrine. At some stage, however, the Gion Festivalbecame popular among the common people and

Chapter 17

The Screen Festival

the decorations began to be made solely for sight-seeing. This was a development which Japanese arthistorians have called a process from matsuri tosairei, the development from festival to urban fes-tival. The intention of the festival as a celebrationof the shrine weakened and energy was concen-trated on attracting people’s attention. Since thattime the festival decorations have become moreand more gorgeous.

In the early modern era the Tokugawa gov-ernment decided to stop public support of allcultural performances. The key target of the cen-tral government was a well-organised and orderedsociety. Communication between different groupsin the society was limited and regulated by strictrules. In order to prevent uncontrolled social in-fluence, Japan closed its doors from the outsideworld for 200 years. The isolation policy SakokuSeisaku, lasted in Japan from 1639 to 1854. Cul-ture was pushed into the private sphere where itwas away from public view. In other words, theofficial policy and culture of the Tokugawa era didnot support the concept of public gatherings ormuseums.

Only once a year, during the Gion Festival, cul-tural properties and family treasures could be ex-hibited for public view. The private and publicdomains fused temporarily. This was one of thebeginnings of the Screen Festival. In the strictlycontrolled society of the Tokugawa era when thecity communities and urban merchants were for-bidden to show their wealth in public, the urbanfestival was an important tool for city neighbour-hoods to compete in elegance and wealth.

In the history of Kyoto, a Yoimya Matsuri isknown where every hoko neighbourhood stageddecorations ascribed to the Gion Festival. A te-mporary stage was set up, known as the okazariba(literally: ‘decorated place’). This became the spir-itual and visual core of much of the festival. Inmore than half of the hoko neighbourhoods thecommon facility, chokaisho or choie, was used forthis display. As was observed in chapter 15, thecommon facility plays even today a key role in thefestival. In addition, ordinary townhouses exhib-ited screens and other home treasures. This per-

formance was known as Byobu Matsuri, the displayof folding screens.

The first time the Screen Festival is mentionedin historical records, is the Miyako Gion E Zu E(1894), a famous Meiji era guidebook on sights-eeing spots and events in Kyoto. In the book theScreen Festival is mentioned as an important sea-sonal event in the city centre. According to theguidebook the event is very popular among thetownspeople. Many visitors come to enjoy the dis-play, which is described ‘as the most spectacularsight in the world’. Yasunari Kawabata describedthe performance in the following way:

“...The stores were open with painted screens set outfor decoration. There were early ukiyoe, Kano School andYamato paintings and Sotatsu folding screens. Amongthe original ukiyoe there were even some screens thatdepicted foreigners in the elegant Kyoto style. Theyexpressed the height of vitality of the Kyoto merchantclass”.138

For the present day kimono families who partic-ipate in the festival, the tradition continues to bea source of family pride. Many of the displays havemany years of patronage and the continued tra-dition itself gives them prestige and significance.Outside the hoko area, home displays of a similarkind are seen, for example, during the KuramaFire Festival in the northern outskirts of Kyoto,and screen displays of a similar kind are foundeven in other parts of Japan. They lack, however,the elegance and artistic quality of the ScreenFestival.

The Inter-Relationship between theUrban Dwelling and the StreetAs was analysed in part IV, chapter 13, the inter-relationship between the urban dwelling and thescreen displays is one of the key concepts to ex-plain the cultural significance of the Screen Fes-tival. There is no historic material on theinter-relationship between the urban festival andthe ordinary townhouses from periods before the17th century. The first descriptions appear in a

9

picture book called Gion Sairei Zu.139 In the book,that was published between 1596-1658, sightseersare seen in the foreground and in the backgroundbeautiful screens are on display. This is one of theearliest documents of the Screen Festival.

In the middle of the Tokugawa era in 1757, ac-cording to a famous record, Yamahoko Yurai-Ki,140

the hoko neighbourhoods were decorated withlanterns and decorative cloths. Elegant gold andsilver painted screens were also on display. By thisperiod the street decorations that adorn the streetsduring the Gion Festival, have acquired a fixedform. They were principally the same as we seethem today. In the Meiji era the splendour of the

festival reaches its climax. This can be seen fromillustrations in the Miyako Gion E Zu E (1894),for example.

The magnificence of the Gion Festival and theclose inter-dependence between the urban festi-val and urban dwelling is vividly described inhistorical records such as the above mentionedYamahoko-Yurai-Ki, which describes how

“... Streets in the city centre were colourfully decoratedbefore the procession. Each townhouse had lanterns andlarge pieces of cloth, manmaku, hanging in front of theproperty. Golden and silver painted screens, kinginbyobu, and red woollen carpets were seen everywhere.

FIG. 43 OMOTE, SHOP IS EXPOSED INTO THE STREET. THE KOJIRO YOSHIDA DISPLAY, ROKKAKUCHO. HK.


146

Each house competed in the beauty and splendour ofits decorations inviting many visitors. Indeed, in this mo-ment, Kyoto showed its most magnificent face”.

The Picture Window Effect and theVisual Significance of the ScreenFestivalThe visual significance of the screen displays is notonly dependent on the artistic decorations of theinteriors, but on the total visual settings of the dis-plays. This includes, as an essential part, the inter-relationship between the urban dwelling and thestreet.

A well-known design concept of traditionalJapanese architecture is the ‘picture window’,yukimimado (literally, ‘snow viewing window’).This means a special landscape technique of in-troducing the exterior landscape into the interi-or space so that the exterior can suddenly, througha skilfully placed window or door opening, be en-joyed inside the house. Such technique is in par-ticular, popular in Zen temples and gardens, wherethe ‘picture window’ effect is commonly used to

manipulate the garden views and to produce un-expected views along the walking routes. Thelandscape is not revealed once and for all, butenjoyed piece by piece with time.

In a very similar way, in the screen displays,when the wooden partitions are removed and thehouse is exposed to the street, the passer-by canobserve the interior of the house which wouldotherwise be inaccessible to public view, addingto the artistic impact of the displays. During thefestival nights the impact of these interior sightsis emphasised by the solitude and darkness of thedwelling streets that are in great contrast to thecrowded and flashy main streets. The visual sig-nificance of the Screen Festival even today orig-inates in the striking beauty of these unexpectedviews. With the disappearance of the woodentownhouse tradition, such sights have, however,become extremely rare. It is ironic that while anumber of displays are highlighted in tourist pam-phlets the town considers the architecture thatsurrounds them as without value and has made noattempt to protect the wooden structures and thecultural patterns attached to them.

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IntroductionThe objective of chapter 18 is to give a general pic-ture of the current profile of the hoko neighbour-hoods. As the main indicator in the analysis theauthor has used the population trend. In additionto this, the general profile of the built fabric wasstudied, that is, the number of wooden/reinforcedconcrete buildings. The use of these buildings wasalso observed on-site. Observations were the ma-jor source of information. The site investigation in-cluded a total of 758 buildings. Structures inside theurban blocks were not recorded. Besides field sur-veys the municipal registers were also available.

Population TrendOver the past 30 years a drastic drop in popula-tion has taken place in the city centre and, in par-ticular, in the hoko neighbourhoods. While thetotal population in Kyoto has shown a slight in-crease, in the hoko area the number of inhabitantshas dropped from 6,738 inhabitants in 1960 to 2,-

658 inhabitants in 1990141 . In other words, dur-ing this period the population decreased by almosttwo thirds (61%). The number of residents in thehoko neighbourhoods during the 40-year period1950-1990 is shown in table 1, Appendix 4. Basedon this table, we identified four major populationcategories of the hoko neighbourhoods:

a) Hoko neighbourhoods where the populationhas decreased for a time threatening the exis-tence of the city community.

b) Hoko neighbourhoods where the populationhas been decreasing slowly.

c) Hoko neighbourhoods where the populationhas been decreasing but the number of in-habitants is still relatively high.

d) Hoko neighbourhoods where the populationhas been slowly increasing or has remainedstable.

As can be seen from the categories above, thepopulation has been decreasing in the first three

Chapter 18

The Current Profile of theHoko Neighbourhoods

148

categories. Although the population has been de-creasing in categories B and C, in the C group thepopulation is still relatively large and it has re-mained at over 100 inhabitants per neighbour-hood. However, only three such neighbourhoodscan be found today.

The worst situation is in category A. The pop-ulation has dramatically decreased and the citycommunities have almost collapsed. In 1990 inthis group of hoko neighbourhoods the popula-tion had decreased by 92% from what it had beenin 1950 and only thirty-five inhabitants were left.In one neighbourhood, Takannacho, the numberof inhabitants fell to zero in 1990. The situationin Kankohokocho was not much better. Here, oneinhabitant was left. In Naginatahokocho twoinhabitants remain. Most of the new buildingshave been office buildings with no residentialfunction.

In category D the population has been incr-easing slightly or remained the same particularlyduring the past ten years. This has been mainly dueto the construction of new apartment houses thathave been built in these neighbourhoods142 . Exceptfor two neighbourhoods, Tenjinyamacho andBanocho, habitation is still strong. The populationexceeds 100 inhabitants in these neighbourhoods.In two hoko neighbourhoods, Taishiyamacho andKazahayacho, the population even exceeds twohundred inhabitants. In particular, in Taishiyama-cho, population numbers have remained the sameeven over a 40-year period.

Age of Population and Number ofHouseholdsDuring the 25-year period 1960-1985 the mainfeature of the age trend has been the general age-ing of the population. The number of youngerpeople has declined dramatically while the shareof aged people has steadily grown. The evolutionthat has take place can be observed in Fig. 46.

Evaluated through school districts, the so-calledmotogakku, the picture is not much better. Therewere seven fewer children in 1985 than in 1980in each city community. Furthermore, there aremany hoko neighbourhoods with no children ofprimary school age. In 1991, of the six originalschool districts, four southern school districts andtwo northern districts were combined into onedistrict. In other words, the hoko neighbourhoodsthat once were pioneers in establishing the pub-lic primary school system throughout Japan arenow facing collapse of the school system.

While the total number of households grewslightly in Kyoto as a whole, in the hoko neigh-bourhoods the number of households remainedalmost the same. That the decrease in the numberof households was not as dramatic as might be ex-pected from the population trend, might be dueto the fact that while the younger generation hasmoved outside the city centre, the older genera-tion has still continued living there. Furthermore,the large number of small flats built in the citycentre has, in particular, increased the number of

FIG.44 POPULATION TREND. WHOLE KYOTO IN 1960-85. YT.

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small households. This has influenced the structureof households in the hoko neighbourhoods too.

In 1988 there were 1,050 households altogeth-er.143 In one hoko neighbourhood the averagenumber of households was 33. The average sizeof household was 2.3 persons. In other words, thesize of the families was rather small. For thenumber of households in Kyoto as a whole andin the hoko neighbourhoods, see Figs. 44, 45.

Profile of the Built EnvironmentThe number of wooden buildings in the hokoneighbourhoods was registered systematically bythe Yamahoko team. Although the survey was lim-ited to the buildings along the residential streets,through these investigations we can get a generalpicture of the number of wooden buildings thatexist.

According to the investigation, which compriseda total of 758 buildings, there were altogether 436wooden buildings. In other words, more than half(58%) of buildings were still wooden. If the innerparts of the hoko neighbourhoods had been takenin consideration, the number of wooden buildingswould have been even larger. Furthermore, amongthe wooden buildings, 299 (39%) were of machiyastyle, 128 (17%) of kanban, shop sign style facades,nine (1%) other wooden structures. The number ofreinforced concrete buildings was 322 (42%).

However, there were large differences betweenindividual neighbourhoods. The different profiles

of the built environment in the hoko neighbour-hoods are shown in Fig. 47. The figure shows theshare of wooden buildings in each neighbour-hood.

Use of BuildingsThe hoko area as part of the Muromachi kimonowholesale district, is traditionally characterised byan urban structure where dwelling/residentialareas have been mixed with other land-uses suchkimono production and trade. This picture is toa large degree still valid today. Although the kimo-no industry is in decline, a relatively large numberof kimono activities is still found. Of the 737 bui-ldings investigated, 316 (43%) were used for tradeslinked with traditional industries. Of these, asmany as 249 (79%) were involved with the ki-mono industries and trade.

The Current Profile of the HokoNeighbourhoods and the Future ofits HeritageThe continuity of the Gion Festival is secured bylaw, by local preservation organisations and byhuge public and private subsidies. Still, the futureof the festival is threatened in a number of ways.With the lack of a younger generation, the con-tinuity of the festival has become endangered inmany hoko neighbourhoods. With few survivingmembers in the city neighbourhood the tradition

FIG.45 POPULATION TREND. THE HOKO

NEIGHBOURHOODS IN 1960-85. YT.

FIG. 46 AGE STRUCTURE. THE HOKO NEIGHBOURHOODS

IN 1960-85. YT.

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has become difficult to maintain. The culturalknow-how necessary for the festival such as theproper maintenance of time-honoured rituals anddisplay techniques is vanishing at an acceleratingspeed.

A large part of the work needed in the organ-isation and management of the festival, is done aspaid part-time work. Already in six hokoneighbourhoods the festival is run by outside vol-unteers and the significance of the townshipcommunity as a mutual cooperation unit has de-generated. Many of the volunteers even comefrom outside Kyoto. An acquaintance from Osa-ka, who is working there for a large Japanesecompany, volunteers in Funehokocho, the neigh-bourhood of ship shape float. Festival volunteersare even hired among the foreign students atKyoto University. In Naginatahokocho, which isthe neighbourhood of the living pageboy, no fam-ily is left in sole charge of their local pavilion.Representatives of the Yasaka Shrine supervise thefestival. According to the Yamahoko investigationonly six neighbourhoods were under no imme-

diate threat and could manage the festival with-out help from outside.

Despite the extensive construction activity inthe city centre, the number of residents has in-creased in only a few hoko neighbourhoods. Evenin those neighbourhoods with new residents, onlyin a few communities have they been integratedinto the urban festival. Because the constructionindustry and the market favour the constructionof small tenant apartments, new residents havemostly been short-term residents such as students,unmarried young people or childless couples whoare often from outside Kyoto and have no per-sonal interest in the festival.

With the decreasing and ageing population it hasbecome more and more difficult to maintain thefestival. The dramatic increase in maintenance ex-penses, such as the expensive restoration and repairwork on the cultural properties, has increased thefinancial burden on the vanishing neighbourhoods.According to the Yamahoko survey, the economyhas already collapsed in a number of hoko neigh-bourhoods.

FIG.47 SHARE OF WOODEN

BUILDINGS IN THE HOKO

NEIGHBOURHOODS

ACCORDING TO THE

YAMAHOKO SURVEY

IN 1991. YT.

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As to the built fabric, the hoko neighbourhoodsare characterised by a multitude of building typesfrom the wooden frame houses to reinforced con-crete and steel structures. The wooden framehouses are in a majority in the narrow lanes andside alleys. As quiet residential oases they are per-haps more important than ever. In many areas,however, a process of dramatic urban change hasbegun threatening the character and life of theneighbourhoods. One dominant feature of thebuilt environment is the uneven character of theurban transformation process. There are now hokoneighbourhoods where large office buildingsdominate and neighbourhoods where manywooden townhouses survive and the trans-formation process has hardly yet begun.

As was analysed above, most of the vanishinghoko neighbourhoods are located in the vicinityof the Shijo-Karasuma area. In other words, theyare in the core of the central business district withits large conglomeration of commercial and busi-ness functions. In these areas it is likely that theurban transformation process will continue. Out-side these areas the picture of the built and urbanenvironment is, however quite different. In par-ticular, there are many well-preserved city neigh-bourhoods west of Nishi no Toin Street. Amongthe 11 neighbourhoods, which showed an increasein population, eight communities were located inthis area south of Shijo Street. These are city are-as that until now have been spared the most ex-tensive city development. Habitation is in theseareas still strong and there are a large number ofwooden frame houses. It is these more peripher-al neighbourhoods where it still makes sense tospeak about urban conservation.

Below, the author will investigate, through theexample of three neighbourhoods, the architec-tural and urban patterns that exist in the hokoneighbourhoods. These field surveys will furtherclarify our picture of the urban profile of the hokoarea and the character of its urban heritage.

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Description of the Survey AreaThe foci of Chapter 19 are three historic hokoneighbourhoods: Kakkyoyamacho, Shinkamanza-cho and Yatacho. By their different scale and life-styles they illustrate three types of urbanenvironment characteristic of the city centre andthe hoko area today. Shinkamanzacho is a cityneighbourhood with kimono textile manufac-turers’ houses and small urban tenanted terracedhouses. Yatacho is a kimono textile wholesaledistrict with both distribution and dwelling fun-ctions. Kakkyoyamacho is characterised by mixedland use combining dwellings with small shops,tempo. Two of the neighbourhoods studied, Yata-cho and Kakkyoyamacho, illustrate the conceptof the ryogawacho, the pre-modern system ofself-governing township communities. Shinka-manzacho, on the other hand, is a tenement lanein the middle of an urban block between Yata-cho and Kakkyoyamacho.

The objective of the fieldwork was to obtaininformation about the special features of the archi-tecture and urban heritage in these historic neigh-bourhoods, which still survive, but are severelyendangered by the transformation process of the town.

The survey area is defined by Shijo Street inthe north, Ayanokoji Street in the south, Shinma-chi Street in the east and Nishi no Toin Street inthe west. In the township structure of Kyoto, Yat-acho and Kakkyoyamacho show the pattern of‘lying’ neighbourhood, while Shinkamanzacho isa representative of narrow tenement lanes. The lo-cation of the three neighbourhoods in the surveyarea is shown in Fig. 51.

History of the NeighbourhoodsKakkyoyamachoAccording to Yamashiro Meisho-shi a temple namedAnyo-ji existed around the present Kakkyoyama-

Chapter 19

Introduction to the Fieldwork on Architectural Patterns of

Three Hoko Neighbourhoods

156

cho around 1110. This temple was moved to an-other place by order of Toyotomi Hideyoshi.After this record, the oldest record fromKakkyoyamacho is documented in 1500, just af-ter the Onin wars, in the list which records thefestival floats. According to the list there is a‘Michi-tsukuri-yama’, a mountain shape floatbetween Shijo Nishi no Toin and Machi (thepresent Shinmachi) Streets. In a historical recordfrom 1571 the area is known as ‘Kawadanacho’.The area had many shops specialising in leathercutting. The name probably referred to this activ-ity. 144 In 1560 a Christian priest was recorded ina place named Kawanodana and ordinary poorpeople lived in the area. It was recorded that thepriest was living in the house of a woman. This isthe oldest record concerning Christianity in con-nection with a location in Kyoto.

In 1673 in Rakuchu E Zu the Chinese ideog-ram of ‘kawa’, which means leather, was changedto an ideogram of the same pronunciation butwhich has the meaning of river. In other maps theideogram ‘leather’ is used. One hundred years later,in 1762 a famous guidebook, Kyo Machi Kagamiwas published. In this guidebook the present nameKakkyoyamacho is found for the first time. In themunicipal archive there are almost five hundreddocuments preserved which record pre-modernlife in Kakkyoyamacho. 145

ShinkamanzachoAccording to Historical Place Names of Kyoto, thename of Shinkamanzacho appears in historical re-cords for the first time in the Rakuchu E Zu in1637. It is mentioned as ‘a narrow pass from southto north’ and called ‘Koyaku no zushi’. 146 Nearthe end of the middle ages the area is shown with

FIG.48 LIFE IN SHINKAMANZACHO BEFORE THE SECOND WORLD WAR IN THE 1940S. SS.

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this name in all maps. Legend has it that in theHeian period a famous priest Kuya establisheda small temple, which was later named ‘Koyaku-dozo’. 147 A historical record from 1520 tells thata temple named Koyaku was at that time used asa base camp for an army group. According to anold guidebook from the Tokugawa era,Yamashiro Meishoshi, the location of the temple was‘Koyaku no zushi’, in other words, the present dayShinkamanzacho.

In the urban structure of Kyoto Shinkamanza-cho illustrates narrow urban lanes which were es-tablished in pre-modern times in the grid-planarea in the middle of the urban blocks. Such ur-ban layers are an important part of Kyoto’s urbanmorphology and examples of reshaping of urbanspace that has taken place in the grid plan area forcenturies.

YatachoIn Yatacho the oldest known document is from1376, when a merchant delivering oil is record-ed as having had his dwelling there. An old mapdepicting the landscape before the Onin warsshows a temple known as Yatadera in the area. In1590 the temple was transferred to Gyokoku-San-jo by order of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. It can still befound there today. Before the Onin wars the areawas known to have presented a Jizohoko, a festi-val float, in the Gion Festival. The Yatadera wasknown for a statue of Jizo that became the sym-bol of the neighbourhood's float. In a historicalrecord from 1500, which deals with the reorga-nisation of the Gion Festival there, is a mentionof ‘Kotohariyama’, a pavilion with a destroyed kotoinstrument. It is the major symbol of the festivalfloat in Yatacho even today and exhibited duringthe festival weeks in the Sugimoto house for pub-lic view together with other historical assets.

In 1571 the name Yatacho appears for the firsttime and it was established as the name of the area.In Kyoto On Yakusho Muki Taigai Oboezaki from1717, which is a document published by the cen-tral government to inform newly arrived officialsfrom Edo (Tokyo) about matters in Kyoto, onehouse in Yatacho is mentioned. The house belongs

to Mr. Jinpei Suminokura, known as a powerfulmerchant in Kyoto. The document records thatthe width of the house was approximately 53.6metres and the depth of the site 168 metres. Whenthe ordinary houses were only 6.7 - 13.4 metresin width, the house of Mr. Suminokura was ex-ceptionally large.

The Built EnvironmentThe first multi-storey buildings in the surveyareas were built in the 1960s. The new buildingswere mainly cooperative dwelling houses or build-ings of kimono corporations. In Kakkyoyamachothere are also modern office buildings and a ho-tel. Kakkyoyamacho is in the process of change.Most of the buildings in the neighbourhood arestill small-scale townhouses with commercialkanban, shop sign facades. The scale of the newbuildings is radically different from the old envi-ronment. The integrity of the built environmenthas been largely destroyed.

Of the three neighbourhoods, Yatacho partic-ularly shows a mixed urban landscape with a mix-ture of multi-storey buildings and woodentownhouses. In Shinkamanzacho major changeshave been hampered by a narrow street andcomplex ownership conditions. At its narrowestpoint the street is only 2.8 metres wide. Most ofthe buildings are tenanted terraced houses withcomplex land and house ownership. Some of theterraced houses along the lane were originallybuilt for the servants and kimono workers in theservice of the Sugimoto family. Only one large-scale multi-storey building has been built in thevicinity of the neighbourhood. This building iscompletely out of proportion when compared toother buildings along this wooden tenement lane.The over scaled new building can be observed, forinstance, in the measurement drawing that theauthor carried out in Shinkamanzacho, Fig. 19.The survey areas have preserved much of theirpre-industrial spatial character up to today,particularly in the inner parts of the neighbour-hoods. This is mainly due to the magnificentSugimoto house, the site of which is almost four

158

times larger than the average site in the hoko area.The total built area in Yatacho is 5066 sq. m. andthe surface area taken by wooden buildings 2967sq. m. In other words, a notable part of the builtsurface area is still taken by the wooden buildingstock.

At the moment, however, all three neighbour-hoods are in a dramatic transitional phase in theirdevelopment. The population is ageing and decli-ning in numbers. The traditional industries in thearea are decreasing although the kimono whole-sale function is still relatively strong. With the col-lapsing economy of the hoko neighbourhoods, theGion Festival is loosing its foothold as a livingtradition. In addition, with the demolition ofwooden townhouses, the screen displays and othercollective traditions are disappearing at an accele-rating speed. Many of the old buildings alongShijo Street, perhaps already waiting to be demol-ished, look rather dilapidated.

The Survey Area and UrbanConservationIn the land use map the survey area is part of thecommercial and business district. The develop-ment ratio is highest in Kakkyoyamacho and itsimmediate vicinity. The development ratios aredefined according to the character of the bor-dering street, whether it is a dwelling street or amain street, and also by the distance of a building

from the bordering streets. Thus buildings that arelocated near Shijo Street have higher building ra-tios than those distanced from the street. The de-velopment ratios are between e=4.0 and e=7.0.Compared with the existing land use, the deve-lopment ratios are high in all three neighbour-hoods. When the city-planning map was preparedthere must have been no doubt that considerablechanges in the land use of the area were to be ex-pected.

Furthermore, most of the wooden buildings insuch well preserved neighbourhoods as Shinka-manzacho are, according to the fire preventionlegislation, actually illegal, because of the narrow-ness of the lanes. The buildings on the oppositesides of the streets are too near to each other. Inall three neighbourhoods the use of wood as aconstruction material for new buildings is forbid-den. The future of all three neighbourhoods ischaracterised by a great uncertainty, largely be-cause of the vicinity of the Shijo and Karasumaarea, one of the major expanding centres of thetown.

Description of the RecordingAll good planning starts by asking the question‘what values are there today?’ - economic values,human, social, cultural values. The heritage shouldbe a self-evident starting point for physical plan-ning and for political decision making. This meansidentifying the cultural values, presenting them in

FIG.50 VIEW FROM AYANOKOJI STREET.

YATACHO. RS.

FIG.49 VIEW FROM SHINKAMANZACHO ,

LEFT THE SUGIURA HOUSE. RS.

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a way which makes them easily understable andaccessible, and promoting a greater awarenessamong planners, decision makers and - above all -the general public. In the thesis the hoko area isanalysed and inventorised in its present, even con-tradictory shape. In other words, not as they onceupon were, or as our expectations or preconceivedimages of them might be, but as something morefragmentary, less beautiful, something that has gonethrough many changes, some of them even con-tradictory, but which still can present an inspiringchallenge for urban conservation and research.

In the field surveys the street elevations weresystematically photographed, measured and drawnfor the documentation by the author. The neces-sary technical assistance for the measurementwork was provided by a group of students fromthe Nishikawa laboratory. Altogether approxima-

tely a hundred facades were measured and sur-veyed for the research.

For the documentation the author took four ba-sic measurements: width of the house (maguchi),height of the upper eaves (noki shita), height of theridgepole (mune takasa) and height of the lowereaves or canopy (hisashi). In addition, the facadeswere systematically photographed. The photo-graphs were used to help drawing work, in analys-ing proportions etc. Some key details were checkedafterwards on site and measured separately. This isa relatively uncomplicated and quick method,which is widely used by the Nishikawa laboratorywhen a large number of buildings must be meas-ured in a short period of time. The method is there-fore used, in particular, for documenting largegroups of buildings or townscapes.

FIG.51 THE FIELDWORK AREA, LOCATION MAP:

KAKKYOYAMACHO , SHINKAMANZACHO, YATACHO . RS.

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The drawings were made using the Japanese‘Hanako’ drafting program. All facades weredrawn in 1:100 scale and then joined togetheras street facades. Because of the limitations of theJapanese drawing program, the emphasis was onthe clarity and information value of the measure-d drawings. Their artistry or pictorial effect wasconsidered less important. The present analysisand the way of looking at the matter were pri-marily operative. The point was in the analysisand in exact recording of the townscape, not abuilding history or conservation study. The meas-urement drawings can be seen in Figs. 19, 20, 53,54 and 55.

FIG.52 VIEW FROM YATACHO. IN THE

FOREGROUND THE SUGIMOTO HOUSE. RS.

The inventory views the building stock fromthe architectural and urban point of view and thusdoes not replace other analyses such as historic in-vestigations or assessments of social and technicalconditions. Also, since the scope of the inventorycovered whole streetscapes, and since the level ofprecision aimed at providing a general picture ofthe building stock, the investigation was limitedto the exterior of the buildings. How importantsystematic building inventories would have beenat the initial stages of drawing up general cityplans and urban programmes, is a separate ques-tion and one of those issues that the author hasaddressed throughout the research.

10

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The Content of the FieldworkThe study covers all the building stock in–side the three neighbourhoods, including newmulti-storey buildings. Altogether 97 buildingswere surveyed: 36 in Kakkyoyamacho, 38 inShinkamanzacho and 23 in Yatacho. Two sites werevacant. The author divided the building statisticsinto four categories:148 investigation of buildingmaterials, building categories, number of floorsand building styles.

Building MaterialsThe building materials were divided into fourcategories: wood, reinforced concrete, steel, oth-er structures.

Building CategoriesThe author used five building categories:-Detached houses, kodate no machiya. The detachedhouses are the dominant buildingtype in Kyoto.

-Tenanted terraced houses, nagaya. The buildingshave shared walls with the adjoining buildings.In Kyoto, unlike Osaka, the terraced houseswere, never the dominant types of urban dwell-ing.

-Storehouses, kura. The fire resistant storehouses

are one important building type of the historicurban dwelling and the traditional Kyoto town-scape.

-Multi-storey buildings. In the multi-storeycategory were included all those structures whichhave three or more floors.

-Those, which were outside the four categories,were described as ‘other’ such as the commonfacility in Kakkyoyamacho.

Number of FloorsThe buildings were divided into five categories bythe number of floors:-Buildings with one floor.-Buildings with 1.5 floors. Buildings in thiscategory are the ‘classic’ Kyoto townhouses, tsushinikai. The buildings have a low upper floor.

-Buildings with two floors, hon nikai. Hon nikai isa late, 20th century, variation of the tsushi nikaibuilding category.

-Buildings with three to five floors.-Buildings with more than five floors

Style of BuildingsBuildings were classified in four categories withregard to style:

Fieldwork No. 1:

Building Inventory


FIG.53 STREET FACADE OF YATACHO . THE SUGIMOTO, MIKAMI, TAKEHANA, SHIBAYAMA, NAKATA AND TAKANO

HOUSES ARE INDICATED IN THE DRAWING. MEASUREMENT DRAWING BY THE AUTHOR.

163

FIG.54 (ABOVE) SOUTH FACADE OF KAKKYOYAMACHO BETWEEN NISHI-NO-TO IN AND SHINMACHI STREET. THE

COMMON FACILITY IN THE MIDDLE IN THE CROSSING OF SHIJO AND SHINKAMANZA STREETS.


FIG.55 (BELOW) NORTH FACADE OF KAKKYOYAMACHO BETWEEN NISHI-NO-TO IN AND SHINMACHI STREET.


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-Machiya, townhouse style. In this style the authorincluded all wooden buildings with a woodenstructural frame and a pitched tiled roof.

-Kanban kenchiku, shop sign style. In the streetelevation the wooden framed buildings have ashop facade like a large shop sign.

-Shimotaya style. A derivation of the machiya,townhouse style. Some wooden buildings in thecentral area are of the shimotaya style, althoughin fewer numbers. Its hallmarks are usually a highwooden fence and a main building that isrecessed from the street.

-‘Other’ such as multi-storey buildings, fire-proofstorehouses, kura, etc.

Survey ResultsBuilding MaterialsAll three neighbourhoods still have an excep-tionally high number of wooden structures left.Among the 97 buildings studied a large majority,83 were wooden. In all three neighbourhoods theshare of wooden buildings was still more than halfof all buildings. In Shinkamanzacho in particular,the number of wooden buildings was exceptional-ly large. In this neighbourhood, all the buildings

except one were wooden. This is one of few thoseplaces where one can still experience the un-spoiled atmosphere of old Kyoto and the histor-ic neighbourhoods. The character of the areacannot be said to have changed outwardly in thepast 20 years. The block typology, building mate-rials and scale of the houses are the same as theyhave been for centuries. The survey results areshown in Fig. 1, Appendix 4.

Building CategoriesMost of the wooden buildings in Yatacho andKakkyoyamacho were in the kodate no machiyacategory, in other words they were detachedtownhouses. The number of these houses was 54.The relatively large number of urban tenements,nagaya, in the survey area, altogether 24 houses, isexplained by Shinkamanzacho, the dominantlyurban tenement lane. In addition, there werethree fire proof storehouses, kura. Two of themwere found in the Sugimoto site and one in thesite of common facility. They are important land-marks of the changing townscape. The number ofmulti-storey buildings was 15. The survey resultsare shown in Fig. 2, Appendix 4.

FIG.56 (THE OPPOSITE PAGE) STOREHOUSE, KURA, AND A HIGH GARDEN FENCE. SHINKAMANZACHO, THE SUGIMOTO SITE. RS.

FIG.57 A MODERN, HON NIKAI,

MACHIYA WITH 1.5 FLOORS.

YATACHO. RS.

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Number of FloorsAccording to the field survey, here and there thetownscape has been encroached upon by newbuildings too large to fit in well. This is the caseparticularly in Kakkyoyamacho where the tallestmulti-story buildings have eight floors. In Yatacho,the scale of new buildings is smaller, but becauseof the many new buildings that have been builtin the neighbourhood, only fragments of thewooden town remain, and the building traditionhas not been continued properly. If it were not forthe Sugimoto house and some other woodentownhouses still existing in Yatacho, it would bedifficult to identify the old townscape and theidentity of the neighbourhood. 11 buildingsshowed 3-5 floors and four buildings had more

than 5 floors. One third, 28 buildings of thewooden frame buildings were still in the classic,tsushi nikai category. In other words, they followedthe pattern of the classic Kyoto townhouse. Arepresentative of this building category can beseen, for instance, in Fig. 58 that shows one suchtsushi nikai building in Yatacho. The number ofbuildings that had two floors was 52. The honnikai frame was common in Kakkyoyamacho andShinkamanzacho. The survey results are shown inFig. 3, Appendix 4.

Style of BuidingsMost, 48 buildings, of the wooden-frame housesshowed the machiya style. In Kakkyoyamacho,however, the shop sigh style, or kanban kenchiku,

FIG.58 TSUSHI-NIKAI MACHIYA. THE TRADITIONAL KYOTO

TOWNHOUSE WITH 1.5 FLOORS AND WITH A WELL-

PRESERVED LONG MUSHIKO MADO, INSECT WINDOW,

IN THE UPPER FLOOR. YATACHO . RS.

FIG.59 A MODERN, HON NIKAI, MACHIYA WITH TWO

FLOORS. YATACHO . RS.

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FIG.60 A MODERN, HON NIKAI, MACHIYA WITH

TWO FLOORS. YATACHO. RS.

FIG.61 KANBAN KENCHIKU, SHOP SIGN STYLE. YATACHO . RS.

dominated. Also in Yatacho, there was a numberof shop sign facade houses, see, for instance, Fig.61. The total number of shop sign style houses was27. In addition, two wooden-frame houses wereof the shimotaya style. Both of them were locatedin Shinkamanzacho. The survey results are shownin Fig. 4, Appendix 4.

The relatively large number of variations foundin the building categories and styles in the sur-vey area is a common feature of the Kyototownhouse and the wooden town heritage. Thelarge number of buildings surveyed makes thesample representative and illustrates the characterof the built fabric in other hoko neighbourhoodsalso.

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The Aim of the FieldworkThe aim of the case study was to investigate thepresent use of the buildings. In particular, theauthor focused on the use of the ground floor. Thecase study is based on the observations and inven-tories made on site. In addition to the field ob-servations, Mrs. Sugiura, as a local resident, was animportant source of information.

Use of BuildingsThe author divided the main use of the buildingsinto five categories: residential buildings, thosewith mixed use in combination with dwelling,commercial buildings such as office buildings andkimono enterprises, other uses and vacant build-ings.

Use of the Ground FloorThe Kyoto townhouse with such spaces as shopor manufacturing space on the ground floor, theauthor focused particularly on the use profile ofthe spaces at ground level. The author used six usecategories: dwelling, shop, workshop or manu-facturing space, office space or enterprise, emptyand other. The ground floor was classified as ashop, if the omote, room next to the street was ashop, and as a residence if the room was used as adwelling room.

Survey ResultsUse of BuildingsA majority of buildings had a mixed use in com-bination with dwelling. The total number of res-idential buildings was 66. In other words, amajority of buildings had a residential function.The number of commercial buildings without res-idential function was 16. Another important fea-ture was that there was a relatively large numberof empty or abandoned houses, especially in

Shinkamanzacho. The total number of vacantbuildings was nine. The survey results are shownin Fig. 5, Appendix 4.

Use of the Ground FloorIn 26 buildings the ground floor was used as resi-dential space. In Shinkamanzacho especially thenumber of residential function was high. Theground floor was used as dwelling in 20 buildings.Shop was found in 28 buildings.149 There weremany shops especially in Kakkyoyamacho. In thisneighbourhood the number of shops was 23.Furthermore, workshop or working space wasfound in eight buildings. The number of manu-facturing spaces was thus relatively low. The fewnumber of working spaces was, in particular,prominent in Shinkamanzacho, which previous-ly was a flourishing kimono-manufacturing lane.The workshops were in the following fields:kimono manufacturing (4), textile dyeing (1),maker of traditional name plates (1), designer ofkimono crest (1) and maker of sliding doors (1).

In addition to workshops, there were enterpris-es and offices. The total number of them was 12.Many of them had a traditional profile. The ki-mono wholesale function continues to have astrong foothold in the neighbourhoods. Therewere a number of kimono wholesale enterprisesparticularly in Yatacho.

Trends of InstabilitySome trends of instability were observed. Oneexample was the large number of vacant or aban-doned spaces. As many as 13 buildings had a va-cant ground floor. In Kakkyoyamacho inparticular, the number of vacant spaces was high.The ground floor was vacant in nine buildings.However, because of the limitations of the surveymethod and the limited survey area, it is not possi-ble to draw any final conclusions. Also, the quar-

Fieldwork No. 2:

Use of Building

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ters surveyed border on one of the major streetsin Kyoto. The central location affects the urbandevelopment of the sample quarters in an unpre-dictable way. In particular, the large number ofvacant or abandoned spaces in the area may beexplained against this background. The surveyresults are shown in Fig. 6, Appendix 4.

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The Aim of the FieldworkThroughout the case study, the author aimedto test, in particular, the architectural patternsof the survey area and its vernacular vocabulary.For the survey, altogether 82 wooden framedfacades were studied: 36 in Shinkamanzacho, 30in Kakkyoyamacho and 16 in Yatacho. The new,multi-storey buildings were excluded.

The major objective of the recording was toidentify the architectural patterns and carpentryelements of the wooden framed facades as well asto analyse the alterations and modifications madeto them. The recording is primarily intended toaid decision-making as the preliminary step in themonitoring and evaluation process of the histor-ic neighbourhoods. In particular, the investigationaims to identify the number and types of tradi-tional carpentry and building components. Theinventory as such cannot be used as a planning ordesign tool as it would demand a more carefulinvestigation of the origins of the design elementsof the buildings.

The Method of the Survey andMajor ResultsTraditional Japanese architecture is based on thepost and beam structure where the facades con-sist of an exposed wooden structural frame. Withina unified frame the facade is filled in with vari-ous kind of building components such as win-dows, doors and earth panels where individualbuilding components can be removed or replacedby an other element. This principle was adaptedin the four historic preservation areas as one ofthe key concepts in developing the preservationmethodology for the wooden facades. Dr. Yama-saki describes the matter thus:

“... then we interpreted that the facades are composedof ‘facade frame types’ and ‘design elements’ such assliding doors, lattice work windows and earthen wallpanels fixed in the frames. These design elements aremutually interchangeable, a wall panel can be replacedby a window for example. Each facade type has suita-ble design element variations”. 150

For the current building inventory the facadeswere divided into five kinds of major buildingcomponents: roofs, eaves, walls, windows, doors.This was the basic categorisation used by theNishikawa laboratory in the building inventories.Then the author analysed their individual designelements such as roof tile design, wall structure,wall materials and the number of koshi latticepartitions. Because of the often different treatmentof the ground and upper floors, the architecturaldetails on the ground and upper floors were ana-lysed separately.

Roofs, YaneThe author counted the number of buildingswith a traditional pitched roof. In addition, thenumber of flat roofs and other roof shapes werealso counted. Then the author investigated theroofing materials and the type of roof tile design.Of the 97 buildings studied a large majority, 82buildings, have a pitched roof shape (see Fig. 7,Appendix 4). Furthermore, 80 buildings in thesurvey area have the traditional tile roof coveredwith authentic Kyoto roof tiles left. This is a largenumber, which gives character and identity tothe whole townscape. One such elegant tile roofin the survey area can be seen in Fig. 63.

Roof Tile PatternThe author used two tile categories, the ichi-monjikawara and the sankarakusa pattern. The rooftiles of ordinary townhouses in Kyoto are usually

Fieldwork No. 3:

The Architecture

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either of these two patterns. The roof tile patternthat is used in fire-proof storehouses, is known ashongawara. As to the (traditional) design of rooftiles, most of the tile roofs were of ichimonjikawaraand sankarakusa design patterns. Both were foundin equal numbers (27 roofs each). All tile roofs,could not, however, be identified because theywere invisible from the street. The number ofthese cases was 24. The survey results are shownin Fig. 8, Appendix 4.

Lower Eaves or Canopy, HisashiAn important architectural element of tradition-al townhouses is the canopy or lower eaves betweenlower and upper floor. The author also consideredthe roof tile pattern in this part of the roof.

As one of the most important architectural el-ements of the Kyoto townhouses, all the machiyastyle, wooden-frame buildings in the survey areashowed a canopy between the ground and upperfloor area, 48 buildings in all. In the canopy farthe most common roof tile pattern was ichi-

monjikawara design. Altogether 34 buildingsshowed this roof tile pattern. The survey results areshown in Fig. 9, Appendix 4.

WallsThe wall structure was divided into two maincategories: shinkabe, ‘half-timber’ style, and okabe,plastered style. Shinkabe, ‘half-timber’ style, in par-ticular, illustrates a traditional wall structure withan exposed wooden structural frame. In the 17thcentury descriptions of Kyoto there were, as wasdescribed in chapter 5, examples of the plasteredtype townhouses known as nuriya. Despite thefire-resistant qualities of such buildings, the peo-ple of Kyoto seemed to prefer the shinkabe or ‘halftimber’ style, in which structural columns andbeams are exposed. This style is still common andone of the characteristic features of the Kyototownhouse.

In the wooden-frame buildings almost all fa-cades (41) showed the half-timbered, shinkabe,style. In Kakkyoyamacho, because of the shop sign

FIG.62 TILE ROOF PATTERNS, SHINKAMANZACHO . RS.

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style, plastered walls, okabe, were common. Thenumber of plastered walls in this neighbourhoodwas 23. In the upper floor the shinkabe structuredominated. This wall type was found altogetherin 47 facades. The survey results are shown inFigs.10 and 11, Appendix 4.

Building MaterialsAs to the building materials, in the ground flooras many as 21 buildings showed traditional plas-ter, tsuchi, wall treatment. In addition, mortar wascommon. This material was found in 23 buildings.In the upper floor the number of traditional plas-ter, tsuchi, walls was 32 and mortar in 23 walls. Inother words, the number of plastered walls was stillrelatively large. The survey results are shown inFigs. 12 and 13, Appendix 4.

ColoursUnlike our mental picture which is largely a resultof the black and white pictures of the modernistimage of Japanese architecture, the traditionalarchitecture of Japan was not at all monochromaticbut full of fine and deep colours. Besides yellow orbrown, there were pink, black, Indian red, dark gre-en, and dark blue. However, with the penetrationof contemporary materials and colour pigmentsinto the market, the fine old colours have gradu-ally disappeared from the townscape. Some oldcolours can, however, still be found. Besides colour,the surface treatment of wooden structural parts,

mokubu, in every shinkabe, half-timbered wall wasalso considered. Usually the wood is left in struc-tural parts in its natural state, which naturally turnsto a darker shade by exposure and daily polishing.When painted, black is common. The most com-mon wall colours were grey (23), yellow (ish) (19)and brown (18). In other words, the colours wererather traditional (see Fig. 14, Appendix 4).

WindowsIn traditional Japanese architecture the windowsand doors were barred by square bars of woodknown as koshi. In this field survey also the au-thor paid a special attention to them. Windows onthe ground floor were classified in four broadgroups as to whether they had a lattice window,koshi, a glass window, a glass window and latticewindow in combination, or another type of open-ing such as an entrance door or a garage. Latticewindows were of two basic types: hirakoshi the flatlattice window or/and degoshi, a projecting latticebay window. In addition to the koshi partitions,the author recorded such wooden facade elementsas rain closets, tobukuro, and protective woodenwall partitions, koshikabe, ‘hips wall’, of tradition-al carpentry and design. Morse described the to-bukuro in the following way:

“…Not only the verandah but entrance to the house,as well as the windows when they occur, are closed atnight by amado. In the daytime these shutters are stowed

FIG.63 TILE ROOF, SHINKAMANZACHO . RS.

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away in closets called tobukuro. The closets are placesat one side of the opening or place to be closed, and justoutside the groove in which the shutters are to run. Theyhave only the width of one shutter, but are deep enoughto accommodate the number that is required to close anyentrance”. 151

On the upper floor the most distinctive architec-tural element of the Kyoto townhouses is themushiko mado, insect window. On the upper floorthe author placed the facades in five categories ac-cording to their opening type: those with a wellpreserved insect window, mushiko mado, those witha glass window, those with a glass window and apartially preserved mushiko mado, those with an-other type of window or opening, those facadeswhich had no window on the upper floor.

A large number of wooden facade partitionsare preserved. 19 facades (23%) can still be cate-gorised as traditional wooden lattice facades withvarious koshi designs. Altogether there were 20 in-dividual flat lattice windows, hirakoshi, and 18degoshi partitions. Furthermore, there were 20 rainclosets, tobukuro, and 16 wooden ‘hips wall’,koshikabe partitions. The design of koshi partitionswas, however, very heterogeneous and varied fromfacade to facade. Thus, in the survey area the au-thor could not detect any unified koshi style (suchas can be found, for instance, in the historic pres-

ervation areas). The elegance of the koshi designculminates in the survey area in the facades of theSugimoto house, see Figs. 64-66.

In the upper floor, only three well-preservedlong mushiko mado, insect windows, could befound. In most of the townhouses the mushikomado opening was replaced by glass windows. Thesurvey results are shown in Fig. 16, Appendix 4.

DoorsDoors were divided into five main categories: awooden sliding door (in the building inventory: ita,blank), a lattice sliding door, koshi, a sliding doorwith an aluminium sash, a shutter or, other moderndoor type such as fire door, no door. Thus, besidestraditional doors, we took into consideration slidingdoors with an aluminium sash and metal shutters.

Of the 82 facades studied, more than one third,32 facades, still have either a wooden lattice, koshi,or ita, wooden blank, door. The survey results areshown in Fig. 17, Appendix 4.

Other facade elementsOutside the facade such elements as wooden fenc-es, air conditioners, protecting reed screens, sudare,shop signs, kanban, roller shutters and plantingwere investigated. On the Sugimoto site there isa large number of old trees the site being a greenoasis even for a wider area.

FIG.65 ARCHITECTURAL ELEMENTS OF THE SUGIMOTO

HOUSE: KOSHI, LATTICE, DOOR; HIRAKOSHI, FLAT LATTICE

WINDOW, TSUCHI, PLASTERED WALL, KOSHIKABE, ‘HIPS’

WALL, INUYARAI, DOG’S FENCE. RS.

FIG.64 ARCHITECTURAL ELEMENTS: DEGOSHI,

PROJECTING LATTICE WINDOW AND INUYARAI, A LOW

BAMBOO FENCE. THE SUGIMOTO HOUSE. RS.

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The most important architectural elementswere wooden protective fences of different typessuch as inuyarai, a low protecting bamboo fencein the lower part of the facade and komayose, a lowprotecting wooden fence. Both of these fencetypes were found in the survey area (see, for in-stance Fig. 66). Furthermore, an important archi-tectural element in the survey area is the highwooden fence, takabei, that is found in Shinka-manzacho on the Sugimoto site (see Fig. 56). Anumber of protecting reed screens, sudare, that arecommon everywhere in the Kyoto townhouses,were also found.

Conclusions of the ArchitecturalVocabulary FieldworkThe Lack of Unified StyleAmong the traditional building elements are,above all, the elegant tile roofs, which dominatethe streetscape even in the midst of the altered

townscape. Altogether the author identified morethan 50 different, less or more traditional, build-ing components from the traditional design pat-tern of roof tiles to colours and materials of thewalls, and to the elements of the traditional car-pentry such as rain closets and protective ‘hipswalls’. Because of the comprehensiveness of thesurvey, the survey gives a relatively reliable pictureof the architectural elements that are characteris-tic for the wooden-frame houses not only in thehoko area, but in a wider area in the city centre aswell.

The traditional architectural elements of thewooden frame facades had been renewed inmany facades so that the character and designunity of the buildings has completely changedand the composition of the facade altered in sucha way that almost nothing exists of the originaldesign. Carelessly made repairs have in manyfacades replaced the old sophisticated organicmaterials such as wood and earth plaster with

FIG.66 ARCHITECTURAL ELEMENTS OF THE SUGIMOTO HOUSE. DEGOSHI, PROJECTING LATTICE WINDOW

AND INUYARAI, A ‘DOG’S’ FENCE. RS.

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new facade materials such as imitation ceramicsand even stone and brick. Cheap new materialsessentially change the look of the facades, theelegance of which was originally based on theharmony of proportions and sparing use of ma-terials. Modern window and door repairs unfor-tunately make no use of traditional carpentryskills. In the survey area there are unfortunatelyonly three long, ornamental mushiko mado, insectwindows left. Instead ready-made prefabricatedaluminium units of standard construction anddesign have been fitted in large numbers.

As a result the facades are a conglomeration ofheterogeneous elements and their design unity hasbeen lost. With glass windows, iron railings or ironbars have increased to protect the interiors fromonlookers and intruders. Other common addi-tions are shop signs, particularly in the commer-cial buildings in Kakkyoyamacho. All these newelements add to the visual turmoil of the town-scape. The commercial language culminates inthose facades where the whole facade has beendesigned as a large shop sign. In these facades anintrusive number of foreign architectural motifshave been added. In these buildings we can nowfound a jungle of styles from romantic or colo-nial ‘Spanish’ to rustic red brick facades. In somespots the outlook of the houses is more like LasVegas than Kyoto and quite far from our precon-ceived images of Kyoto. As an example of thecurrent mixture of styles is, for instance, a row ofshop facades in Kakkyoyamacho, on the southernside of Shijo Street as they can be seen in themeasurement drawing, Fig. 55.

Even those facades that have been spared by themost radical changes have gone through minor ormajor changes. Except of the facade of the Sugi-moto house, which has been carefully preservedin its authentic design condition, the author couldnot record any other structure, which had kept itsdesign identity and authentic materials entirelywithout later changes and additions. Thus, if thereis any general conclusions to be drawn from thefield survey, it is the evident lack of any unifiedarchitectural style.

Questioning the Current HeritageAssessment MethodologyIn the context of the current heritage assessmentmethodology which aims to preserve the aesthet-ic integrity of the townscape, as the method wasadapted in the historic preservation areas, the‘spoiled’ and often aesthetically unpleasant wood-en frame facades that were documented in thefield survey can hardly be considered of value.The obvious heterogeneity of the style of thewooden facades and the setting as a whole posesa difficult question to the preservation authori-ties. Obviously there is no unified ‘style’ intowhich these heterogeneous facades could be suc-cessfully ‘restored’.

But is the whole question right? Why couldthese facades not be accepted as they are with allthe changes and alterations wrought in them bytime? Should rather the whole concept behindthe heritage argumentation be changed so thatthe authorities could accept these wooden facadesin their present condition as an essential part ofthe urban heritage and history of their town?Aesthetic value or beauty is only one value cat-egory among others; in addition to aesthetic orhistoric values economic, human, social and cul-tural values should be given consideration, too.Nowadays such stratification might be appreci-ated more than was the case before. In such aframework of thinking each stratum adding to thepresent identity of the building is thought to beof equal interest.

Everywhere preservation criteria have changedas social and historical aspects have gained groundreplacing purely aesthetic views. In such a con-text, it is more important than the integrity of thewooden facades that the old building stock is keptin overall good repair so that the values it repre-sents will not be entirely lost. This applies equal-ly well to our sample quarters too. The authormaintains that a new approach to urban preser-vation is necessary in Kyoto and should be im-plemented now when there still is a large numberof wooden houses left.

At a more general level, the change of conser-vation paradigm does not only apply to Kyoto but

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is closely related to the urban conservation prob-lem of wooden towns in general. Because of thevulnerability and fragility of the wooden towntradition and the authenticity problems involved,special attention should be paid to the methodo-logical approach. The wooden town heritage can-

FIG.67 DECORATIVE WALL DETAIL,

SHINKAMANZACHO. RS.

not be evaluated using same criteria as towns builtin stone or brick; change and a certain degree of‘unauthenticity’ must be tolerated and accepted,if any of the wooden heritage is to be saved. Thehouses and their architecture cannot be ‘frozen’ ifthey are to continue as living environments.

11

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The Aim of the FieldworkThe fieldwork below concentrates on traditionaldwelling patterns that exist in the hoko neighbour-hoods and their immediate vicinity today. Thefield studies consist of two parts:

1) In the first part (fieldwork no. 4) the authorsurveys and analyses seven historic urban dwell-ings, which were measured and surveyed by themunicipal heritage authorities in 1991. The urbandwellings which were documented for the survey,though ordinary townhouses, are all architectur-ally and aesthetically very qualified and thus rep-resent the best of Kyoto townhouse traditions. Thespectrum of fine interior spaces stretches from themuseum-like interiors of the Naka house to moreordinary urban dwellings. The structures areamong those very few everyday structures thathave been documented by the heritage authori-ties to date. As to their dwelling plans, all the sur-veyed houses are representatives of the unagi no

nedoko pattern, ‘sleeping place of an eel’, the stand-ard Kyoto dwelling plan on long and narrow sites.This plan type is further classified in a number ofsub-groups depending on the site and the tasteand wealth of the owners and builders. In thefollowing the author will describe two such ba-sic plan types:

Omoteya-Tsukuri MachiyaThis is one of the basic plan types of Kyoto. In thisplan type there is a two-storey main structure, omote,in the street elevation. The functions of the houseare divided between a number of sub-structures asearlier explained in chapter 20. Between the builtareas there are small inner gardens that are the mostcharacteristic feature of this dwelling plan.

Takabei Tsukuri‘High Fence’ Style. In this style the main build-ing is recessed from the street. A characteristic

Chapter 20

Introduction to theField Survey on Traditional

Dwelling Patterns.


178

feature of the takabei tsukuri style is a high wood-en fence. Two of the surveyed houses, the Koba-yashi and Naka house, show this style. Thevariation, which can be seen in the plans and inthe skilful combination of building volumes onthe individual sites is in itself one impressive pieceof evidence of the richness and creative spirit ofthe best Kyoto urban traditions.

2) In the second part (fieldwork no.5) the au-thor surveys and describes a typical urban tene-ment, a nagaya type urban dwelling, which theauthor measured for the thesis during the Yama-hoko programme. The tenement pattern repre-sents an urban dwelling that has shared walls with

the neighbourhood buildings. Compared to thedominant, kodate no machiya, detached pattern,the tenement pattern has been much less stud-ied and published and has practically remainedoutside the scope of academic research. In thecurrent research the nagaya pattern represents aninteresting type of pre-modern urban vernacu-lar dwelling, without which our picture of Kyo-to’s pre-modern dwelling patterns and therichness of its urban heritage would not be com-plete.

The exact location of the surveyed townhousesin the central area is shown in the survey map, Fig.No.2.

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The Aim of the FieldworkThe survey is based on a field survey organised bythe Cultural Heritage Office and assisted by agroup of students from the Nishikawa laboratoryin 1991-92. The field survey was part of the mu-nicipal documentation programme for historic str-uctures in 1991. Altogether seven urban dwellingsin the city centre in and around the hoko neigh-bourhoods were measured and surveyed, their plansdrawn, the old documents investigated and the resi-dents interviewed. Besides the main structures, oth-er structures on the site and in the gardens weresurveyed as well. The survey investigates thesestructures, in particular, from the urban conserva-tion point of view. The aim of the investigation isthus, not so much to identify the general princi-ples of the traditional urban dwelling as to focuson the special way each of the investigated struc-tures has adapted to the present conditions, the waythe structures have been maintained and on theirphysical and technical condition.

Through the municipal documentation workthe author had an opportunity to observe theevaluation and argumentation methods on-siteand in particular, the problems involved within thelisting work. These problems have already beenpointed out and referred to above. The exampleof these houses shows how alarming the preser-vation situation in Kyoto really is. After the doc-umentation five of the houses were included in abook describing well-preserved Kyoto townhous-es, and thereby their special cultural history andarchitectural qualities were acknowledged.152

None of the structures, however, qualified as acultural asset.

Description of the SevenDocumented HousesAlmost all the documented houses are Meiji erastructures and being wooden buildings, they arealready of considerable age. Besides the main

Fieldwork No.4

Field Survey Of Seven HistoricUrban Dwellings

FIG.68 FACADE OF THE

FUKUYAMA HOUSE IN

IWATOYAMACHO. RS.

180

FIG.69 PLAN OF THE FUKUYAMA HOUSE

MEASUREMENT DRAWING BY THE

CULTURAL HERITAGE OFFICE.

FIG.70 PLAN OF THE ITO HOUSE. MEASUREMENT

DRAWING BY THE CULTURAL HERITAGE OFFICE.

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FIG.71 PLAN OF THE NAKA HOUSE. MEASUREMENT

DRAWING BY THE CULTURAL HERITAGE OFFICE.

FIG.72 PLAN OF THE NAKAE 1 AND NAKAE 2 HOUSES. AT

THE BACK OF THE SITE THERE ARE TWO FIRE-PROOF

STOREHOUSES AND TWO ANNEXE BUILDINGS.

MEASUREMENT DRAWING BY THE CULTURAL HERITAGE

OFFICE.

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FIG.73 PLAN OF THE

MATSUMOTO HOUSE.

MEASUREMENT

DRAWING BY THE

CULTURAL HERITAGE

OFFICE.

FIG.74 PLAN OF THE

KOBAYASHI HOUSE

MEASUREMENT

DRAWING BY THE

CULTURAL HERITAGE

OFFICE.

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structures there are courtyard and outbuildings ofdifferent types. These courtyard buildings are so-metimes even older than the main structures. Thenewest of the houses was the Naka house, builtin 1930 in a highly traditional wooden frame style.All the families residing in the houses have livedin Kyoto for many generations. The people resid-ing in these houses are occupied in traditionalindustries, so that they present a cross section ofthe social profile of the city centre.

Mr. Fukuyama is a textile dealer and kimonodesigner, Mr. Nakae a kimono wholesale dealerand Mr. Matsumoto with his wife are kimonomanufacturers. Mr. Ito and Mr. Naka are retired.In the pre-modern Kyoto the production andtrading cloth was closely integrated with itswooden town architecture and the machiya life-style. In these houses work and family life havebeen almost inseparable for generations. Of theseven houses, the Matsumoto house is the onlyone which is still used as a dwelling and ma-nufacturing space. The Fukuyama and the Nakae1 houses although residences earlier, now serve asoffices for family enterprises, while the Kobayashi,Ito, Matsumoto, Naka and Nakae 2 houses areused as residences. Two of the houses, the Ito andthe Fukuyama houses, are known for their exhi-bition function during the Gion Festival, whichlends them the status of local landmarks.

Each of the houses studied illustrates the aesthet-ic integrity of the historic urban dwelling andKyoto’s architectural heritage. Much labour andmoney has been spent keeping these houses care-fully preserved. Moreover, most of the families havedeliberately chosen the machiya lifestyle, in otherwords, living in a traditional townhouse. Thoughordinary urban dwellings, all the houses have ma-ny fine qualities. Besides having well preservedmain structures many of the houses have one ortwo massive storehouses which add to the higharchitectural qualities of the site. In addition, thereare private tea ceremony houses and annexe build-ings used as guest houses. All these structures addto the charm and high standard of this lifestyle.

The dwelling plans as parameters of the tradi-tional lifestyle offer great variety and inventivenessas all the houses have been adapted to changingconditions and modern lifestyle. Compared withthe cramped conditions of modern urban dwel-lings and the standard mini apartments dominat-ing the housing market, these houses offer manyluxuries that most middle class families can onlyenvy. There is abundant storage space, workingspace at home and an annexe for the older gen-eration, all examples of the high dwelling standardthese houses offer to their residents. Most of thehouses have been recently renovated so that theyalso have all modern commodities.

FIG.75 FACADE OF THE KOBAYASHI

HOUSE. SHIMOTAYA STYLE, THE HOUSE IS

RECESSED FROM THE STREET. NOTE THE

HIGH WOODEN FENCE,TAKABEI, AS A

HALLMARK OF THE STYLE. RS.

184

Although all are representatives of the build-ing types that evolved on the deep sites, they areof different types; the variation itself being one fas-cinating feature of the historic urban dwelling andthe urban heritage of Kyoto. All the houses havea very distinct personality, identity and characterwhich leave a strong impression on the visitor andwhich clearly distinguish Kyoto from other Japa-nese towns. Except the Naka house, which hasbeen carefully maintained in its authentic con-dition, all the houses have gone through changeseither minor or major, which add to, rather thandeplete their charm.

A description of the houses is given below.

The Fukuyama House. Kyoto shi,Shimogyo-ku, Shinmachidori TakatsujiAgaru. Iwatoyamacho.The house was purchased in the Meiji period bythe grandfather of Mr. Fukuyama. The oldest struc-ture on the site is the storehouse, which is thoughtto be more than a hundred and eighty years old.Mr. Fukuyama is a wholesale dealer for Japanesekimono textiles and also, a kimono obi designer forthe Nishijin weaving industry. Mr. Fukuyama wantsto keep the old house but he is uncertain whetherhis daughters will be able to keep the propertyafter him although the family will continue thekimono business. The surrounding area is charac-terised by new high-rise buildings.

A remarkable part of the interior (the omote-noma, the front room, in particular) has been keptunchanged since the great typhoon in the Taishoera and has the interior furnishing of that peri-od. The family moved out in 1970 and the build-ing has since been used as office space for thefamily enterprise. Except for deformations in str-uctural parts caused by the construction of high-rise buildings in the neighbourhood, the house isin good condition. The earth floor area has gonethrough remodelling and the stone floor, the oldcooking range and the well have been demolished.The structural members are, however, still exposed

A small pool designed by Mr. Fukuyama's fat-her in the early 1920s was demolished when astudio was built in the middle garden (nakaniwa).

Since the construction operation, the house getssunlight for only a few hours a day in winter. Inthe beautiful back garden the visitor is moved toanother world: there is a garden shrine dedicatedto Hachi Dai Ryo, a White Snake, (because of thesnakes that used to lived in the garden still beforethe Second World War), the old storehouse andsome old camellia trees.

The family is one of the families who partici-pate in the public exhibition during the GionFestival giving the house the status of a local land-mark. In this neighbourhood the exhibition isrotated between a number of families. Iwatoyama-cho is one of those hoko neighbourhoods wherethe public exhibition is organised in privatehomes.

The Ito House. Kyoto-shi, Shimogyo-ku,Nishi no Toin Ayanokoji Nishi Iru MinamiKawa. Ashikariyamacho.The house was built in 1890 by the grandfatherof Mr. Ito. The family has lived on the same sitesince 1760. The present owner is an eighth gene-ration, his daughter a ninth generation and theirseven-year-old grandson a tenth generation Ky-oto resident. All documents concerning the histo-ry of the family were burnt in the city fire of 1864.Before the Meiji era the family specialised in thedying of the upper part of men’s festival kimonos.153 The business, however, ceased more than ahundred years ago. The family owns land and ur-ban tenant houses in the neighbourhood. As in theother houses, one of the aesthetic foci is the gar-den, an essential element of the Kyoto townhouse.Three garden shrines are dedicated to the Inari san,to the Benten san and to the Great Sun Buddha,Dainichi Nyorai. At the back of the garden thereis a tea ceremony house, which was built in 1933.The site, which is almost 50 metres long, is excep-tionally deep.

The earth floor area, doma, was originally twoand a half ken wide (approximately five metres),but was remodelled in the 1940s. It is now muchnarrower. The cooking range, kamado, was demo-lished but the well still exists. On the ground floorthere are the following rooms: omotenoma, genkan

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no ma, nakanoma, daidokoro, oku, niwa, chashitsu(front, entrance, middle, kitchen, back, garden, tea-ceremony room). On the upper floor two tatamirooms have been joined to form one large room. The family album is full of pictures of the GionFestival. Among the family treasures are manyvaluable historic screens from the Meiji and Edoperiods. According to Mr. Ito, the family was theonly family in the neighbourhood which had finescreens to display. However, the family has notparticipated in the festival since the Second WorldWar. Mr. Ito, who is now 75 years old, and his wifewant to keep the old house as long as they live,but they do not know what will happen afterthem. The machiya style house needs repair andrenovation that the present owner cannot afford.

The Kobayashi House. Kyoto-shi,Nagakyo-ku, Nishi-no-Toin.The house is designed in the takabei-tsukuri style,which means that the main two- storey structureis recessed from the street and instead of a facadethere is a high wooden fence. The only openingis the gate at the eastern end of the fence. Theentrance to the house is reached through a smallfront garden. As in the Fukuyama house, the mid-dle garden, nakaniwa, has been rebuilt. It is now awestern style living room. The zashiki, parlour isone of the largest among the houses studied withfine sukiya style design and with such architecturalelements as picture alcove, tokonoma, shelf, tana,and lute-alcove, biwa-toko . 154 The size of the guestroom is 10 mats. At the rear of the site there is an

FIG.77 INTERIOR OF THE NAKA HOUSE. VIEW OF THE

EARTH FLOOR CORRIDOR, TORINIWA. THE STRUCTURAL

PARTS SHOW A SOPHISTICATED WOODWORK WITH A

COMBINATION OF DIFFERENT WOODEN MATERIALS. RS.

FIG.76 INTERIOR OF THE NAKAE 1 HOUSE. VIEW FROM

THE EARTH FLOOR AREA, TORINIWA. RS.

186

annexe building with two floors. The earth floorarea, doma, is excellently preserved. Because of itsfine interior spaces and other architectural qual-ities, the house was considered to have potentialas a cultural asset. 155

The Matsumoto House. Kyoto shi,Nakagyo-ku, Ogawadori Rokkaku SagaruHigashi Iru. Motohonnojicho.The house was built in 1888. The old smoke andventilation opening can still be seen in the roof.A major remodelling took place a few years agowhen the kitchen was modernised and the bath-room and a new guest room annexe added usingtraditional carpentry techniques. The house is avery good example of how the historic urbandwelling has been successfully adapted to chang-ing lifestyles and renovated without violating toomuch the authentic atmosphere of the old house.As a two-generation residence the house offers aluxurious standard which includes, among otherthings, a small tea ceremony annexe. Also, theneighbourhood is exceptionally well preserved.Twenty-seven wooden houses survive in the nei-ghbourhood. This is one of those places in the citycentre where we can still sense the unspoiled at-mosphere of the historic neighbourhoods.

In the floor plan the earth floor area runs alongthe southern side of the house and five livingrooms are grouped along it. The width of theearth floor area is 1 ken (approximately 1.8 me-tres). The living room, okunoma (literally: the roomin the rear of the house), has a picture alcove, to-

konoma, a shelf, and a writing desk. All show ex-cellent materials and design. The ranma partition,the wood work between the horizontal lintel andceiling in the living room is made of darkJapanese kurogaki wood, a rare and expensivematerial today. Due to a special mortar-bambootechnique the interior walls have kept their sur-face in perfect condition without shrinking or anyother visible damage. The upper floor is used asworking space, where the kimono silk textiles arepainted.

The family is the third generation in the Ni-shijin kimono textile industry. They are known asspecialists in a craft known as gold painting.156

This technique is the final stage in kimono ma-king. It resembles modern airbrush technique,through which the painted figures get their finaltouch and artistic finishing. But, as Mrs. Matsumo-to said, such work is ‘very boring to do every day’.The family, which has been granted the Award ofthe Kyoto Handicraft Union, has no successor.The Nishijin kimono industry is in great econ-omic difficulties.

The Naka House. Kyoto shi, Kamikyo-ku,Muromachi Oike Agaru, Higashikawa.The house was designed by the father of Mr. Nakawho was an architect, and built using the samedesign methods and techniques as the Kyoto Shi-mabara Sumiya residence, a building that is famousfor its design and designated as a cultural asset. Be-cause of its excellent design techniques and mate-rials the Naka house has all the qualities of a

FIG.78 GARDEN OF THE NAKAE HOUSES WITH A STONE

LANTERN AND STEPPING STONES. IN THE BACKGROUND

A BAMBOO FENCE – ALL ELEGANT ELEMENTS OF A

KYOTO TOWNHOUSE. RS.

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historic landmark, but as a relatively new structurefrom the 1930s lacks the present criterion of age.

The house is designed in the takabei tsukuri ,‘high fence style’ with a low pavilion, hiraya, onthe street elevation. The proportions and designof the street facade are, however, quite differentfrom that of the Kobayashi house. Especially, thedesign of the flat lattice window and the frontgable of the pavilion are delicate. In the interiora prominent feature of the house is an exception-ally well-preserved earth floor area, doma, with asophisticate wood work and with a fine combi-nation of different wooden materials. The postsand beams are made of Japanese pine and pale Ja-panese maple is used in the sliding doors.

In the living room the ranma partition has a

mountain motif highlighted with gold paint. Inthe elegant living room on the upper floor a pic-ture alcove, a shelf, a lute alcove and a writingdesk, are of elaborate shoin style. Mr. Naka livesalone in his beautiful house just a few metres fromthe busy Oike Street.

The Nakae 1 and the Nakae 2 Houses.Kyoto shi, Kamikyo-ku, Shinmachi AyanokojiSagaru, Nishikawa. Funeyamacho.These two houses owned by the Nakae family areelegant examples of well preserved and well main-tained urban dwellings. The Nakae 1 house, whichearlier was the residence and head office of thefamily enterprise, now serves as office space. Thesecond house is used as the family residence. The

FIG.79 GARDEN OF THE MATSUMOTO HOUSE WITH

RENOVATED TOILET-BATHROOM ANNEX ON THE RIGHT. RS.

188

family has run a kimono wholesale business sincethe Edo period. 157 The family, which comes fromKameoka, near Kyoto, has lived in Kyoto for 250years. According to family documents, the familyestablished the kimono trade in the neigh-bourhood in 1822. The old house burnt down inthe city fire in the Meiji period. The residence wasbuilt in 1870 and the storehouse one year later.The Nakae 1 house was built much later, in theMeiji era, in 1907. A second storehouse and anannexe building were built two years earlier, in1905. The residence was rented after the SecondWorld War, but it was brought back into familyownership and is now used by the family as theirresidence.

In both houses the low upper floor has beenpreserved and is used (as traditionally) as a storagespace. The garden is one of the largest of the hou-ses surveyed with large stone lanterns, steppingstones and other traditional elements. To keep thegarden in its original shape is a demanding taskand takes a notable amount of the yearly repara-tion costs as they said. Compared with the spa-cious garden, the guest room of the Nakae 1house is surprisingly small. The elegant officeroom gets side light from a ceiling window andhas old furnishings. The old cooking range wasdemolished and the wood heating stove for thebath replaced by gas in the 1930s. Except for thesechanges the interior is in authentic condition. The

house has been regularly repaired and is in excel-lent condition, but as Mr. Nakae said, to keep theold house in good shape is not only demandingbut also very expensive. The residence wentthrough a major remodelling five years ago. It isnow a combination of traditional and new designelements with ‘Frank Lloyd Wright’ style interiors.The guest room has wooden board floor and it isused as a Western style dining room with a din-ing table and chairs. Also the toilet-bathroom hasbeen rebuilt.

The Future of the HousesSurrounded by high-rise buildings with their of-ten drastically changed environment, it is a mira-cle that so many fine historic urban dwellings andtraditional dwelling environments have survivedup to the present day. In the houses studied it wasstill possible to enjoy the authentic Kyoto atmos-phere even in the midst of the heavily changedcityscape. As an essential feature of the surveyedhouses were the inner gardens, which were laidout and designed with at least as much care andskill as the wooden frame buildings. Small gardenshrines and other ceremonial characteristics add-ed to the heritage value of these sites.

With the increasing construction activity onneighbourhood sites, it will however, be difficultto keep the fine domestic qualities. New buildings,

FIG.81 INTERIOR OF THE RENOVATED AND PARTIALLY

REMODELLED NAKAE 2 HOUSE. RS.

FIG.80 INTERIOR OF THE NAKAE 1 HOUSE. VIEW FROM

OMOTE, OFFICE ROOM WITH OLD FURNISHINGS. THE

ROOM GETS SIDELIGHT FROM ABOVE. RS.

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usually devoid of aesthetic quality, are being builtnear the old, more graceful buildings destroyingtheir privacy and spoiling their garden scenes. Aspart of the commercial and business district thefuture of most of the surveyed sites is character-ised by great uncertainty, so that radical precau-tions will be necessary if anything of thetraditional living environment is to be saved. Al-most all the houses studied face a change of gen-eration soon. This will be a critical moment notonly for the houses surveyed but for many otherhistoric urban dwellings too.

Not even one of the families could be certainof the future of their house meaning that any far-sighted planning of the property was impossible.From the preservation point of view regular andcontinuous maintenance of a property is one ofthe basic necessities for economically soundpreservation of the building. None of the struc-tures were considered qualified to be nominatedas cultural assets, although they were acknowl-edged to have many fine qualities.

190

Description of the SurveyThe field study below is focused on the documen-tation of the physical features of one nagaya pat-tern urban dwelling, the Sugiura house inShinkamanzacho. The field survey is based on themeasurements of the house, which were carriedout in 1991 by the author and assisted by a groupof students from the Nishikawa laboratory. For thesurvey the author listed the names of the individu-al rooms as family members use them: the size ofthe rooms, their everyday use and the storagespaces they contain. The screen display, as stagedin the house, and the role of the house in the GionFestival are studied separately in chapter 20.

As a shobai, in other words a textile manufactur-er’s dwelling and production space, the Sugiurahouse is divided between the space for business,and the production and living spaces. All therooms and structural members are based on theold Kyoto tatami module, which is larger than thatused today. 158 The house is the so-called omotenagaya type 159 with the main structure, omote, on

the street elevation, a privy-bathroom annexe atthe rear and a small garden in the southeast cor-ner of the site. Between the garden and the houseruns an L-shaped veranda, engawa.

The width of the house is 7.1 metres and thelength 8.8 metres. The size of the house is quiteaverage for Shinkamanzacho.160 Compared withthe long and narrow unagi no nedoko pattern, thesite is very shallow, but typical for this kind ofurban terraced houses. From the plan organisati-on of the Sugiura house we can read the spatialorganisation and character of many other urbantenanted terraced houses too. Practically all thebuildings along Shinkamanza Street are of simi-lar pattern. The average size of a dwelling housein this neighbourhood is 70 sq. m. and the smal-lest tenanted house only 26 sq. m. Furthermore,83% of houses were less than 100 sq. m. and 25%less than 50 sq. m. All buildings were less than 200sq. m.

Unlike in the usual tenement pattern, the Su-giura house has not shared walls with its neigh-

Fieldwork No. 5

Survey Of An Urban TenantedTerraced House, Nagaya

FIG. 82 NIWA, GARDEN. ON THE

RIGHT THE TOILET-BATHROOM

ANNEXE. THE SUGIURA HOUSE. RS.

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bourhood buildings. In other words, the housecannot technically be described as a tenement.Because of its other nagaya like properties, theauthor, however, keeps the nagaya categorisationthroughout the work.

History of the Sugiura FamilyThe Sugiura family came to Kyoto from Omiha-chiman, Shiga Prefecture and before that fromAichi Prefecture where the family was known formaking tiles for temples. Mr. Sugiura’s fathermoved to Kyoto when he was sixteen. Before thefamily moved to their present house, the familylived in two other houses in the same neigh-bourhood, both of which still exist.

The family has lived on the current site formore than 80 years. They are one of the oldestfamilies in the neighbourhood and the Meiji pe-riod house is one of the oldest houses alongShinkamanza lane. The house was originally a ten-

ant house built for kimono artisans in the employ-ment of the Okao family. The house was boughtby Mr. Sugiura’s parents after the Second WorldWar, when many tenant houses were sold to ten-ant families as part of the American Occupationland-reform programme. In this programme,which was carried out in 1947-49, tenant-oper-ated land in Japan, which had remained at about45 % since early in the century, was reduced toless than 10 % by banning all absentee landown-ers. Generous credit terms and high inflation af-ter the war made it easy for urban tenants toacquire ownership of the land at a relatively lowprice. 161 Also in Shinkamanzacho a large numberof former tenant houses were sold as was foundout by the author in the survey that was referredin chapter 8.

Specialising in the dyeing and cleaning ofkimonos, the family is one of the few kimonomanufacturer families left in Shinkamanzacho.Most of them are retired or have changed occu-

FIG. 83 BUTSUDAN, THE BUDDHIST ALTAR IN THE

ZASHIKI, GUEST ROOM. IN THE FOREGROUND A TEA

CEREMONY SET. THE SUGIURA HOUSE. RS.

192

pation with the decline in kimono production.Before the war almost all the residents in theneighbourhood were kimono manufacturers forthe producer-landowner Okao family, who spe-cialised in the famous Kyoto shibori knot dyeingtechnique. Today almost all the socio-economicties, which 20 years ago dominated life in theneighbourhood have been broken. Except for oldMrs. Okao, who lives in the neighbourhood, allthe other members of the old landowner familyhave died. Mr. Sugiura now runs his own busi-ness, working independently for his clients. Thefamily has three daughters, two of whom are mar-ried and have moved away.

The location of the Sugiura house and thehouse of Mrs. Okao is shown in the measurementdrawing, Fig. 19. As can be seen from the draw-ing, the Sugiura house shows a well-preservedMeiji era wooden lattice facade with such deli-cate carpentry elements as tobukuro, rain closet,degoshi, projecting lattice bay window and woodensliding door. The house of Mrs. Okao is new butfollows the scale and style of old townhouses inthe neighbourhood.

The family members resident in the house areMr. and Mrs. Sugiura and their youngest daugh-ter who, in her twenties, is one of the few youngpeople left. 162 Two of the rooms on the upperfloor are sublet to a young relative from Hokkaido.

The Floor Plan BeforeThe original plan organisation is that of a typicalKyoto townhouse: a long corridor with an earthfloor, toriniwa, runs through on the other side ofthe house and the tatami covered living rooms areorganised along it. The garden is at the rear, in thenorth-west corner of the site. Thus, even in theshallow nagaya sites the house is oriented towardsits inner parts. The tiny inner gardens and theirinterior views were - and still are - one of thecharming features of these otherwise densely builturban sites.

In the Sugiura house the earth floor corridor,toriniwa, runs through the house on the southernside of the site. Originally the toriniwa corridorwas, as usual, two floors high. Three tatami rooms,the omote, nakanoma, okunoma, front, middle andback rooms, were organised along it. The daidoko,kitchen, was originally part of the earth floor area,doma, where the washing room now is. The mid-dle of the earth floor area was used as a dyeingspace. In other words, the manufacturing functionwas an integral part of the function and spatialarrangement of the tenement house.

On the upper floor there were three tatamirooms in a row with the staircase in the middleroom. The balcony on the upper floor was largerthan now, eight mats.

FIG.84 ZASHIKI, GUEST ROOM WITH TOKONOMA

ALCOVE. THE SUGIURA HOUSE. RS.

12

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The Floor Plan NowThe house went through a major remodelling atthe beginning of the 1960s when the house ser-ved as a residence for two generations, when themother of Mr. Sugiura was still alive. The earthfloor area was rebuilt as only one floor high. Thedining-kitchen was rebuilt in the middle part ofthe house (nakanoma) now with a wooden boardfloor. A second staircase and a bathroom wereadded. On the upper floor three rooms were di-vided into six smaller rooms. Only the guest room,zashiki, kept its old shape.

The remodelling and alterations largely ob-scured the original room organisation of thehouse. The old structural members can, however,

still be seen in places, for example the wall anddoor posts. In the renewed parts the remodellinghas often been done with much less care and withcheap building materials. As a result the house iscurrently a mixture of different materials andtastes from various periods. Rooms that survivefrom the old plan organisation are the well pre-served omote (room nearest the street), whichfunctions as the working space for Mr. Sugiura,zashiki, the guest room, the veranda and the gar-den. Thanks to them the house still keeps themajor traits and atmosphere of the traditionalurban house.

The plan and section of the house are shownin Figs. 109 and 110, as decorated for the ScreenFestival.

FIG.85 DAIDOKORO, MODERN KITCHEN THAT WAS BUILT AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 1960’S. THE SUGIURA HOUSE. RS.


194

The Future of the HouseAs one of the town’s potential expansion areas,the neighbourhood around the Sugiura housefaces threats that have deleterious effects on itsurban characteristics and life. Such threats in-clude both the lack of proper conservation andmanagement policies as well as the threateningeffects of the expanding business and commer-cial area. The urban transformation process hasprogressed rapidly behind Shinkamanzacho af-ter the fieldwork was carried out. Many oldbuildings, which during the measurement workstill were preserved, have been demolished.The sites have been developed with high risebuildings of eight to ten floors. One tenement

building was demolished to give a way for aparking lot.

Furthermore, the withering manufacturing ac-tivity has increased the speed of the deteriorationprocess of the built fabric of the neighbourhood.A number of buildings are abandoned or empty.Cosmetic repairs are not nearly enough to solvethe renovation problems that the buildings alongthis urban tenement lane face. The location of thearea behind Shijo Street increases the pressures formore intensive land use.

A decision on the future of the house has tobe made within the next couple of years. In theold house a major renovation will have to bemade. In particular, the privy and the bathroomneed repair and partial rebuilding. The Japanese

FIG.86 OTEARAI. THE JAPANESE STYLE TOILET. THE SUGIURA HOUSE. RS.

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style toilet will be unsuitable for an ageing cou-ple and also the bathroom (furo) needs repair. Thedifferent floor levels of a traditional Kyoto town-house might also cause problems if there is anaged person in a family using a wheelchair.

At the present moment the bathroom is usedonly occasionally. The couple still follows thehabit of visiting the local neighbourhood bath-house (osento ) which is located only a few me-tres away from their house. For the family itmight be too expensive to hire traditional car-penters for the bathroom renovation work. Onthe other hand, the standard ready-made bath-room units that are in the market do not fit thestyle and atmosphere of the old house. Nor arethe ready-made units cheap.

For the old couple the house is also too large.The ageing family will discontinue manufactu-ring activity in a few years’ time. One potentialvision for the family is to develop the site, pos-sibly, in cooperation with the neighbouring sites.Joint speculation with the sites backing on to itis one option, which might provide financialreturn but which would also risk the physical in-tegrity in this part of the neighbourhood. Mrs.Sugiura is also worried about the future of theScreen Festival and whether it will be possiblefor her to continue the display in this place.

Conclusions of the DwellingPattern FieldworkThere is a number of conclusions that can bedrawn form the fieldwork. The current methodsfor evaluating heritage in Kyoto have not beenable to identify the heritage value of the city as awhole. As a result, a continuous transformationprocess is going on threatening not only architec-turally and historically qualified and distinguishedbuildings but important parts of Kyoto’s built fab-ric as well. The overemphasis on landmark valuesemphasises few spots for living environments andleaves the everyday environment as a free battle-ground for developers and land speculators. In theworst case, the landmark preservation leads toindifference to everyday dwelling patterns andtownscapes which however are important for theunderstanding and reading of the town as a whole.

Instead of geometrically shaped and clearly de-fined and architecturally unified urban blocksKyoto is consisting of a large numbers of individ-ual spots each site adding its own variation to thetotal picture of the whole. The preservation of fewlandmarks is meaningless if the immediate envi-ronment around the protected houses is changedto a concrete jungle (as the author observed in thesite surveys) spoiling garden views, lighting cir-cumstances and privacy on the sites. Thus, the

FIG.87 FESTIVAL

DECORATION OF THE

SUGIURA HOUSE.SS.

196

damage caused by individual new buildings amidstold quarters in such cities as Paris or Helsinki isfar not so great than in Kyoto and can, in bestcases, be maid quite organically.

Most of the preservation problems that wereinvolved on the surveyed sites, were related to thecity planning problems as a whole. For any her-itage evaluation to be successful, these basic prob-lems should be solved first. Moreover, it isquestionable if the current heritage methodolo-gies are a right evaluation tool. The evaluationmethods that take concern only a limited numberof heritage values, causes the evaluation be notonly absurd but also utterly harmful. Even todaythere is no legal protection for any of these struc-tures and even in the case they were protected,they could be protected only as museum objectsthus freezing their life within.

Compared to the historic urban dwellings, thetenement building stock is, if possible, even moredifficult to evaluate in cultural heritage or archi-tectural terms. The current threat to the buildingstock is a direct result of the city planning meth-ods so that they should be changed first. Anotherquestion is whether even the right city planningpolicies can work effectively if they are not com-bined with effective urban renovation plans. Theminimum demand for all the surveyed sites shouldbe:

1) that the heritage value of the everyday build-ings and sites is acknowledged and this view isintegrated in the general approach to city plan-ning and methodologies used,

2) that the city planners begin to regard the or-dinary building stock as worthy of renovation andthis view is adapted into housing policy pro-grammes and plans,

3) that the heritage evaluation assessmentmethods are developed so that they concern therequirements of vernacular buildings and all theirvalue categories.

In Finland the discussion on urban conserva-tion began at the end of the 1960s when the con-servation and repair of wooden working class areassuch as Käpylä and Wooden Vallila in Helsinki andPorth Arthur in Turku became topical. The pres-ervation problems of these areas were very simi-lar to areas now described.

In Kyoto there might be better ground for pres-ervation discussion now than before. In the 1992-1997 municipal housing programme a shift of focusof public housing policy could be observed for thefirst time. According to this programme the focusof housing policy is gradually moving from thesuburban areas to the city centre and thus, to thehistoric city neighbourhoods. This new develop-ment has occurred at the same time, as there is agrowing number of ageing people living in the citycentre. Although the new trend lends hope, thatpublic housing policy could gradually be movedaway from new production to renovation and mod-ernisation of the old building stock, as late as in1997, the municipal renewal proposals that wereunder planning on such urban tenements lanes asShinkamanzacho, were based on a radical rebuild-ing and reshaping of the old environment.

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General Outline of the FieldworkCompared with the Gion Festival, which in Kyotohas been the topic of a mountain of scholarlystudies, the Screen Festival has been studied onlyoccasionally, and even then, from the point ofview of the historic screens. The Yamahoko inves-tigation was one of the first surveys which aimedto assess the wider, urban context of the displays.This is also the major aim of the current research.

The analysis is based on on-site fieldwork thatthe author carried out in Kyoto as a member ofthe Yamahoko team. Approximately one hundredneighbourhoods were examined, including listingmore than 134 articles and 160 screens. The field-work had to be carried out in a very short peri-od of time because most of the screens werepublicly displayed for only a few hours during thetwo festival nights. As an integral part of the Yama-hoko survey the individual screens were analysedand surveyed by a group of art history students

Chapter 21

Introduction to theFieldwork on Cultural and UrbanPatterns of the Screen Festival.

as to their size, period, painter’s name and themes.In the first place, the present study is not an art-historical study of screens, but a study which is fo-cused on the cultural and urban patterns of thedisplays. An essential part of the cultural value ofthe display tradition is understood to be the ur-ban context.

The Hayakawa Survey in 1977The main source of information for the analysis,apart from the fieldwork, was a master’s thesisstudy carried out by the architect MasuhikoHayakawa at Kyoto University in the laboratoryof Prof. Atsushi Ueda in 1977. Prof. Ueda is awell-known advocate for Japanese architecture inJapan and abroad. He initiated the exhibition onthe Kyoto townhouse, Kyo-Machiya, in the KyotoMuseum in 1990. He is also the author of TheInner Harmony of the Japanese House (Kodansha:

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Tokyo 1990). The exhibition and the book haveserved as an important source of inspiration forthe current work.

In the Hayakawa survey, all the displays in andaround the hoko neighbourhoods were systemat-ically recorded and analysed. Through this surveythe author gained useful information about thehistory and profile of individual displays in thecross-section period 20 years ago. 1977 was oneof the years when the speed of urban change wasat its peak. The number of displays had droppedto a very low number. However, many traditionaldisplays of high artistic quality still existed then.The Hayakawa survey although it may differ intechnicalities such as the slightly different outlin-ing of the survey area, provided a useful source ofreference and a comparison survey for the presentinventory, where the author draws the currentcross-section profile of the Screen Festival.

Content of the FieldworkThe content of the fieldwork is as follows:

Fieldwork no.6 is a short introduction to the dis-played articles. Even now the folding screens arethe major content and visual focus of the displays.In addition, luxurious kimonos and other kimo-no related silk textiles are on display.

Fieldwork no. 7 is a cross-section of the presentday festival. In particular, the author focuses onthe current profile of the displays, such as thenumber and location of the displays. The profes-sions and occupational fields of those who dis-play are also investigated and certain propertiessuch as the construction material (wood/rein-

forced concrete) and the general character (highrise/traditional) of the exhibition facilities areexamined.

Fieldwork no. 8 is a documentation of the man-ifold display patterns that exist in the festival. Thefocus of interest is on traditional displays and inparticular, on the inter-relationship between thehouse and the street. In other words, the fieldworkfocuses on the urban patterns of the festival.

In Fieldwork no. 9 the cultural know-how andthe staging technique are studied in detail usingone ordinary kimono home display as an exam-ple. The home display described illustrates the un-pretentious kimono artisan home displays thatflourish particularly outside the hoko neighbour-hoods. Through this fieldwork the author alsoacquired knowledge of the manifold value-judge-ments and meanings an individual, displaying per-son may attach to the festival.

In Fieldwork no. 10 the author draws the pro-file of seventeen individual displays. They includea sample collection of the most prominent displaystoday. All these displays are important local land-marks. The focus of study is on the urban quali-ties of the displays, rather than on the descriptionand arthistorical value of individual screens. Qual-itative changes in the festival are described throughthe example of two traditional displays that arenow shown in a modern (reinforced concrete)setting.

The survey area was bounded by Oike Streetin the north, Horikawa Street in the west, Kara-suma Street in the east and Takatsuji Street in thesouth. The lining of the survey area can bee seenin the survey map, in Fig. 2.

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The Aim of the FieldworkIn the following investigation the author pays at-tention particularly to the role of home treasuresand folding screens.163 Still today, the home treas-ures play a dominant role in the festival empha-sising the contextual and place values of thefestival. Aside from the screens, that are the ma-jor visual foci of the displays, the author counted23 different kinds of articles that had been put ondisplay. Thus elegant kimonos and kimono texti-les, picture scrolls, old armour, wooden models offestival floats and classical flower arrangements addto the charm of the displays. The elegance of thedisplay depends not so much on the number ofdisplayed articles, but rather on the artistic settingand the choice of items. In other words, the aes-thetic and visual value is as much in the ensem-ble as in the individual items that are on display.An essential part of the charm of the displays istheir relationship with the audience and the street.

General Description of the ScreensAlthough an expert, art historian study of thescreens was outside the scope of the thesis, the fol-lowing information is aimed to orientate the read-er about the main characteristics of the exhibitedscreens. In general and as it turned out in thefieldwork, it is impossible to give a simple andconsistent classification scheme for the differentkinds of screens which are exhibited, because ofthe great variety of styles, painting themes andperiods represented. The author has limited her-self to some of the most common themes and sty-les and to the major painters and painting schools.

As to the age of the screens, besides many con-temporary screens from the beginning or middleof this century, there are many fine screens fromthe Meiji and Edo periods. Kyoto was one of thecentres, where with the growing interest in Japa-nese aesthetics in Europe in the 19th century,antique screens were copied in large numbers tobe exported to foreign countries. Most of thescreens seen in the festival are such copies of fa-mous, older screens. For the details of the screensthe author consulted art historian, Assoc. Prof. Ms.

Fieldwork No.6

The Profile of the Displayed Articles

FIG.88 MATSU - TSURU - PINES AND CRANES, A

COMBINATION THAT IS REGARDED AS AUSPICIOUS.

THE MATSUMI DISPLAY. YAMADACHO . RS.

FIG.89 WOODEN MODEL OF THE FESTIVAL FLOAT IN THE

MORII DISPLAY, KANDAIJINCHO . RS.

200

Iwama, who with her students investigated andclassified all the screens in the festival. Two exhi-bition catalogues (in Japanese) provided in-formation on individual, historically valuable,screens.

Exhibition at the Municipal Museum of Artin 1975In the exhibition 38 screens from different peri-ods and painters were collected in and aroundthe city centre. Some of the screens are still ex-hibited in the current festival, such as screens inthe Matsushita display (display no. 50), a set ofscreens depicting bamboo by Tsuji Kako in theArakawa display (display no. 24) and a set ofscreens from the Edo period, which portray hu-nting on Mount Fuji, in the Ichihara display(display no. 46).

The Gion Festival Exhibition in 1983-84The exhibition was organised by three authori-ties concerned about the future of the Gion Fes-tival. Among the art treasures, besides ninewooden models of the festival floats and four pic-ture scrolls, there were eight screens owned byprivate collectors. Two of the screens are still dis-played in the festival: A pair of six-leaved Rakuchu-Rakugai screens from the Edo period seen in theIkegaki display (display no. 4) and a two-leavedGion Sairei Zu screen seen in the Ueno display(display no. 13).

The Age and Topics of the ScreensAt the moment, besides ordinary screens made byurban artisans, there are fine screens from almostall the major Kyoto painting schools. These paint-

FIG.90 A JAPANESE EAGLE IS PAINTED ON EACH LEAVE OF THE MAIN SCREEN. THE KONDA DISPLAY, EBOSHACHO . RS.

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ings demonstrate not only the high artistic leveland historic value of individual screens, but alsothe high cultural level of the whole festival. Thisgroup of screens includes, to mention only someof them, paintings from the famous Kano school,(which Yasunari Kawabata mentioned in his com-ments on the Screen Festival), the Sumiyoshischool and the Hasegawa school, which are allwell-known historical Kyoto painting schools.

Among individual painters there are such re-nowned painters as Tessai Tomioka (1836-1924),Shonen Suzuki and Shiko Watanabe. The oldestscreen is a painting by Donshu Ohara (-1587)portraying a Japanese festival. Besides these histor-ically valuable museum-piece screens, there aremany ordinary screens made by urban artisans.Altogether the author identified four majorgroups of painting topics and themes:

A large majority of screens deals with Chinesepainting themes. In this group are black and whitepaintings with classic landscape themes such aspaintings depicting mountains and water. Otherpopular painting motifs are pine trees and cranes,matsu and tsuru, a combination which has tradi-tionally been considered auspicious (see, for in-stance, the Matsumi display: display no. 39, Fig. 88)

Among the philosophical themes there are suchcombinations as the Japanese koto instrument, shogigame and sumie, ink-painting teacher164 as in theImae display (display no. 6) or an ink painting tea-cher among his students as in the Komatsu dis-play (display no. 32, Fig. 118). In the philosophicalcategory of paintings there is also a screen show-

ing ‘twenty-four legends depicting happy parent-hood’.

Among the historical painting motives onecommon genre are the Rakuchu-Rakugai screens,which are Edo period or later copies of the orig-inals. Like the original paintings, they portrayKyoto at different seasons, and show events in andaround the capital. Among this genre of screensthere is a fine museum-piece screen from themiddle of the Edo period in the Ikegaki display(display no. 4), which was mentioned in the ex-hibition catalogue above. Furthermore, in theIssetso display there is a fine Rakuchu -Rakugaiscreen from the same period. This screen portrays,among other events, the Gion Festival. The dis-play, unfortunately, is not accessible to public view.

The fourth group of paintings deals with sea-sonal themes. Since the Gion Festival was viewedas celebrating the summer season, themes withseasonal references are common. In the seasonalcategory are, for example, such screens as ‘kimonoladies looking at fire-flies in the moonlight’ refer-ring to a popular leisure activity in late summereves in Kyoto, even today. Other paintings withseasonal themes are screens and picture scrolls thatderive their themes directly from the Gion Fes-tival, and also screens which, like many floatdecorations, refer to the water element. One ofthe most fascinating screens among this genreis a screen which depicts colourful Kyoto fanspainted as if floating under the water. This screenis shown in the Komatsu display in Ennogyojacho(see Fig. 94). Not all seasonal screens, however, de-

FIG.91 AN ANTIQUE TAPESTRY IN THE FUKUI DISPLAY,

HAKURAKUTENCHO. AN EXAMPLE OF THE

REVITALIZATION OF THE FESTIVAL. RS.

202

rive their themes from this special season. Thereare paintings with autumn grasses and even scre-ens, which portray snowy mountains.

The Profile of the DisplayedArticles TodayFor the survey the displayed articles were classi-fied in six major groups: screens, kimono textiles,armour, wooden models, other articles and flow-er arrangements.

ScreensIn 1991-92, out of the total of 56 displays, screenswere the main content of the displays in 49 ofthem. The number of screens in one display wasusually from two to four screens. Altogether theYamahoko team recorded more than 160 screens.The setting of the screens took a number of pat-terns such as screens in U shape or in a row.

Kimonos and Kimono TextilesThe Muromachi area as one of the major centresfor Kyoto’s kimono trade, a number of luxuriouskimonos and kimono textiles are on display. Inparticular, the number of kimonos was large in thedisplays set up by kimono enterprises and whole-sale companies. In these displays the kimonos havean important image and business supporting role.The type of kimonos ranged from Chinese an-

tique kimonos such as in the Komatsu display(display no. 32) to gorgeous no costume kimonosand self-dyed kimonos. Beside kimonos otherkimono related articles were on display such askimono string and kimono obi, all these itemsbeing outstanding works of art.

Old Armour and Other AntiquesOld armour was recorded in three displays: theMatsuzakaya (display no. 27), Sakane (display no.42) and Hirai (display no. 51) displays.

Among other popular antiques are, for instance,decorative hand-woven mats that add colour (bluemats are common) and sense of taste to the dis-plays.

Wooden Models of Festival FloatsAlthough not so old, the oldest ones were fromthe Meiji period; large wooden models depictingfestival floats add their charm to the festival. Theyare intended to be a reference to the role of theMuromachi district in the Gion Festival and thusexamples of articles that are culturally and con-text bound. Altogether the author counted sev-en large wooden models. The largest ones werealmost two metres long. One such wooden hokomodel is seen, for instance, in the Morii display,see Fig. 89.

FIG.92 KIMONO OBI IN THE IWATA DISPLAY, BANOCHO . RS. FIG.93 CLASSIC HYOGI FLOWER ARRANGMENT IN THE

ICHIHARA DISPLAY. RS.

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Flower ArrangementsThe most common of the minor exhibits are clas-sical flower arrangements, which add colour anda seasonal quality to the displays. In the GionFestival, flower arrangements accompany otherdecorations. The hyogi flower, in particular, is ide-ntified with the Gion Festival. It is a flower ar-rangement, which demands a special technique,which can be mastered only after several years ofpractice. This arrangement is one example of thecultural know-how of the Yamahoko kimonofamilies. These classical flower arrangements wererecorded in numerous displays. One such hyogiflower arrangement is seen in the Ichihara display

(display no. 46), Fig. 93. In the background thereis an antique screen which portrays hunting ofboars on Mount Fuji. The screen has been listedby heritage authorities.

Other ArticlesIn one display the display objects were derivedfrom the Iwatoyama float, such as the tapestrieswhich decorate the float during the procession. Inanother display the focus was an antique tapestryfrom 16th century Belgium. The tapestry was pur-chased for the family collection a few years ago.This is one example of the recent attempts to revi-talise the Screen Festival.

FIG. 94 COLOURFUL FANS ARE PAINTED AS IF FLOATING UNDER THE WATER. THE KOMATSU DISPLAY, ENNOGYO JACHO. RS.

204

FIG.95 THE CHOJI DISPLAY, KAZAHAYACHO . KIMONO-RELATED ARTICLES ARE ON DISPLAY. HK.

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Introduction to the FieldworkThe number of kimono families exhibiting hasfallen dramatically, particularly since the SecondWorld War. A low point was reached at the endof the 1970s, when the number of displays fell toonly 30 displays. The city’s transformation proc-ess threatens the display tradition in a number ofways. In particular, the wooden town architecturecontext has become endangered. In the investi-gation, which is focused on the general outlinesof the festival, the author set up two major ob-jectives:

1) To investigate the exact number of displays2) To investigate the current profile of the displays

The field material was divided into five groups:the name and address of the exhibition, the dis-play facility, the profile of the exhibiting personor company, the field of the enterprise and thedisplay year.

The Profile of Displays in 1991-92During the two display years the author record-ed a total of 56 display.165 An increase of 26 dis-plays was thus noted. Among the displays listed 38were within, and 18 outside the hoko neighbour-hoods. The number of displays thus increased bothinside and outside the hoko neighbourhoods. Thedistribution map for 1991-92 is shown in thesurvey map, Fig. 2. The names and addresses of theindividual displays are given in Appendix 6.

The most frequent number of displays was recorded in Mu-

romachi Street, where there were 12 altogether. In addition, there

were 10 displays in Shinmachi Street, six in Karasuma Street, six

in Nishikikoji Street and five in Ayanokoji Street. 70% of the

displays were found along these five streets, which are the

traditional core of the Screen Festival.

The Profile of the ExhibitionThe exhibitions are placed in three categories:home displays, combination home-enterprise, andenterprise. Enterprises were divided into two sub-groups: traditional industry and industries outsidethe traditional field.

Home DisplaysIn 1977 70% of exhibits were home displays, inother words, they were set up by private kimonofamilies. 166 Also today most displays were homedisplays, 35 in all.

The profile of home displays was as follows: home displays

six, combination home-traditional industry 25, other home dis-

plays four. The number of home displays in the Yamahoko

neighbourhoods was 21 and outside the hoko neighbourhoods

14. Thus, particularly outside the Yamahoko neighbourhoods, the

home category displays formed a large percentage of the total

number.

Displays Outside the Home Category21 displays were outside the home category suchas displays set up by kimono enterprises andcompanies or even by large hotels and banks.There were 17 displays outside home categoryin the hoko neighbourhoods and four outsidethese neighbourhoods. The share of these displayswas thus large, particularly in the Yamahokoneighbourhoods. Most of the enterprises oper-ated in traditional fields. Only five displays wereexhibited by enterprises outside the traditionalfields.

Professional Profile of the EnterpriseEven today most of the participants were in the ki-mono textile industry: altogether 35 displays.

The following enterprises exhibited: kimono manufacturing

two, kimono wholesaling 25, dyeing seven, one kimono obi

maker. In addition there were such traditional fields as fan mak-

ing (one), tatami making (one), manufacturing wooden boxes

Fieldwork No. 7

The Current Profile of the Screen Festival

206

(one), a Japanese style restaurant (one). Six displays were out-

side the traditional field. In six displays the occupation of the

exhibitor could not be identified.

The Profile of the Display FacilityThe author classified the display facility in twomajor categories: wooden/reinforced concretestructures. The author also observed the numberof floors.

Reinforced Concrete StructuresAlmost half, 26 displays, took place in reinforcedconcrete structures. The number in 1977 hadbeen 10, thus there was an increase of 16 displays.

In the hoko neighbourhoods there were displays in 20 rein-

forced concrete structures, more than half of the total. Outside

the hoko neighbourhoods the number of these displays was only

six.

Wooden StructuresAmong the display facilities there were altogeth-er 30 wooden structures. Among them 18 wereinvestigated in the hoko neighbourhoods and 12outside them. Outside the hoko neighbourhoodsthe share of wooden structures was thus, still rel-atively large. Furthermore, of the wooden struc-tures, 20 had a machiya shape, in other words, atraditional wooden frame facade. Kanban, shopsign facade, was recorded in seven displays. Threedisplays took place in rebuilt wooden structures,which were designed in the traditional town-house, machiya, style.167

Number of FloorsThree categories were used for the number offloors: those with two or less floors, those withthree to five floors and those with more than fivefloors. 30 display facilities had two floors, 17 hadthree to five floors, 9 had more than five floors.38 buildings had three or fewer floors. Thus, mostof the exhibition facilities were still of relativelysmall scale.

The Building Material of the DisplayFacility versus the Profile of the DisplayingPerson/EnterpriseThe author compared the profile of the exhibit-ing person/enterprise and the building materialof the exhibition facility. Outside the home cat-egory the vast majority of displays, 17, took placein reinforced concrete structures. In the categoryof home displays the great majority, 26, took placein wooden structures. In other words, there wasa correlation between the home-category and thewooden display facilities.

SummaryBelow the author will draw conclusions focusingespecially on two major issues:

1) The general profile of the displays2) Current trends

The General Profile of the DisplaysThe survey recorded a general increase in the nu-mber of displays. The number of displays almostdoubled over the past 15 years. Moreover, of the30 displays, which existed in 1977, only 13 or 14displays could be identified as having survived upto now. Thus, the number of new displays waseven greater than would appear from the num-bers alone. It is thus no exaggeration to say thatthe festival has been undergoing a revival duringrecent years. Displays along Muromachi Streetparticularly, the traditional core of the festival, inc-reased. There were only two displays in 1977, sothe increase to 12 displays is remarkable. More-over, the physical changes in the built environ-ment did not notably affect the growth in thenumber of displays. 62% of buildings alongMuromachi Street are reinforced concretestructures.

Furthermore, a very traditional profile of thosewho display was recorded. The kimono industryhas kept a strong foothold in the festival. Thescreen displays continue to be a highly appreci-ated tradition of the Muromachi kimono families.The Union of the Kyoto Textile Industry has

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played an important role in the revival of the fes-tival. In the middle seventies it had an imageboosting campaign to promote the kimono tex-tile industry. With this objective in mind it alsopromoted such traditions as the Screen Festival.168

The large number of kimono textile enterprises,which participate in the festival, demonstrates thatthese efforts have not been in vain

The general atmosphere now might be differ-ent from 15 years ago. With the extensive mediainterest in traditional events there might now bea higher degree of public awareness of such tradi-tions as the Screen Festival. The display is seen asa source of local pride. According to this survey,the kimono enterprises are very much involvedin the festival and the number of kimono enter-prises has even increased. Even the number ofhome displays, against our expectations, was ableto grow. Besides kimono merchant families manyordinary kimono artisan families participate in thefestival.

Current TrendsOne prominent feature is the disappearance ofmany traditional displays that were still on the scenetwenty years ago

The second feature is the relatively low totalnumber of displays. The number of displays is stillvery low and nowhere near the number in theyears before the Second World War. According tothe Yamahoko survey there are only 1.08 displaysper hoko neighbourhood. This is anything butpromising if we consider the future of the festi-val. Furthermore, there are many hoko neighbour-hoods where no screen displays were recorded atall. The author recorded 17 such neighbourhoodsalready, in other words, almost half of all the hokoneighbourhoods.

Third, there is a gradual disappearance of thehome context. While the emphasis earlier was onkimono homes with a traditional life style, thereare now many displays outside the home category.In the hoko neighbourhoods almost half of the dis-plays are now outside the home category, in oth-er words, the displays are set up by enterprises andcompanies (although many in the traditional ki-

mono field). Outside the Yamahoko area thenumber of home displays was, however, still rela-tively large.

Furthermore, related to the later trend, there isa gradual disappearance of the wooden townhousecontext. The number of displays in reinforcedconcrete structures increased being now almosthalf of all displays. This is a large number and notwithout an effect on the atmosphere and charac-ter of displays.

208

Introduction to the FieldworkThe major aim of the investigation was to recordthe staging practices and patterns today. Particularattention was paid to the wooden townhouse con-text as the scenic stage of the festival. In the tradi-tional architecture the technique of display wasmanaged by such things as the choice of the dis-play room and by the viewing pattern. The displaycould be seen through lattice, koshi, partitions or thewooden partitions could be removed so that thepublic and private domains merged into each other.Ms. Iwama saw the exposed rooms as the quintes-sence of the traditional displays:

“... Is not one of the great meanings of the Screen Fes-tival to be found in the way the urban dwelling is ex-posed as if on a stage?”169

In some displays, in particular if the number ofscreens was large, many rooms are used for the dis-play. In that case the onlooker can enter the houseand enjoy the screens in the inner parts of thehouse. Then the guestroom, zashiki, is most oftenused as for staging the display. In the traditionaldisplays there is a strong sense of relationship notonly between the onlooker and the staged screens,but also between the onlooker and the house.

This investigation focused particularly on twothings:

1) the traditional staging patterns2) the modern window displays

In the field survey all displays and their stagingpatterns were investigated, their plans with theplacing of individual screens drawn and photo-graphed. The investigation form is attached inAppendix 5. In addition to the material providedby the Yamahoko field surveys, the survey byHayakawa with its many pictures and graphic il-lustrations, provided valuable information on thestaging techniques of the festival in a cross sec-tion period when major changes in the displaytechnique had not yet taken place.

Description and Classification ofthe Display PatternsThe author studied the display patterns and thestaging technique from three different viewpoints:

1) name and location of the display room2) viewing pattern and the route taken by the

public

Fieldwork No. 8

Investigation of the Staging Patterns

FIG.96 THE STREET PATTERN. THE DISPLAY IS

VIEWED FROM THE STREET. THE KONDA DISPLAY,

EBOSHACHO . HK.

13

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3) partition between the outdoor and indoorspace.

Through this classification the author hoped toget a exact picture of the manifold of the displaypatterns that exist in the festival and also, to gettools through which to analyse the changingtrends in the festival. The present analysis is thefirst comprehensive study on the urban patternsof the Screen Festival. In describing the names ofthe display rooms and display patterns the authoruses terms that the Japanese researchteam used intheir work.

Name and Location of the DisplayRoomThe author used four categories depending on thelocation of the room:

Pattern A, Room Next to the StreetThe Screen Festival is concerned with the impacton the street, the most popular room for stagingscreens is usually the room next to the street(omote). According to Hayakawa in the tradition-al displays the rooms used for the display weremost often such rooms as the mise-no-ma, shop,omote-no-ma, front room or omote-mise, front shop.In modern office buildings the display room isusually the shop or an office room.

FIG.97 THE KOJIRO YOSHIDA DISPLAY IN ROKKAKUCHO . THE OPEN WALL PATTERN:

THE WHOLE FACADE IS OPEN TO THE STREET. HK.


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A majority of the displays, 36 followed this pat-tern. Of these 18 were in wooden, 18 in rein-forced concrete structures.

Pattern B, room in the inner parts of thehouseAccording to Hayakawa such rooms as the irori-noma, fireplace room, nakanoma, middle room,uriba, selling room, misenoma, shop, kakobu, writ-ing room, zashiki, guest room, osetsuma, guestroom,were used. Many large displays were of this pat-tern. Still today pattern B is mainly identified withlarge traditional displays. If the hierarchy was notmarked clearly and the room was not tatamifloored, the author considered the display roomas pattern C.

Pattern B was recorded in 13 displays. 11 dis-plays were recorded in wooden and two in rein-forced concrete structures.

In this category of displays there were such fine displays as

the Ueno (no. 13), Matsuuma (no. 17), Kojiro Yoshida (no. 28),

Komatsu (no. 32) and Ban displays (no. 33).

Pattern C, toriniwa, genkan, entrance hallor corridor In this pattern the entrance hall, or in woodenstructures, the toriniwa, the earth floor corridor, isthe major stage for the display. The differencebetween pattern C and pattern A, is that in pat-tern A the display room is a tatami-room whilein pattern C it is not.

The entrance hall was used a s place for displayin nine displays. Of these, five were found in rein-forced concrete and four in wooden structures.

The displays in wooden structures that took the entrance

pattern, were: the Kizaki (no.18), Shimizu (no. 49), Kitagawa

(no.7), Koizumi (no. 25) displays. In the reinforced concrete cate-

gory were the Imae (no.6), Chikitsi (no. 31), Jumatsu (no.36),

Matsushita (no. 50), and the Kyoto Hotel (no. 48) displays.

Pattern D, show windowIn this pattern the show-window box is decorat-ed. An example of these modern show windowdisplays is the Itariyard display in Koiyamacho(Display no. 38), which can be seen in Fig. 100.Though diverging from the more traditional dis-plays, the author included this pattern as one newtype of display.

There were five show-window displays alto-gether.

The Furukawa display (display no. 2), which in 1992 took

the entrance and home patterns, in 1991 decorated only the

show-window. Thus the number of show-window displays in

that year was six.

Viewing Pattern and the RouteTaken by PublicThe effectiveness of the display depends on howthe onlooker observes the display. An essential as-pect in the viewing pattern is how the relation-ship between the audience and the house is

FIG.98 OIE, HOME PATTERN. PERSPECTIVE DRAWING OF

THE BAN DISPLAY BY THE AUTHOR. THE SCREENS ARE

DISPLAYED IN THE GUESTROOM.

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manipulated. In Japan, the visitor is regarded tostay outside house as long as she keeps her shoesand is standing in the earth floor area (doma) ofthe house. Only when she leaves her shoes, thevisitor is allowed to enter the tatami area. In oth-er words, as soon as the visitor has entered thetatami area, the visitor is regarded to have enteredthe house. In the Screen Festival this relationshipis manipulated in a number of ways. Hayakawaobserved three basic patterns:

1) from the street, without entering the house2) from the entrance hall in the earth floor area

without entering the tatami area.3) in the tatami room. Hayakawa named this

viewing pattern as the oie pattern, homepattern, because the viewer or audience in thispattern literally enters the house. As a displayroom can be used any of the tatami rooms inthe inner parts of the house. The authorkeeps the same classification.

Pattern A. The screens are displayed in themisenoma (shop) and the audience viewsthe display from the adjoining entrancespaceThe screens are displayed in the tatami area andthe screens are viewed in the entrance hall with-out leaving shoes. In 1977 most of the displayswere of this pattern A. It continues to be com-mon. Fig. 99 shows the general principle of themisenoma-toriniwa, shop-entrance pattern. Theexample is taken from the Sugiura house inShinkamanzacho (display no. 44). The shop-en-trance pattern is not limited to traditional displays,but can be found in modern reinforced concretestructures too.

Altogether 24 displays took the entrancepattern. This was more than one third of alldisplays. The entrance pattern was mainly identi-fied with the wooden buildings. Of all entrancepatterns 20 displays took place in woodenstructures. Only four examples of the entrancepattern were found in reinforced concretestructures.

The author divided the entrance pattern into two sub-

groups:

FIG.99 MISENOMA-TORINIWA, SHOP-ENTRANCE PATTERN.

PERSPECTIVE DRAWING OF THE SUGIURA.

DISPLAY BY THE AUTHOR.

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1) The display takes an asymmetrical pattern. The author calls

the asymmetrical pattern the misenoma-toriniwa, shop entrance

pattern. Hayakawa did so too. The great majority, 16 displays, was

of the asymmetrical pattern and 14 displays of them were found

in wooden structures

2) The display takes the frontal pattern as in some genkan,

entrance, displays, or as in those displays which take place in

modern office entrances. The frontal pattern was found

altogether in eight displays. Of these displays six took place in

wooden and two in reinforced concrete structures.

Pattern B. The audience leaves the shoes inthe entrance hall, enters the house and thescreens are looked at in the housePerspective drawing of the Ban display in Hon-eyacho (display no. 33) that is depicted in Fig. 98shows the general principle of the oie, home pat-tern.

The oie, home pattern was recorded in 15 disp-lays altogether. Of these, seven were recorded inwooden and eight in reinforced concrete struc-tures. Many displays in this category are shieldedfrom public view and they are shown onlyprivately.

Pattern C. The display is viewed from thestreetThis is one of the ‘classic’ patterns that evolved inthe context of the wooden town architecture andopen wall. Because of the removable lattice, koshi

partitions the display, and thereby the wholehouse can temporarily be exposed into the street.In modern steel-reinforced concrete structuresmost of the street patterns (if not all) are win-dow displays where the display is looked atthrough a closed glass window. Fig. 96 shows theprinciple of the street pattern or koshi open pat-tern in the Konda display in Eboshacho (displayno. 30).

27 displays took the street pattern. Of these, 11displays took place in wooden and 16 in rein-forced concrete structures, in other words, thestreet pattern was largely identified with the new,steel and reinforced concrete buildings.

Partition between the Outdoor andIndoor SpaceIn the classic displays communication between thedisplay room and the street area was managed andregulated by the open or half-open wooden par-tition, koshi. In new reinforced concrete structures,the display is usually seen through an open or clo-sed glass window or door. The author uses threecategories:

Closed glass window or doorThis pattern has become common with rein-forced concrete and glass structures and mod-ern air conditioning. The sense of closeness

FIG.100 MODERN WINDOW BOX PATTERN. ITARIYARD,

KOIYAMACHO . RS.

FIG. 101 ENTRANCE PATTERN. TOHO,

ROKKAKUCHO . RS.

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and intimacy between the displaying personand the audience is sacrificed for security andcomfort.

Eight displays were viewed through a closedglass window or door. Of these, seven were in re-inforced concrete structures.

Displays in reinforced concrete structures were: the Morita-

ka (display no. 14), Nakamura (display no. 19), Kawarazaki

(display no. 20), Eibien (display no. 21), Arakawa (display no. 24),

Yasuda (display no. 45), Senso (display no. 53) displays. Only one

of these categories of displays was found in a wooden structure:

display no. 1, the Nakao display.

Open window or doorThe relationship between the house and the au-dience is more intimate than above.

In five displays the partition was an open glassdoor.

Of these displays the Yamada (display no. 56), Ikegaki (display

no. 4), Fukui (display no. 22), Ichida (display no. 26) were dis-

played in reinforced concrete structures. Koizumi (display no. 25)

was displayed in a wooden structure.

Wooden lattice koshi partitionThe display is viewed through lattice koshi parti-tion or koshi partition is removed. This is the classictraditional pattern that can be found only in thewooden town house context. It is thus one of theunique cultural patterns of the festival. The audi-ence stands outside the house, but because of the

open facade the public can see deep into the in-ner parts of the house.

The koshi, lattice open pattern was recorded inthree displays: the Kojiro Yoshida (display no. 28),Matsuzakaya (display no. 27), and Konda (no. 30)displays. They were all among the most beautifuldisplays in the festival. In addition, some displayscould be seen through a half-open wooden par-tition such as the Morii (display no. 41) and Mi-yagawa displays (display no. 43) adding a charmingelement to these displays.

SummaryBecause many displays took more than onedisplay pattern, we considered different combi-nations and classified the displays into six catego-ries:

1) The street pattern, 19 displays2) The entrance pattern, 17 displays3) The street and the entrance pattern, five disp-

lays4) The street and the oie, home pattern, two dis-

plays5) The oie, home pattern, 11 displays6) The oie, home pattern and the entrance pat-

tern, two displays[Total 56 displays]

FIG.102 STREET PATTERN. KAMATA, NISHIKIKOJICHO . RS. FIG.103 MODIFIED OIE, HOME PATTERN. SCREENS ARE

VIEWED IN THE DISPLAY ROOM. YAMASHIN,

HAKURAKUTENCHO. RS.

214

Large majority of displays took the misenoma-toriniwa, entrance pattern, where the onlooker hasaccess to the entrance hall of the house, but is notencouraged to enter the tatami area of the house.This is a semi-public pattern where the audienceor visitor can partially enter the building but is stillofficially regarded as standing outside the house.This is one of the traditional patterns, which is stillvery much used and alive today. According to oursurvey, the entrance pattern was mostly identified,as would be expected, with the wooden structuresbut could be found in small numbers in reinforcedconcrete structures as well.

Beside the entrance pattern a small number ofwooden structures took the open wall, koshi pat-

tern. In this pattern the audience stands outsidethe house in the street but the whole house isexposed into the street. This is a traditional pat-tern with a sense of closeness and a strong expe-rience of place. The number of these patterns islow. Only three displays were recorded with thispattern. This is an alarming trend, if we think ofthe successful continuity of the festival. Only oneof them, the Kojiro Yoshida display in Rokkaku-cho, shows a completely open wall where thewhole house is exposed to the street and the pub-lic can see through the open wall deep into theinner parts of the house.

Furthermore, there were a number of oie,home patterns. In this pattern the audience lit-

FIG.104 ENTRANCE PATTERN. KAMATA, NISHIKIKO JICHO . RS.

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FIG.105 STREET PATTERN. THE KOJIRU YOSHIDA DISPLAY. ROKKAKUCHO . RS.

erary enters the house. The irony, however is, thatmost of these displays were closed off from pub-lic view and could be viewed for the survey onlyby special permission. There were many fine dis-plays in this category including Matsuuma inShijocho and Imae in Uradeyamacho. The patternitself is not bound to the wooden town housecontext, but can be found in modern structuresas well. This however, necessitates that there is aclear articulation between the tatami area andother, more public parts of the house. An exam-ple of a successful adaptation is the Komatsudisplay in Ennogyojacho. The display is alsoworth of noting because of its many fine historicscreens.

A relatively large number of displays is todaylooked at through a closed glass window. Whenexamined from the visual effectiveness of the dis-play, the window pattern appears to embody afundamental shift in the idea of the staging tradi-tion. The effect is superficial when compared withthe more classic displays. Nor is the large numberof window displays very promising if we think ofthe continuity of the atmosphere and authenticitythe festival. Closing off the displays behind a glasswall, although understandable from the displayingperson’s point of view, is one of the unfortunatetrends which has come about in recent years. Thenumber of these displays is already alarmingly high,degrading essential urban values in the festival.

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FIG.106 THE KONDA DISPLAY. EBOSHACHI. RS.

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Introduction to the FieldworkThe focus of the case study is the Sugiura display,a modest home display in Shinkamanzacho (dis-play no. 44). Without any museum-piece screensor other precious antiques, the display portrays akimono artisan’s home display of the type thatflourishes particularly outside the hoko neigh-bourhoods. The material for the survey was ac-quired during two field surveys in 1991-92, whenthe author participated together with the familyin the staging of the display. In the field survey, allthe articles that were staged for the display wereexamined and their position in the display investi-gated. Further information was acquired throughnumerous talks and discussions with Mr. and Mrs.Sugiura, both before and after the festival.

Compared to some displays where, the displaytradition has been continued since the Meiji oreven Edo period, the Sugiura display is rather new.Screens and other artefacts were purchased by Mr.Sugiura’s mother. She began the display traditionbefore the Second World War. Altogether the Su-

giura family owns seven antique screens to be dis-played in the festival. As well as the screens, clas-sical tea ceremony sets, picture scrolls and othercultural artefacts are used in the display.

As a tenant lane Shinkamanzacho was never atthe centre stage of the Gion Festival. However,some families used to display screens. Before thewar the display was dominated by the Okao fam-ily, who were the influential producers-landown-ers of the neighbourhood. In the Okao display asMr. Sugiura said:

“… one could see from the street deep inside the housebetween the daidokoro, kitchen, and the misenoma, shop,and splendid screens were displayed”.170

The Okao display however, was discontinued in1941. While it flourished before the Second WorldWar, after the war only four families kept up thetradition. Today the Sugiura family is the onlyfamily which continues the tradition in theneighbourhood.

Fieldwork No. 9

The Profile of One Kimono Home Display

FIG. 107 THE SCREEN DISPLAY IN 1991. THE

HORSE AND MONKEY SCREEN, A FLOWER

ARRANGEMENT AND A FAMILY HEIRLOOM

DOLL. THE SUGIURA DISPLAY. RS.

218

According to Mrs. Sugiura, it was Mrs. Okao,the wife of the landlord, who played a vital rolein introducing the custom of the Screen Festivalto this kimono artisan family. She gave advice re-garding the choice of articles such as the eleganttea ceremony sets and on the necessary culturalknow-how. In this way, those who were tenantscould also participate and become integrated intothe festival. Moreover, these displays gained spe-cial meaning in an environment, where tradition-ally only those who were landowners or houseowners could participate in the Gion Festival.

Description of the Content of theDisplayThe main stage for the display is, as is usual, theomotenoma, the shop or working space, which isemptied of its everyday furnishing and decorated

with the folding screens for the festival. The pub-lic has access to the earth-floor entrance space. Thedisplay takes thus the misenoma-toriniwa, shop-en-trance pattern as in most home displays today. Thefamily has only once removed the wooden par-titions and exposed the house to the street since theSecond World War. Besides the main display, thezashiki, guest room is also staged for the festival.However, the guest room is shown only to privateguests. In the main display three screens are usu-ally displayed in each year. The content of the scre-ens and their placing changes every year being oneof the charming features of the festival.

The key person in the display is Mrs. Sugiura,to whom the display and the choice of articles area means to express ‘her pleasure and delight to dis-play’ as she said. She thinks about the setting andthe mood of the display long before the actual dis-play. Furthermore, there is an explanation given

FIG.108 THE SCREEN DISPLAY IN THE SUGIURA HOUSE IN 1992. THE SIX-LEAVED WILLOW SCREEN. RS.

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by Mr. or Mrs. Sugiura related to every item thatis on the stage. Some of these explanations arelisted here, but to list all of them would have beenalmost impossible. Many of the display items re-fer directly to the hoko area or the Gion Festival,such as a family heirloom doll depicting JinguKogo, one of the symbolical figures of the GionFestival; or a black and white picture scroll, whichportrays Naginatahoko, the leading float in thefestival procession.

The Sugiura Display in 1991-92The author divided the display according to thedisplayed room into three categories: the miseno-ma, workshop display, the zashiki, guestroom dis-play and the outdoor space. The list of thedisplayed articles, their placing in the display roomand some characteristic features such as the di-mensions of the displayed screens are given inAppendix 4, table 2. The section and the plan ofthe display can be see in Figs. 109 and 110. Num-bers in the drawings refer to the numbers in theappendixlist.

The Misenoma, Workshop Display in 1991and 1992In both years the screens were arranged in a looseU-form. In 1991 there were three main screens.The main screen was a six-leaved black and whitescreen painted in ink. This screen depicts a Chi-nese mountain landscape and it was placed in themiddle of the room. In addition, there was a bluesix-leaved screen, which portrays a Chinese Cal-endar. This screen was placed on the left side ofthe main screen. The third screen was a black andwhite two-leaved screen. This screen portrays twoChinese horoscope animals, the horse and themonkey. This was placed on the right side of themain screen. Beside screens the display includedsuch decorative elements as a pair of hand-wovenantique mats, a flower arrangement and sudare,light reed screens, used as space dividers betweenthe display room and the entrance space. Suchscreens are a popular element in other screen dis-plays as well.

The display in 1992 followed much the samepattern as in 1991. Also the number of screens wasthe same. Variation was achieved through the dif-ferent choice of screens and flower arrangement.The main screen was a six-leaved black and whitelandscape screen, which portrays willows. The twoother screens were a Chinese mountain landscapescreen (in 1991 the main screen) and a low scre-en which contains prints of Hiroshige. Togetherthese three screens gave a totally different moodfor the display.

The Zashiki, Guestroom Display in 1991and 1992The dining-kitchen is temporarily closed off fromview by a sliding door when the guest room isdecorated for the display. The number and plac-ing of screens is altered each year. The pattern ofdisplay is less fixed than in the main display. Be-sides screens, the display may include such ele-ments as a tea ceremony set or other familytreasures that are on display. The decorations in thetokonoma alcove are an integral part of the moodof the display.

In 1991 there was only one low screen dis-played. This was a two-leaved screen with printsof Hiroshige. The theme of the prints is ’53 viewson Tokaido’. Tokaido was the old main road be-tween Edo and Kyoto. Along this route there were53 post stations and inns, which were placed sothat every post had some special landscape view.In 1992 only one large six-leaved screen wasstaged. This screen depicts two groups of mencatching fish on the shore with two fishing nets.All these screens are family heirlooms and valuedtreasures of the house.

Decorations Outside the House in 1991and 1992The major decoration outside the house are thefestival lantern and a decorative cloth (manmaku)with the family crest. These decorations are hungunder the lower eaves during the night time invit-ing visitors to see the display. The lantern is not onlyassociated with the Screen Festival, but it is one ofthe major symbols of the Gion Festival. Altogeth-

220

er five families in Shinkamanzacho hung such lan-terns outside their doors during the last festivalnight in 1992. In 1991 a temporary bench was alsoinstalled outside the Sugiura house inviting visitorsto see the festival display and the decorated house.

SummaryWith its screen display the Sugiura house hasbecome a kind of temporary local landmark tak-ing an important role in the festival. The urgen-cy of historic preservation has already beenasserted in earlier chapters. Special sensitivity isnow needed to assess the heritage value of theseordinary kimono home displays. The continuedcultural practice of the screen display traditionin this family is itself an important measure ofsocial and cultural value. Besides purely art his-torical or antique arguments, that have been inthe foreground until now, the assessment of val-

ues should include, at least, the following valuecategories:

1) Individual interpretations and significance adisplaying person or/and the community attach-es to the display. Among these are, for example, thesocial pride and the self consciousness the display-ing person has in a tradition usually described asthe privilege of the kimono merchant class.

2) The deep sense of attachment to place thedisplaying person has. In the Sugiura case it in-cludes not only such physical things as the age ofthe house (the house as the oldest structure inShinkamanzacho) but also social ties and familyhistories in the neighbourhood. Until now socialvalue has tended to mean all those values ex-pressed by the community that fall outside theprofessional framework.

3) Public accessibility. Those who visit the Su-giura house during the festival, Japanese andWestern visitors alike, are all contributing to its

FIG.109 SECTION OF THE SUGIURA DISPLAY. MEASUREMENT DRAWING BY THE AUTHOR.

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continuation and helping to shape the culture ofthat place. The remoteness, darkness, or ‘difficul-ty to find’ add to rather than detract from thecharm of that place. The most exciting places arethose in remote lanes and unexpected places far-away from the pressing crowds of the Gion Fes-tival.

4) The display items as an ensemble. Althoughthe individual display items might lack (expert)value, the culturally conditioned display patternsand the total setting as an ensemble adds essen-tially to their charm. Among these patterns are, forinstance, such temporal patterns as the flower ar-rangements individually chosen and skilfully ar-ranged for the display. An essential aspect of thetotal ensemble is the wooden townhouse contextwithout which the whole meaning of the displaywould be essentially degraded or even, lost.

FIG.110 PLAN OF THE SUGIURA DISPLAY.

MEASUREMENT DRAWING BY THE

AUTHOR.

222

Introduction to the FieldworkThe purpose of the investigation is to record themajor classic displays of today. The scenic chang-es implemented by new settings are tracedthrough two displays, which are staged in mod-ern office buildings.

The material for the study was acquiredthrough on-site field surveys. All the displays de-scribed illustrate some important aspect in thesurvival of the festival. Among the exhibitors thereare, as before the Second World War, such pow-erful Muromachi kimono families as the Imae,Ban and Matsuzakaya families. For them the disp-lay is treasured not only as a family tradition, butthe display continues to have an important imageand business-supporting role.

Because of the important role of koshi, the openwall pattern, all of them are described below.Among them, the Kojiro Yoshida display with itsfine interior spaces exposed to the street is oneof the attractive foci of the whole festival. It alsoillustrates the listing and argumentation problemsfacing the protection of the exhibition structurestoday. In spite of its fine architectural and urbanqualities, the wooden structure is not consideredqualified enough as a cultural landmark.

Most of the displays described take the miseno-ma-toriniwa, shop-entrance pattern, the mostimportant staging pattern today. In the shop-en-trance pattern one has a partial access into the ho-use, which would otherwise be inaccessible topublic view. Together with the open wall pattern,the entrance pattern illustrates cultural patternsthat evolved from and essentially depend on theirwooden townhouse context. This pattern has apivotal role in manipulating the scenic effect andthe intimate scale characteristic of the traditionalfestival. As the investigation shows, there are stillmany fine traditional displays with the entrancepattern left. They are all examples of the indispen-

Fieldwork No. 10

Seventeen Screen Displays

FIG.111 PLAN OF THE KOJIRO YOSHIDA HOUSE.

THERE ARE TWO INNER GARDENS IN THE PLAN

AND AT THE BACK OF THE SITE TWO FIRE-PROOF

STOREHOUSES. MEASUREMENT DRAWING BY THE

CULTURAL HERITAGE OFFICE.

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sable heritage values of the wooden townhousecontext.

Three of the exhibiting wooden structures,the Ban, Kojiro Yoshida and Matsuzakaya hous-es, have been separately documented by themunicipal authorities. They were included in thesame book published by the Cultural HeritageSection that was already introduced in the ear-lier chapters of this work. The book portrayshistoric urban dwellings in Kyoto. Although thepublication is more symbolic than implementingactual designation, it can be hoped that the pub-lication will increase awareness of the importan-ce of the wooden town architecture and therebyalso promote its preservation and protection.Among the three structures only the Ban househas been preserved by law. Among the display-ing townhouses, the Ban house is, therefore, ina special category of its own.

Current unfortunate trends in the display tra-dition are illustrated, in particular, by two dis-plays: the Imae and the Ikegaki displays, whichare located in modern, reinforced concrete struc-tures. Both displays are examples of the degen-erative effects the growth of the Gion Festivalinto a mass event has brought to the festival. Theloss of privacy and the pressures of mass eventhave caused the originals to be screened off fromthe public: in the Ikegaki display through a glasswindow; in the Imae display by closing off thewhole display from public view. In the Aoki andKomatsu displays the old atmosphere is moresuccessfully preserved. Both display in rebuilt orpartially renovated structures.

FIG.112 THE BAN DISPLAY, HONEYACHO. HK.

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Description of the SeventeenScreen DisplaysThe seventeen documented screen displays were:

The Furukawa Display. NishikikojiShinmachi Higashi Iru Minamigawa,Tenjinyamacho.The author chose the Furukawa display to beportrayed here, not so much because of the disp-layed articles, but because of its fine interior space,which is exposed to the viewer from the entrancehall through the long and narrow house. There isa garden and a stone lantern at the rear of thehouse. This is one of those places where it is stillpossible to enjoy the charm of the traditional ar-chitecture with its long and fascinating interiorviews. Protecting and preserving even some ofthese views would be a major step towards keep-ing the authentic atmosphere of the festival. Thefocus of the screen display is a set of four-leavedscreens. The screens which are painted by by AbeShunpo, portray cranes and date from the Meijiperiod. As well as the screens luxurious kimonotextiles bring their own splendour to the display.The Furukawa display is one of the three displaysin Tenjinyamacho on the southern side of Nishi-kikoji Street (see Fig. 113).

The Ban Display. Rokkaku Karasuma NishiIru Minamigawa, HoneaychoThe Ban display is one of the oldest displays inthe festival with many years of patronage and ahigh profile in the kimono production. The houseis, as already stated, one of the five ordinary town-houses, which have so far been nominated as acultural asset. The nomination took place in 1990.According to family records, the family movedinto the neighbourhood in 1896, in other words,more than one hundred years ago. It is thoughtthat the oldest part of the house was built at thattime. The focus of the display is a famous pieceof Japanese art history: a black and white screenpainted by Suzuki Shonen (1848-1918) depictinga wolf (see Fig. 112, previous page). The display,which takes place in a semi-dark entrance hall, isone of the most impressive scenes in the festival.In addition to the entrance display, a splendid dis-play takes place in the inner parts of the housewith many museum-piece screens. The elegantzashiki display was photographed for the Yama-hoko survey by Hiroshi Kyogoku, see Fig. 8.

The Yoshida Display. ShinmachiTakoyakushi Agaru Nishikawa, RokkakuchoThe owner of the display, Mr. Yoshida, returnedto Kyoto twenty years ago after having studiedand taught in Tokyo. As an artist, a professionalpainter, he appreciated the beauty and history ofthe Gion Festival. Mr. Yoshida is now one of the

FIG.114 THE KOJIRO YOSHIDA DISPLAY, ROKKAKUCHO . HK.FIG.113 THE FURUKAWA DISPLAY, TENJINYAMACHO . RS.

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key persons in the festival, who organises cultur-al projects and art exhibitions related to the fes-tival, many of which are held in his own housein Rokkakucho. The house is a well-kept wood-en structure of the omoteya tsukuri machiya stylefrom the Meiji period (1909). The house showsan elevated upper floor (1935) . The wooden fa-cade is designed with such imposing details as thebattarishogi, a sales bench which can be lifted upon the wall when not in use and put to full usein such events as the urban festival. The plan ofthe house is shown in Fig. 111. At the back of thenarrow and deep site there are two gorgeus store-houses. The festival tradition was continued after theSecond World War until 1958, but was interruptedduring Mr. Yoshida’s stay in Tokyo. In 1976, Mr.Yoshida partially rebuilt and reconstructed thewooden facade, which now plays an importantrole in the festival. For him the house and thedisplay are an integrated whole. As he said:

“...The proportions and the materials of the woodenarchitecture harmonise naturally with the staged screens”.

As an artist’s home the house itself is like a muse-um. Like many other displaying persons in thefestival Mr. Yoshida is an enthusiastic antiquarianand art collector. The loft studio on the upperfloor is filled with old and new pottery, books,paintings and pieces of sculpture collected all

around the world. The display reflects his aim tokeep the festival tradition, not only as a “colour-ful public display, but as something which one canparticipate in and make for oneself”.171 The stagedkimonos are designed by Mr. Yoshida and his wife.The display is one of the three surviving open walldisplays and among them the one which survivesin the most open form. In the current evaluationsystem, the house is considered to be too youngto qualify as a listed or protected landmark.

The Matsuzakaya Display. ShinmachiTakoyakushi Agaru Higashigawa,RokkakuchoWith the Yoshida display the Matsuzakaya displayis one of the few koshi open patterns and one ofthe important foci of the whole festival. The buil-ding, which is the head office of the Matsuzakayakimono company, is in the omote tsukuri machiyastyle with an unusual nine and a half ken width.The house was built in 1902.The family is, withthe Mitsui family, one of the oldest families inRokkakucho. The family moved to Kyoto in 1741and into the Rokkakucho neighbourhood in1748. Today however, the display is set up by com-pany executives. None of them lives in the neigh-bourhood. The display has been set up with thesame pattern since the 1950s. The facade is deco-rated with two lantern stands and a decorativecurtain screen with family crest. Like the KojiroYoshida house, the Matsuzakaya house too, is one

FIG.115 THE MATSUZAKAYA DISPLAY,

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of those wooden structures in the festival whichdeserves attention from the heritage authorities.It is not the absolute antique value of the screens,but rather the whole setting that makes the her-itage value of these displays.

The Konda Display. Muromachi RokkakuAgaru Nishikawa, Eboshacho.The house is built of fine quality Japanese cedar, su-gi. With spacious interior spaces, many show rooms,fine traditional inner gardens, elegant guestrooms anda tea ceremony room annexe, the structure has allthe good qualities of the traditional Japanese house.The words of Edward Morse, who described thematerial qualities of the traditional Japanese houseat the end of the 19th century, could have been di-rectly taken from this house:

“...The papers of fusuma of neutral tints, the plasteredsurfaces, when they occur equally tinted in similar tones,warm browns and stone colours predominating; the ce-dar board ceiling with the rich colour of that wood; thewood work everywhere modestly conspicuous, present-ing the natural colours undefiled by the painter’s mis-eries, these all combine to render the quiet room andrefined to the last degree”. 172

The wooden structures were restored a few yearsago and they are in excellent condition. The au-thor visited the house in 1993 and was shown allthe interior spaces and their screens. The publicsees only the shop, misenoma display, through theopen lattice window. With the Yoshida and Mat-

suzakaya displays the Konda display is one of thethree surviving lattice, koshi open displays, andtherefore, in a special category of its own amongthe exhibiting townhouses. Among the fine muse-um screens there is a large screen by Kano Tsu-nenobu, a renowned Kano-school painter fromthe middle of the Edo period. The painting, whichconsists of two six-leaved screens, portrays theJapanese eagle with one eagle painted on each leaf.There is also a two-leaved screen by OkamotoSeiki, a famous Edo period painter. The screenportrays a pine tree in a snowy landscape.

The Matsuuma Display. Shinmachi ShijoSagaru Nishigawa, Shijocho.The display is a fine example of the classic homedisplay pattern, where the screens are enjoyedentering the tatami area of the house. The owner,Mr. Matsuuma, who was a well-known kimonodealer, died in his fifties in 1992. Before his deathhe started many initiatives for establishing fundsfor the reconstruction of the Gaisen Fune Hoko,the large ship-shaped float of this neighbourhood.The ship burnt down in the city fire in the Meijiperiod. Only the exhibition remains in Shijocho.The family moved into the neighbourhood in Tai-sho 10 (1923). The original display was even moregorgeous than that which we see today. The dis-play practice was, however, stopped because of the‘growing low level and bad manners of the pub-lic’.173 In other words, crowds attracted to theGion Festival themselves have began to demeanthe experience.

FIG.116 THE MATSUUMA DISPLAY, SHIJOCHO . RS.

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The many temporary hawker stalls in front ofthe house, which have proliferated in recent years,spoiled the atmosphere with bad smelling oils andnoise. The public display had already been stop-ped by that time. Among the displayed screensthere is a museum piece Rakuchu -Rakugai screen(paintings inside and outside the capital) from theEdo period. The unfortunate thing is that the dis-play is no longer shown to the public. As a wood-en structure it is, however, one of the structuresthat could be brought back to revitalise the openwall pattern.

The Komatsu Display. Muromachi SanjoAgaru Nishikawa, EnnogyojachoThe display takes place in a new structure, whichhas been built in a machiya shape. A karesansui typedry sand and stone garden and three spaciousstorehouses survive from the previous house at theback of the site. The storehouses are ‘full of oldpaintings and screens’ as they said. The owner is aMuromachi kimono dealer who is a collector ofpaintings and antiques so that there are manymuseum-piece screens. The display room is longand narrow and the screens are viewed in the tata-mi floored area. Thanks to this display pattern,much of the atmosphere of the traditional displayis preserved, in spite of the contextual change.Among the many fine screens, one of the oldestis a pair of screens from the Edo period. This setportrays Japanese fans. They are painted in a riverlandscape as if floating under the water. This ele-

gant screen is one of my favourite screens in thefestival (see Fig. 94). There is also a pair of two-six leaved screens from the Meiji period. The pain-ting portrays Chinese philosophers. On one leafthere is a painter among his students. A furtherscreen of note is a six-leaved screen from 1790,which depicts bamboo and a full moon. The dis-play is a successful example of displays that hasbeen continued in rebuilt structures without toomuch violating the scale and atmosphere of tra-ditional displays.

The Ueno Display. Nishikikoji KarasumaNishi Iru Kitagawa, UradeyamachoThe display was documented by Hayakawa in1977 and still survives up to the present day. Asmost of the previous displays, it is an excellent ex-ample of the heritage value of the wooden town-house context. Three rooms are staged for thedisplay. Among the many fine screens there is ascreen by Kikuchi Keigetsu, a famous Taisho-Showa period painter. The screen portrays ‘kimo-no ladies looking at fireflies in the moonlight’. Thisscreen is mentioned in many guidebooks about theGion Festival. Another museum piece screen is atwo-leaved screen, the so-called Gion Zairei Zuscreen. The screen is mentioned in exhibition cat-alogues, which list historical screens. The woodenfacade in Uradeyamacho is decorated for the fes-tival with a decorative festival cloth. The owner ofthe display, Mr. Ueno, is a famous antique collec-tor. The family operates a Japanese style restaurant.

FIG.117 THE KONDA DISPLAY, EBOSHACHO . RS. FIG.118 THE KOMATSU DISPLAY, ENNOGYOJACHO . RS.

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The Keimei Display. Bukkoji KarasumaNishi Iru Minamigawa, KugikakushichoThe family is one of the large kimono dealerfamilies of the Shinmachi-Muromachi area withmany outlets and customers all around Japan. Themain structure with an elaborate wooden facadewas built in 1936 on the southern side of Buk-koji Street. In the partial rebuilding which tookplace a few years ago, it was planned to demolishthe old facade and parts of the old house, but thecarpenter refused to carry out the task. This houseis a good example of successful renovation, wherethe old facade is preserved and thanks to it, thestreetscape now keeps some of the features of thehistorical townscape. Behind the wooden struc-ture there are new building parts.

The screen display was revitalised some yearsago. It has been a great success in improving thebusiness image of the company. Besides the scre-en display the performance includes a baroqueconcert. In addition, two hundred cotton kimonosare rented out to interested parties, mainly tothose in the kimono business such as a businesspartner in Nagoya, who invites customers to vi-

sit Kyoto during the festival. The custom enjoysgreat popularity. In 1993 more than five hundredrequests to rent a kimono for the festival nightswere made.

The Matsumi Display. AburanokojiNishikikoji Agaru Nishi Iru, YamadachoThe house in which the display is staged is awell-preserved wooden structure of the omoteya-tsukuri-machiya style. This is a very fine displayparticularly because of its wooden townhousecontext. It illustrates in an indisputable way theunique charm of the traditional displays. This isemphasised by the location of the house in awell-preserved neighbourhood that has not suf-fered urban change. The building pressures andmodern city development seem to be very faraway from the quiet atmosphere of this display.The display is located on the eastern side ofAburanokoji Street, one block north from ShijoStreet.

The family is one of the kimono dyer fami-lies of the Nishi no Toin area. In the workshop,misenoma, there is a pair of two six-leaved screens.

FIG.119 THE UENO DISPLAY, URADEYAMACHO . YT.

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The theme is a pine tree and cranes, which to-gether are considered an auspicious combination.Furthermore, in the misenoma no genkan, work-shop entrance, there is another pair of two six-leaved screens; one two-leaved screen with goldpaint and calligraphy and one two-leaved screenwhich portrays Japanese cranes. The traditionalarchitecture that surrounds the screens makes aperfect setting for the beautiful display (see Figs.88, 120).

The Nagai Display. Nishikikoji Nishi noToin Nishi Iru Kitagawa, KuyachoThe display on the northern side of Nishikikojistreet takes the misenoma-toriniwa, shop-entrancepattern. What was said of the Matsumi display isalso true for this display. The family is one of thekimono dyer families of the area. The factory ison the right of the entrance space. As well asscreens, there is a large wooden model of the fes-tival float, which can be found on the centrestage in the middle of the display room. Thetheme of the main set of screens is ‘Snowymountains’. The screen was painted at the endof the Meiji period. Together with the Matsumidisplay the Nagai display is one of my great fa-vourites in the festival (Fig.124).

The Miyagawa Display. Shinkamanza ShijoSagaru Higashi Iru, SuminogichoThe display takes the misenoma-toriniwa, shop-en-trance pattern. Besides the main display in the omote

no ma, front room, the bay window is also decora-ted. When the entrance door is closed, the displaycan be peeped at through the wooden lattice win-dow. This adds a charming detail to the display. Thedisplay is within a one-minute walk of the crow-ded Shijo Street, along a well preserved woodenlane south of Shinkamanzacho. I visited the Miya-gawa display in 1991. This house is one of thosestructures and sites where we can still experience theunique Kyoto concept of the interior garden views- and all this just in the very heart of the town.

The display has some fine museum-piecescreens. In this category there is, among otherthings, the main screen, which depicts the Mu-sashino landscape. The screen was painted byMinagawa from the Sumiyoshi school in themiddle of the Edo period. A pair of two six-lea-ved screens by Taniguchi Aizan portrays Chinesechildren playing. Other screens include a lowscreen by Kikuchi Keigetsu, a famous printer(1879-1955) and one two-leaved screen. Thisscreen is decorated with fan-shaped paintings.

The Sakane Display. Shinkamanza ShijoSagaru Higashi Iru, SuminogichoThis is a quiet home kimono display with the mi-senoma-toriniwa, shop entrance, pattern just a fewmetres away from the Miyagawa display. The samecan be said of the context as of the Miyagawa dis-play. The structures are unpretentious, but have allthe charm of the traditional wooden architecture.Although the separate, narrow lane means the dis-

FIG.120 THE MATSUMI DISPLAY,

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play is often unnoticed by a wider public thequietness of the lane is the great charm of the dis-play. The display is only two minutes’ walk fromShijo Street.

The focus of the display is a set of two six-leavedscreens from the Edo period. The screens depict theproduction of silk from the feeding of silk wormsto the final silk textile product. Two leaves of thisscreen can be seen in the cover of this work. Thescreen refers to the family occupation and has beenspecially made to be exhibited in the Gion Festi-val. Among the other articles on display there is asuit of armour and two red toolboxes.

The Aoki Display. Ayanokoji Nishi no ToinNishi Iru Minamigawa, AshikariyamachoThe family is a third generation Kyoto family. Thedisplay is one in the misenoma-toriniwa, shop-en-trance pattern on the southern side of AyanokojiStreet. The facade is built in the commercial kan-ban, shop sign style, but when the house is ex-posed to the street, the charming interiors oftraditional type are a pleasant surprise for the vis-itor. In this display there are altogether foursets of screens. Two six-leaved black and whitescreens portray a seashore landscape and a moun-tain landscape with a waterfall and a hermit’s hut.A disciple of the famous painter Suzuki Shonen,

from the Meiji era painted the screens. The dis-play also contains a set of two-leaved gold pain-ted screens. The Aoki display is an example ofdisplays that has successfully continued in par-tially rebuilt structures but still keeping thecharm of the traditional displays.

The Morii Display. Bukkoji Nishi no ToinHigashi Iru Minamigawa, KandaijinchoThe display is one in the misenoma-toriniwa, shop-entrance pattern on the southern side of BukkojiStreet and has a pleasant homely atmosphere.When the door is closed, the display can bepeeped at through the wooden bay window add-ing to the charm of the display. The family is oneof the kimono dyer families of the Nishi no Toinarea. The factory is adjacent to the residence. Thefocus of the display is a large wooden model ofthe festival float, which almost fills the tiny dis-play room. Together with the wooden model themajor decorations are a screen and a flower ar-rangement.

The Ikegaki Display. Shinmachi NishikikojiAgaru Nishikawa, MukadeyachoThe family has lived in the neighbourhood since1938. In the time when Hayakawa documentedscreen displays, the Ikegaki was one of the splen-

FIG.121 THE SAKANE DISPLAY,

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did traditional displays, which Hayakawa called asa ‘street museum’. The screens were peeped at thr-ough the wooden lattice window or viewed byentering the large display room. Today the Ikegakidisplay is a good illustration of the changes associ-ated with the move to reinforced concrete struc-tures. In the original display, which took place at adoctor’s home in a room called the machiai-shitsu,waiting room, three six-leaved screens were dis-played. Among them were two fine museum-pieceRakuchu -Rakugai screens from the middle of theEdo period. Even today the Rakuchu -Rakugai setis still the main focus of the display. However, now-adays the display is seen from the street through aclosed glass door. By this seemingly minor change,the character of display has completely changed.

The Imae Display. Takoyakushi ShinmachiHigashi Iru Kitagawa, UbayanagichoThe family, which is one of the top kimono deal-ers in the Muromachi area, moved to the neigh-

bourhood in 1938. Before that the family lived inthe Nishijin area, where the family displayed scr-eens during the Imamiya Shrine festival. Accor-ding to Mr. Imae, who has been the president ofthe family enterprise since the Second World War,the Screen Festival is no longer the same as it usedto be. As a child Mr. Imae went to see screens inMuromachi Street where the most famous screenswere traditionally found. Many people spent upto an hour quietly looking at the screens. Mr. Imaehas now stopped the public display because of the“lack of manners of the public and their inabilityto appreciate the screens”.174

Many of the screens have been specially madefor the display. Among the screens are such finescreens as an Edo period pair of two six-leavedscreens. This set portrays a koto instrument, shogigame and sumi-e, inkpainting teacher. Anotherfine screen is an eight-leaved screen, which por-trays a mountain landscape by Shunkyo Ya-mamoto (1844-1895). The display is on the

FIG.122 THE MIYAGAWA DISPLAY, SUMINOGICHO. RS.

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northern side of Takoyakushi Street. Like theIkegaki display the display illustrates the unfor-tunate changes which have taken place in thestaging tradition. The main display is shown onlyprivately. Only a small window-box display,which is decorated at the entrance door, is leftfor public display.

Conclusions of the Screen DisplayFieldworkAmong the screen displays that were describedabove only a few of the structures qualify asarchitectural or historic landmarks. Still, they areimportant and charming landmarks of a vanish-ing tradition, still existing but severely threatenedby the transformation process of the town. Mostof the displays are still located in well preservedneighbourhoods endowing them with a specialsense of authenticity and charm. Therefore, morethan any individual museum-piece screen, it is thewhole setting, which contributes much of thevalue and meaning of these kimono home dis-plays. Below the author will consider the tradi-

tional value categories and those brought on bythe fieldwork.

The Traditional (Specialist) Value CategoriesWhen assessing the value of individual displays,those with the greatest value could normally belisted as follows:

1) The oldest displays with many years of pa-tronage and a high profile in the kimono produc-tion such as the Matsuzakaya display. Even thisdisplay was not acknowledged to have a heritagevalue, because of the relatively young age of thewooden structure and the lack of historic valueof the screens, according to the heritage experts.

2) Those existing in historically and architec-turally qualified structures such as the Ban display.

3)Those with individual museum piece screensand other valuables without special connection tothe character or historical value of the exhibitionlocale such as the historic screens in the Ikegakidisplay. The Edo period Rakuchu-Rakugai screensare seen through a glass window in a modernbusiness locale.

FIG.123 THE MORII DISPLAY, KANDAIJINCHO . RS.

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Value Categories Detected Through theFieldworkBased on the above mentioned criteria conserva-tionists have assessed a small number of displaysas having a distinct historic value and as such con-sidered them worthy of special protection. How-ever, there are a number of displays withoutspecial historic value but which have a value oftheir own connected to a group of people whovalue the place and to whom the display traditionhas a special meaning. Such meanings may behighly individual such as:

1) The special way the screens or other valua-bles came into family ownership and the “story”of the screen. The author heard a number of suchstories during the fieldwork. Many of these sto-ries were connected with the history of the fam-ily, or the (usually kimono related) family business.

2) The deep sense of attachment to place thedisplaying person has. Those individuals who

value the tradition and participate in it contrib-ute to its continuation, helping to shape the cul-ture of the place. This includes not only thedisplaying persons but the accidental visitor andthe audience as well. The experience of place isthus widely shared during the festival; the placebecomes a landmark through all the collective as-sociations and participation.

The meaning may also be contextual or theremay be other values such as:

3) The materials, light, scale and proportions ofthe wooden townhouse differ essentially from thatof a modern business locale. The contextual val-ue category may also include such things as the(psychological) ‘remoteness’ of the display facili-ty, darkness or ‘difficulty to see or find’; anythingthat contrasts with the commercialised, over-crowded mass performance. The koshi, open wallpattern itself is an important heritage value andshould be, besides other value categories, included

FIG.124 THE NAGAI DISPLAY, KYUYACHO. RS.

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as an important element to the general evaluationcriteria.

4) A useful understanding of place is a ‘placeas a process’: first that the places are maintained tocontinue to exist, and second, the place continuesto exist, because people interact with it. The roleof a place in people’s everyday lives is one meas-ure of its social value. In the Sugiura display, thatwas described above in chapter 21, fieldwork no.9, and in many other kimono artisan displays, theplace is not only the home of the people but theireveryday working space as well. The use categoryis especially important in Kyoto where traditionalhouses were never just residential spaces but hadproduction and cultural functions as well.

5) The screen display tradition as it is describedabove combines both accessibility and privacy. Thefact that the displays can be enjoyed in some per-son’s home gives them special meaning the morethe environment around them is transformed intoan anonymous place, ‘to be found anywhere’. Al-though the Screen Festival will continue in mod-ern business locales set up by kimono companies,the loss of home displays will evidently reduce thevalue of the whole place and thus, key meaningsin the festival.

The conclusions of the fieldwork suggest thatthe value of the Screen Festival tradition cannot

be assessed through selected, expert values alone,but also other values and meanings must be tak-en into consideration. The cultural practices andtraditions of the people of a place itself contrib-ute to and make an important social value. TheAustralian Heritage Commission even equates thebroadest definition of social value to its culturalsignificance. This means that the cultural and in-dividual experiences that shape people’s ownviews of place are important and they should havetheir own place in the evaluation and assessmentmethods of the heritage.

In general, the problems related to the protec-tion of the Screen Festival tradition and its con-text, are not a separate question, but illustrate theurban conservation and heritage assessment prob-lems that are characteristic for the hoko area andthe city’s historic centre as a whole. As long asthese methodologies and perceptions are notquestioned, the preservation situation will notbe essentially improved. Generations, however,change and interpretation of a value change withthem. Retaining some of the original landmarksin connection with tourism should promote busi-ness, too. In the light of present trends, however,it is more than likely that only a very little of thewooden townhouse context will still be there forcoming generations to appreciate.

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Questioning the Current Definitionof HeritageThe threat to the urban heritage in the surveyedquarters is two-fold, comprising both the threat-ening effects of city planning as well as the lack ofappropriate conservation and heritage evaluationmethodologies. In particular, the limited, expertvalued definition of heritage is problematic. Ingeneral, and as experiences in Europe and otherplaces show, conservation of a few key buildings isno longer thought to be sufficient to ensure thepreservation of the cultural history of the woodentown milieu, nor of wider urban values. Althoughfrom the architectural and historical point of viewthe Sugimoto house is without doubt the mostimportant building in the hoko area, it would havebeen better to protect the surroundings of thehouse as well, so that the building could be expe-rienced in its historic context. It is not merely amatter of preserving the building itself that makesa building understandable and alive, but rather theinteraction between the building and its surround-ings. This is true of many other surveyed houses too.

Urban patterns that in a local perspective mayappear as ordinary and of no great historical orarchitectural value (or considered even valueless),may in the broader perspective appear to beunique and possess their heritage value. In Kyotosuch value categories are, for instance, related tothe cultural and social role the Kyoto townhous-es, machiya, have for the city and for its urbanpatrimony. Kyoto is appreciated as much becauseof its whole heritage, the numerous individualsmall sites packed closely together and the spacesbetween them, as because of some excellent in-dividual buildings.

Protection and preservation of the urban mor-phology and pieces of urban fabric is, therefore,as important as protection of architectural mon-uments, if we are to understand the architecturalhistory of the town and the way of living of itspeople. In the current day Kyoto, the importanceof everyday buildings and wider urban fabric hasonly grown with the urban changes that are tak-ing place around them. Thus, although individu-al buildings may lack strict conservation criteria

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the number of the preserved buildings and thedepth and comprehensiveness of the built fabricitself may, as such, make up an outstanding herit-age value. In the present work large areas aroundNishi no Toin Street north and south of ShijoStreet with their well-preserved wooden buildingstock are good examples of such values.

We have also to be reminded of the time per-spective. A built fabric that at a certain stage ofplanning was not seen as worthy of protectionmay achieve such qualities later with time. Thetime perspective can thus make sense of the ar-ticulation of preservation objectives even in a casewhere interest has not been expressed in the in-itial phase of planning and where the environmentis generally considered to have no heritage value.The relativity of most values, varying as they dowith historical and cultural contexts, requiresmore flexible criteria than now obtain. At thesame time, to be of most use, guidelines need tobe made more applicable to specific sites.

In the central areas of Kyoto it is necessary torevise the concept of heritage and to re-evaluateaspects of the cultural significance of a place. Nowsuch a re-evaluation have a much better founda-tion as a number of international, explicitly de-fined assessment tools exist. Cultural values aregenerally acknowledged as an important factor inthe definition of heritage. Furthermore, thewooden town heritage as a new area of focus hasbegun to step into the foreground in the inter-national preservation debate. As was noted in thetext, there is an urgent need to accord due rec-ognition to this important and highly vulnerablesector, which has so far figured less adequately ininternational charters and heritage lists.

This discussion can also, as its best, give Kyotoand its urban conservation problems the necessaryinternational pretext and perspective.

From Expert Values to thePreservation of the WholeThe architectural beauty of the streetscapes is anover-emphasised conservation value in Kyoto. Asa whole, this emphasis has made residents identi-

fy the facade as the only part of the buildingworthy of protection, while freely shaping theirbuilt fabric behind. Such protection actuallymeans very little, because it concerns only a lim-ited part of the protected property and even causesthe whole protection seem absurd. Thus, in theGion Shimbashi area, there are traditional rowhouses, where the only protected part is the fa-cade and the front part of the house, leaving thebackyard and riverside of the house without prop-er protection. There is also no zoning. As a resultbrutal tall buildings are built up behind protect-ed buildings so that the streetscape that was in-tended to be protected is destroyed by the jungleof reinforced concrete and steel buildings. Thesame is true and happens all the time around theindividual, protected cultural assets and landmarks.

Reconstruction of facades for unified town-scapes further emphasises streetscape for aesthet-ic value. In the city centre where it is difficult tofind well preserved and unified street facades, theconcept is especially dangerous. Giving priority tothe atmosphere and homogeneity of townscapeleads to indifference to everyday dwelling patternsand townscapes which, however, are essential forthe understanding of the city as a whole. In thehoko area facade preservation is not only inade-quate but inappropriate as well. As a consequenceof facade preservation, the courtyard buildings,storehouses and gardens existing on the heritagesites have received little, if any, attention from thecity planners and thus, their substance as living en-vironment has been disregarded. In the eagernessto find well-preserved facades, the pre-moderndwelling patterns and their significance for urbanmorphology and thus for its preservation andevolution, has never been positively analysed.

Furthermore, focusing on and documentingsome key buildings only is in itself very problem-atic. Documenting and selecting key structures issurely one important step towards better treatmentand continuity for preserving Kyoto’s urban her-itage and local landmarks. However, it is far fromsufficient in terms of urban conservation. Al-though it is important to protect individual build-ings within a context, it is only recently that the

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importance of the urban fabric and larger urbanentities in its full sense has come to be understood.This new appreciation has been extended quitelogically to the settings of building groups, quar-ters and whole towns.

On the whole, more attention should in Kyo-to be paid to continuous care of the everydaymilieus where individual sites or even wholeneighbourhoods still stand intact. In these areas(this research identified a large number of them)the actual age of the buildings or strict preserva-tion directives are not so important. What is moreimportant is that the continuous maintenance ofthe heritage is actively supported and that theoverall scale of new buildings and dwelling pat-terns harmonise and coincide with the old envi-ronment. The wooden town tradition as it existsin the central area and its manifold expressionsshould be the decisive yardstick and all planningmeasures should be carried out in relation to it.

The Screen Festival Tradition andthe Meaning of PlaceThe conclusions of the thesis suggest that the val-ue of a place cannot be assessed through select-ed, official expert values alone, but other valuesand meanings must be taken into considerationtoo. The cultural practices and traditions of thepeople of a place make up an important socialvalue. The Australian Heritage Commission evenequates the broadest definition of social value toits cultural significance. This means that the cul-tural and individual experiences that shape peo-ple’s own views of place are important and theyshould have their own place in the evaluation andassessment methods of the heritage. Social valuesand place oriented value criteria are especiallyimportant when evaluating such traditions as theScreen Festival.

As was found in the fieldwork, an essential as-pect of the value of the displayed screens is theirplace. Separated from their place, the screens losean essential part of their meaning. Bringing andselling the artefacts or parts of the home collec-tions to museums or antique collectors affects the

integrity of home collections. Thus, it is most de-sirable that the family treasures and historic screensare appreciated in their original locations andplaces, not as ‘frozen’ museum relics (although thisdoes not mean that any screen should not beplaced in a museum).

If bringing cultural heritage within the wallsof a museum makes them easier to see, it alsocurtails the viewer’s temporal awareness. In anantique building or landscape one moves in timeamong survivals; in a museum they are shorn ofduration, as David Lowenthal has noted.175 Themost artful placement, the most breathtakingproximity, cannot compensate for that detach-ment. The landmarks must not be moved fromtheir original place if they are to mark their ‘land’.It is, thus, essential that the screens and kimonosbe protected in their context. As mere museumobjects the screens and kimonos are somewhatmeaningless.

Secondly, the display items of lesser value longgathered together also gain value as an ensemble.This is particularly true of the Screen Festival,where most of the display items are home treas-ures often owned for several generations withinthe same family. In one display there might bevaluables, but also other relics or objects of lesshistorical importance but equally valued becauseof their associations with family members, deador alive, for example. The display as an ensembleoften also adds to their value as an aesthetic com-position. The wooden townhouse context itself isan important heritage value that adds to themeaning and value of the place. Besides purely arthistorical or antique arguments, the assessment ofvalues should thus include an essentially broaderrange of value categories.

Revising the System of ProtectionPrioritiesThe methodological step that was taken in thehistoric preservation areas which stresses continu-ity of building and carpentry traditions over au-thenticity - with certain limitations - could suc-cessfully be applied in the city centre, too. Some


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of the wooden structures surveyed were examplesof successful renovation and partial reconstructionduring recent years. Without such reconstructionwe would now miss many unique cultural pat-terns that exist in the Screen Festival. It is theseexamples where reconstruction should be con-sidered as well grounded and as something thatreally makes sense. Currently, however, thereseems to be a kind of regrettable hypocrisy aboutthe whole way of dealing with this marginal butimportant issue. Instead of regarding such chan-ges as obstacles to evaluation and listing systems,they should be seen as positive attempts to keepthe tradition alive and therefore, as operationswhich deserve full support from the heritageauthorities.

Our own experiences in urban conservationwork in Finland show that evaluation systems thatare strictly focused on some limited quality maybe harmful for protection and preservation as awhole. It may inhibit other values from beinggiven proper consideration. Therefore, instead ofabsolute criteria, there should be different lists andevaluation methods for different heritage struc-tures. In other words, the evaluation grades shouldvary and depend on the listed structures and sites.Lacking age and authenticity were used as argu-ments why such fine structures as the Naka houseand the Kobayashi house (lacking authenticity)did not qualify under the listing system, althoughthey were acknowledged to be of architecturaland historical value. Among this group of struc-tures were also common facilities and their pre-modern building types.

If a building is important to the character andidentity of a community and it is beloved andrecognised as a symbol, then it is a landmark.Evaluating and listing everyday buildings shouldnot only compel one to be more sensitive to dif-fering values, but it should also provide anopportunity for revising the whole structure ofheritage criteria and arguments as, for instance,Tuominen has noted.176 In this work as an exam-ple of such neglected heritage values are, for in-stance, the manifold display patterns, that arefound and depend on their wooden townhouse

context. In the thesis the author listed a largenumber of such distinct qualities of the ‘place’.

Questioning the Argument of AgeThe 50-year date that is often used to establishlandmark status is not critical. What is more im-portant is that it defines a community’s traditionsand culture. This idea is especially relevant inKyoto where the wooden building stock has beenrebuilt many times and the whole heritage fallsoutside the norm of what we think of in Europeas historic fabric or heritage. As for the underly-ing objective, age is less important. It is a ques-tion of what we can learn from a building or abuilding stock and what its cultural significanceis.

Prof. Nishikawa has estimated that the averageage of an ordinary Japanese wooden house is 40years. However, if the house is regularly main-tained, the age can be extended dramatically andis, actually, much longer. Most of the everydaybuildings which were portrayed in the thesis orwhich were investigated by the Yamahoko pro-gramme, were wooden structures of considerableage. Many of the houses studied were more thanone hundred years old. In almost all these build-ings the structural members were in excellentcondition. As experiences from other places show,age plays no significant role if the protected housesqualify in other respects.

In Finland we have successfully preserved andprotected wooden townhouse areas where build-ings are 50 years old or even less. In many coun-tries the authorities still have to cope with a stat-utory 100 or 50 year rule. In others the rule hasbeen gradually relaxed or the whole issue left tothe academic tradition.177 In the United States itis required, that for a building to be listed in theNational Register its value must be established atleast 50 years before, and in England the ’thirty-year rule’ was adopted in 1988 whereby modernbuildings 30 years old could be protected underthe planning acts.178 In international built herit-age argumentation work the field of conservationhas spread enormously by virtually eliminating

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cut-off dates and including even 20th centurybuildings. The age criterion is used both as anabsolute criterion or, as something which adds toother criteria and values.

The Need for a Place-OrientedUrban ConservationThe major reason for the desolation and destruc-tion of the urban fabric in the hoko area is the lackof preservation interests described in the existingland-use plan. Through the rapid speed of landspeculation, existing qualities are also disappear-ing very quickly and will most likely continue todo so in the future. After the author had complet-ed the measurement work, two sites in Shijochowere developed and the silhouette behind the lowshop facades in Kakkyoyamacho is now domi-nated by two windowless multi-storey car parks.In addition, one wooden townhouse in Kakkyo-yamacho was demolished to make way for theconstruction of another car park building. At thesame time Yatacho suffered the loss of two woo-den buildings. The pressures on the built fabrichave not ceased although the bubble economy hasburst. Therefore, it is important that conservationis observed and discussed together and close co-operation with the general land-use objectives.

As was observed in the thesis, the same plan-ning regulations are applied in the centrally locat-ed city neighbourhoods as in the more periph-eral areas. Even one new building, if wronglyplaced or over-scaled, may suddenly ruin a wholeneighbourhood. In the hoko area it hardly makessense to implement historic preservation for thewhole area: the neighbourhoods nearest Shijo andKarasuma Streets will probably continue their roleas part of the central business district far into thefuture. On the other hand, there is no reason whypreservation objectives should not be implement-ed in more peripheral areas. In these areas thepressure for intensive land use are lesser and theseareas are still relatively well preserved.

Well preserved historic neighbourhoods be-tween the Nishi no Toin and Shinmachi Streetssouth and north of Shijo Street should be put

under the closest protection - though there maybe individual sites and some spots that alreadyhave been damaged. In these areas, entire districts,not only strips of land or a few rows of houses,should be declared protected areas and closed tonew construction unless such new constructionis particularly well adapted to its surroundings. Inthese areas there are still many authentic zones,whole entities of urban fabric consisting of manytraditional wooden lattice facade residences wherethe special charm of the old neighbourhoods isstill maintained. If just these areas were adequatelypreserved or protected against unexpected brutalchange, Kyoto could still conserve some of theessential aspects of the ordinary life and livingtraditions of the ancient capital.

This change, however, requires city plannersand conservationists to actively begin to pay at-tention to these everyday environments and ini-tiate place-oriented conservation policies in thecontext. Although it is beyond of this research topresent such a plan, it would be in the interest ofall parties that a rational and reliable urban con-servation plan exists. This speaks for a procedurewhere general preservation objectives are clearlyexpressed and pointed out already at the earlieststage of the planning procedure:

1) For those interested in preservation it is aquestion of creating a readiness against pressuresfor change and of protecting buildings and envi-ronments worthy of preservation. The largest chal-lenge for town planning in Kyoto is to do withretaining the urban morphology of a town and itsessential everyday buildings and sites.

2) For a potential developer it is question ofgetting information about the qualities of a cer-tain building or property and of those demandsfor preservation that may exist. An optimal casefor a developer is when a minimal number of lim-itations are implemented in the plan. This, actu-ally is the case today. A good conservation plannecessarily means that there exists a number ofclearly expressed regulations and rules if it is tosucceed in its goal. In general, the higher theheritage value of an area is, the more detailed andnumerous also the regulations and limitations are.

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3) For the property owner who owns an oldhouse such information provides basic informa-tion on how or she he should proceed to main-tain his property in the best possible condition inthe future. At the same time, good maintenancemeans that the qualities of the built environmentare preserved and that the protection aims accept-ed de facto.

The Conservation of the Hoko Areaas a Cultural HeritageThe conservation of a city centre as a whole orin parts, is an especially difficult task owing to theexpansion and growth of the city and the fragil-ity of the wooden building stock. High land va-lues together with high plot ratios, in particular,pose challenges to city planning policies. Thetransfer of development and building rights is usedsuccessfully in many places to move the value ofair space above preserved environments to areasmore conducive to high rises and effective land-use development. This course of action woulddemand not only a radical reassessment of Kyo-to’s future but also significant financial commit-ment as have many similar efforts to safeguard andprotect culturally important cities across Italy,France and other parts of Europe. On the otherhand, there is no doubt that Kyoto, as one of thegreat cities of the world, is worthy of and deservessuch action.

At the moment far the most important docu-ment relating to the future of Kyoto is the newmaster plan which was enacted in 1993. The planshows in a specific manner the future profile ofKyoto and the orientation of its policies, whichare exhibited in it. In order to progress with ur-ban improvement that invigorates tradition, theplan introduces a special way of thinking that aimsto lead as it is formulated ‘to conservation, renewaland creation that give life to regional particular-ities’. The plan will, accordingly, advance with afinely detailed urban improvement plan thatstrives for harmonisation with the natural envi-ronment and the historic particularities in eacharea. One of the three key areas which is men-

tioned in the plan, is the midtown area, in otherwords the historic city centre and its urban quar-ters. This is an important formulation, which ifcarefully implemented, could, at least theoretically,provide an entirely new basis for future urbanpolicies which would better take into considera-tion the special character of the historic neigh-bourhoods and also create a potential frameworkfor an appropriate conservation plan.

In spite of the progressive spirit that is expressedin the plan, however, as late as 1994, when morethan 20 major urban projects were scheduled tomark Kyoto’s 1200th anniversary, there was not asingle concrete measure for preserving Kyoto’surban heritage. Quite contrary, using Kyoto’s an-niversary as a pretext, everything possible wasbeing done, as Prof. Peternolli has noted, to ho-mogenise the city’s cultural identity and totallyextinguish its true value and meaning to theworld. All this was done in the name of progressand internationalisation that remains one of themost over-used local mass media slogans that ap-peared during the build-up to Kyoto’s 1200thanniversary celebrations. This vaguely defined ‘in-ternationalisation’ meaning different things ac-cording to circumstances, speakers and audienceis not what is needed. What is required is the pro-tection and restoration of Kyoto’s extraordinarycultural heritage, from the monumental religiousbuildings to the simplicity of private homes, as thebest and perhaps the only way to preserve theinternational value of the city.179

The new station building and the Kyoto Ho-tel project are just few examples which illustratethe lack of attention resulting from inappropri-ate perception of heritage and, at least for theoutside observer, an almost incomprehensible in-sensitivity towards those values. Another suchquestionable project was the recent plan by themunicipal authorities to construct a copy of aParisian bridge between the Sanjo and ShijoBridges over the Kamo River in one of the mostsensitive spots of the historic townscape. Theproject has, however, been cancelled because ofthe opposition of the local citizen groups andresidents.

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In such a place as the historic city centre of Kyo-to, the minimum demand should be that the basicprinciples of city planning are brought before thepublic and evaluated in a wider perspective. Deci-sion-making may be obscured because there isgreat municipal interests in keeping the status quo.When there is a question of large financial inter-ests, the preservation question naturally tends to stayin the background. An extremely energetic actionwould be, therefore, be required, perhaps on a na-tional, or even on an international level. The pres-ervation efforts carried out by the national author-ities, or the worry expressed by foreign visitors hasso far not been sufficient to convince the localauthorities of the need to place Kyoto and its her-itage in a wider perspective. 180 If the current pol-icy continues, the author is concerned that thegood image of a Japan that respects its heritage andcultural traditions will be seriously damaged.

Conservation Plan as anEnhancement of Living TraditionThe major goal of the current research was notto make each and every home a protected culturalproperty, but rather to help citizens and heritageauthorities to work together to solve some of thekey problems faced by the townhouses and theurban heritage. As shown by our case examplessuch an approach is especially important in thecentral area of Kyoto where most of the houseslack distinct or clearly definable architectural orhistorical values, but are still important examplesof a traditional lifestyle and dwelling patterns. Insuch places the everyday buildings should not bepreserved merely for their historicity alone, but fortheir value to the wider community. This is be-cause architecture cannot be assessed in the sameway in which one judges a painting, since the builtenvironment is not merely an art, but a setting foreveryday life, and thus artistic qualities cannot beabstracted without considering those functionalcharacteristics and the role these buildings play inthe everyday lives of ordinary people.

Preservation narrowly understood cannot im-provise or adapt to the implacable pressures of

change. Seen as a part of change, preservation takesit place among other fruitful and creative ways oftreasuring heritage. On the other hand, withouta past that is malleable as well as generously pre-served, the present will lack models to inspire itand the future will be deprived of a lifeline to itspast.What is needed in the surveyed quarters, isan adequate urban conservation plan. Such a planwould speak for the preservation interest and itwould add an important viewpoint to the gener-al landuse plan. The urban conservation planwould indicate such spatial arrangements as thecharacteristic plot division system, typical streetalignments such as the narrow tenement lanes andalso, the enhancement and better appreciation ofthe traditional dwelling patterns. The focus of cityplanning would be moved from the mere changeto appericiating the environmental patterns of thehistoric environment and the context.

Urban conservation would not be limited topreserving ’as such’ but the plan would allowchanges, even to build new buildings to replaceolder ones. The new buildings would not neces-sarily follow the style of the old buildings but theycould have their own contemporary style. Aboveall, it should be a question of balance betweenmaintenance and adaptation rather than a ruth-less and barbaric misuse and destruction of theexisting fabric and heritage. When the emphasisis on the heritage values of an environment, thestrategy will directly serve those who are usingthat environment and living in it, in other words,the local residents.

In Finland, for instance, there are many goodexamples of how new buildings have been adapt-ed to a historical context thereby adding to theold environment not only new physical elementsbut also entirely new cultural meanings. Examplesof such successful urban adaptations can be found,for instance, in Porvoo and Tammisaari if we lookonly at Finland. In such a wider framework ofconservation, the potential landmarks will findtheir place naturally and with less enforcement.Identifying urban conservation, not as a rigid pres-ervation of a physical structure, but as an enhance-ment of its heritage values, the heritage area could

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even be given a much-needed socio-economicboost. In a such framework of thinking a conser-vation plan would promote investment by legiti-mising its organically transformed urban space.Retaining some of the original landmarks in con-nection with tourism would promote business, too.In the light of present trends, however, it is morethan likely that in the hoko area there will be littleleft for the coming generations to appreciate.

The International PerspectiveThe new perception of conservation requires, thatthe concept of heritage and urban patrimony thatwas at the heart of the Venice Charter be moreprecisely defined. This view makes it imperativethat the interpretation of a historic monumentand historic place should be extended not onlyto its physical environment but to its socio-cul-tural environment as well. The highest attentionmust be given to the relationship between theheritage and the community that has inherited it.This view is particularly important in the hokoneighbourhoods, with their culturally-rich dwell-ing patterns, with their role in the kimono pro-duction and trade and with such outstanding tra-ditions as the Gion Festival.

In a more general level, there is a growingneed to perceive the cultural heritage in the lightof its cultural context. This thesis identifies thisneed and likewise, stresses the importance of thelocal context. In the hoko neighbourhoods thetradition of the urban festival lends urban pres-ervation and cultural protection a special culturaland architectural historical interest. The hokoneighbourhoods - even in the residual state inwhich they have survived - provide coherentevidence of outstanding cultural and historicvalues that may deserve even the status of a’world heritage site’.

The conclusions of this work do not applyonly to Kyoto but are closely related to the ur-ban conservation problems of wooden towns ingeneral. Because of the fragility of the woodentown tradition and the authenticity problems in-volved, the methodological approach should bepaid special care. The wooden town heritagecannot be evaluated using same criteria as townsbuilt in stone or brick; change and a certain de-gree of ‘unauthenticity’ must be tolerated and ac-cepted, if any of this wooden heritage is to besaved. The houses and their architecture cannotbe ‘frozen’ if they are to continue as living envi-ronments.

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In his introduction to Yanagi's book, a Japaneseceramist Shoji Hamada writes about the violenceof modern objects, a quality originating from aliberated individual’s creative energy that causesa feeling of emptiness and violence. Abstractworks are not born from an experience of a gen-uine inner world. Their emptiness is that of nihi-lism and destruction. The traditional Japaneseroom never created an image of poverty or ab-sence despite having few pieces of furniture.With its palpable materiality and warmth it is afar cry from any abstracted or simplified conceptof space. The traditional aesthetics of objects cul-minated in the tea ceremony, where instead ofmere ritual, the aesthetic focus is created byobjects and forms, as well as by the thoughts andfeelings aroused by them in the viewer. Thechoice of objects, the colours and materials ofthe room, the garden and decorations can beseen as agents enabling people to sense, experi-ence and actively participate in the creation ofbeauty in everyday life. This dynamic concept of

beauty apparent in the tea ceremony, which re-quires the presence of an observant person, alsoplays an important role in such traditions as theScreen Festival.

Furthermore, beauty is an essential element ina Buddhist, and particularly a Zen Buddhistunderstanding of the world. According to theBuddhist philosophy, merely looking at a beauti-ful object makes a person see ‘his own innerhome’. Therefore, whoever acquires a beautifulobject, ‘in reality buys himself and whoever looksat a beautiful object, recognises his originalself ’.181 In the Gion Festival, thousands of pairsof eyes watch and are being watched. For the ar-tisan and the exhibitor, another person’s obser-vation is important because it is a manifestationof one’s own existence. A look contains asubconscious touch.

The most important thing, however, is theability to produce something of one’s own.Therefore, the displayed objects and antiquitiesshould not be evaluated solely according to their

Chapter 23

The Changing Stage of the Tradition- Living Tradition or Panda’s Cage?

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aesthetic and historical value alone, if the exhibi-tor has displayed the objects with a pure heart andhis or her own sense of beauty. The importanceof the display tradition is, therefore, not primari-ly in its historical or aesthetic value, but in themeaning it holds for the exhibitor.

The Japanese tea ceremony developed criteriafor beauty based on tangible features such as form,colour and design. Zen appreciated shibui, pro-foundness, simplicity and ‘the inner radiance’ ofobjects. Beauty was not merely a physical charac-teristic, but also a mental attitude towards objects.The Japanese gardeners or tea masters viewedtheir environment with care and tenderness. Or-dinary objects became beautiful when someonecared for them. In this way, beauty consisted ofboth beauty and ugliness. This tender attitude isa far cry from the rude way the traditionalenvironment is viewed and even actively destroyedin many places today - even in Kyoto.

Even beauty is based on values and thus, propermethods of criteria cannot be defined before theconcept of ‘value’ is determined. If a lifestyle iscomprehended as an attitude towards values, nosuch thing as an outdated lifestyle exists. Ac-cording to modern progressive thinking, culturalinnovation is possible only in a modern society.However, the attitude towards traditional customsand values has to be re-evaluated everywhere,since people in their own lives need to experie-nce rituals passed on by tradition, with new mean-ings added through historical changes.

Objects and buildings are not merely orna-ments or physical constructions. They also expressman's view of the world. As Alberto Alessi, forinstance, has observed, objects are ‘an excellentsystem of communication’.182 In traditional soci-eties and communities, objects such as houses, clo-thes, ritual and utility objects were much morethan a simple code language for a current fash-ion or a trend.183 Objects were used to express thecommunity’s values of life in various ways andrituals. A specialist interested only in dates, mer-its in art history, or aesthetic values, cannot be anauthority for a method of interpretationacknowledging cultural meanings and values.

Something more is needed to allow the com-plex of various voices and meanings to emergeand come into the light. Town planning, if onlyconcerned with efficiency ratios or functionalzoning, strives to force the environment into alogic-rational order. This order is not commen-surate with culture, since culture can be seen as astructure consisting of layers. The inadequacy ofthe one-sided, purely rationalistic approach in thepresent-day Kyoto and in its historic neighbour-hoods, has probably become evident throughoutthis research.

The fading away of the display traditionthreatens not only the physical symbols such asthe buildings and the exclusive, antiquarianscreens, but also the central meanings of the festi-val. Maintaining original meanings in changingcircumstances is problematic, if not impossible.Common values that bind people together havedisappeared from the modern world. This hasalso happened in Japan, where on the other hand,many traditional values have been carefully pre-served. A change in the physical environmentnecessarily means a change in the interpretativeenvironment as well. “A moon that raises abovethe Higashiyama Hills and above a modern sky-scraper is not the same”, as Prof. Yamasaki has putit.184

This is one of the reasons why objects madein a different cultural background seem to losesome of their essential quality when moved toanother environment, away from their ‘home’. Itis pleasing in itself that the screen display tradi-tion continues in modern office buildings withthe historical screens on display. However, thedimensions, materials, structures, colours, lightingand use of the display building are often entirelydifferent from the original environment of the dis-play, and these contextual changes affect themeaning of the objects.

The dimensions, colours and materials of thescreens were originally designed to be in harmonywith certain interior spaces and rooms. In partic-ular, the Japanese have a profound appreciation ofdarkness. As Tanizaki described:

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“… And so it came to be that the beauty of the Japaneseroom depends on variation of shadows, heavy shadowsagainst light shadow - it has nothing else. Westerners areamazed at the simplicity of the Japanese room, perceivingin it no more than ashen walls bereft of ornaments”.185

Individual screens were sometimes and even to-day are, decorated with gold painted figures. In thedarkness of the room such screens are an impres-sive sight. Looking at these screens in a brightly-lit modern hotel lobby is completely differentfrom peeping at them in twilight through a wood-en lattice window. This change is most apparentin displays viewed through glass windows fromthe street. Also, a direct physical contact, the feel-ing of closeness between the objects, the dis-playing person and the spectator, characteristic oftraditional displays, is lost.

Nowadays Kyoto people are torn between thepresent and the past. As Kristeva says: “Nothingkeeps them there any more, and nothing tiesthem here yet”.186 People feel they do not be-long anywhere. The tighter the bond is withtheir past, the farther away they seem to be fromthe present. They are tempted to speculate withand gain profits from the past, but they also lovetheir old environment and suffer having to giveit up. For kimono enterprises and families thatparticipate in the display tradition, the futureseems desperate, or at the very least, uninter-esting. Many people who were interviewed dur-ing the Yamahoko programme, said that they willgo on with the display tradition and keep theirhouses in order, but they do not know or evencare to know what will happen to the display tra-dition when they are gone. One of the inter-viewees, self-conscious and slightly bitter,crystallised the thought: “An old Kyoto attitudeis to mind one’s own business”.187

It was amazing, indeed, to discover that manyinterviewees knew other displays only throughtourist pamphlets and art literature. They had nev-er actually seen them, even though some of thedisplays were located only a few hundred metresfrom their own houses. The coordinator of theKita Kannon Yama float had not even once in his

lifetime visited the decorated festival float in hisneighbouring block.

In the post-modern world tradition begins tocopy itself. Reality becomes fiction and images.Yesterday’s pilgrims have become today’s tourists.Some Zen temples offer weekend packages forinstant enlightenment, including vegetarian mealsand Spartan conditions with no heating or otherconveniences. Participation in imaginary realities,however, affects the way in which reality is organ-ised and experienced. Jencks argues that “eclecti-cism is a natural development in a culture ofchoice”.188 Places portrayed in a certain way, par-ticularly if they have the capacity to attract tour-ists, may begin to ‘dress themselves up’ as thefantasy images prescribe.189 In other words, peo-ple have an image of the place before they evenvisit it.

Architect Arata Isozaki was not so far from thetruth, as already observed, when he compared theposition of the ‘maintainers of cultural heritage inKyoto’ with the giant panda, locked in the cageof the modern heritage and tourist industry.190

While the Gion Festival has expanded into a massevent, quite a few of the participating kimonofamilies have become bored with the roles of ‘pre-server of tradition’ or tourist clown. More andmore exhibitions are on display only privately. Anoticeable proportion of the exhibitors of 1992did not appear in the festival in 1993. Crowdsattracted to historic sites and structures themselvesdemean the experience.

Tourism and mass media have affected the waypeople think about their cultural heritage. Theelegant posters in travel agencies are filled with thehome displays, and the owners of the rare wood-en townhouses have become popular TV-stars.However, the publicity brought by the mass me-dia has not been altogether negative. The displaytradition has become livelier and is now an im-portant factor in many kimono companies withregard to sales and public image. Nor has the com-mercialisation of the festival, with renowned com-panies appearing as sponsors necessarily meant thedeterioration of the aesthetic and cultural stan-dards of the festival. To mention only one exam-

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ple are the elegant and artistically presented pack-ages of sake vine used as a decorative element ofthe Shinto altars in the festival displays.

The rapid expansion of the museum cultureand the flourishing heritage industry, both start-ing around the 1970s, have affected the commer-cialisation of history and culture. Over 500museums have been opened in Japan during thepast fifteen or twenty years. As for instance, He-wison has argued, “post-modernism and the her-itage industry are linked, since both conspire tocreate a shallow screen that intervenes betweenour present lives and our history.... In thesecircumstances history becomes a contemporarycreation, more costume drama and re-enactmentthan critical discourse”.191 History becomes acreation of the present, more like masquerade, andrepetition, than a critical discourse. We aredoomed to search for history through our ownpop-idols and images, while the true history es-capes our reach.

We end up in a paradox. The reason for pro-tecting the cultural heritage is in its marketing andsales possibilities. Searching for routes may at itsworst end up in fiction or in pastiche, a mere salesimage. Under these circumstances tradition can,even at its best, be only museum culture, whiletrue history appearing here and now is too ordi-nary to interest anyone. While the kimono indus-try in Kyoto has to face possibly the greatestfinancial difficulties of all time, and the woodenhouses deteriorate while awaiting repair and reno-vation, Kyoto advertises itself as an elegant wood-en town, using aesthetically pleasing and carefullydesigned photographs.

Inside the Museum of Kyoto an ‘authentic’Kyoto streetscape has been reconstructed only afew hundred metres away from the hoko neigh-bourhoods, while outside the museum old town-houses (those which are still left) wait for thebulldozers and new high rise buildings appearhere and there, ruining quiet neighbourhoods thatare still well-preserved. Another irony of the mo-dern museum culture is that historical screens,which are still the property of local kimono fam-ilies, are moving into the possession of antique

collectors and museums, away from the historicenvironment to which they still organically be-long.

What one eventually discovers in a Japanese ur-ban festival is the ritual way of comprehendingtime and space. Time, instead of being a linearonward-moving concept, is considered to exist inmany dimensions. When time is perceived in sucha way, should not the attitude towards preservationalso be changed? The old buildings are con-tinuously maintained and preserved because thevalues they portray are seen as important andworth preserving. Understood in this way, urbanconservation is not only about conserving theshells of an ancient way of life, but it has a livingmeaning which people can discover again andagain for themselves. Instead of a homogeneous-ly shaped, perfect and unchanging concept oftime, we face separate fragments of reality, noneof which tells the complete truth, but all of whichexist side by side. With the linearity of time gone,history can be rewritten.

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Summary

The research deals with the urban conservationof Kyoto’s wooden town heritage. The focus ofthe research is on the Gion Festival and in thecultural significance of the urban space. Everydayvalues play an important role in the work. Theresearch is in ten parts.

Description of the Field of theResearch and Urban Conservation.Problems InvolvedKyoto’s wooden townhouse architecture and ur-ban heritage in the grid-plan area is in many waysunique, both as regards the stages of its citydevelopment and as an architectural phenomenon.Scores of sophisticated analyses have examined theJapanese quality of space and its indigenous build-ing types. In these analyses traditional Kyototownhouse, kyo-machiya, has been a superb exam-ple, which has even affected the concept and de-velopment of modern western architecture. InJapanese architectural history the evolution of theKyoto townhouse, the wooden lattice facade andthe variety and richness of its dwelling patternsare regarded as examples of elegance unknown inother Japanese cities.

At the present moment Kyoto’s urban heritageis faced with various threats which all have dele-terious effects on its character and on its life. Suchthreats are both the threatening effects of townplanning as well as the lack of appropriate urbanconservation policies. The necessary conceptualdevelopments that were needed in the contextand the city planning policies and decision-mak-ing do not coincide. The building ratios exceedmany times the traditional land use. City planningclauses and regulations that have dealt entirelywith technical controls such as height constraints,floor-area ratios and light angles may have workedeffectively from the rational point of view. Whatthey have failed to do is to identify the role ofurban morphology, building typologies, dwelling

patterns and their disposition in the urban space,in other words, the whole character of Kyoto’s ur-ban heritage.

Until now, with the exception of historic mon-uments, only very few everyday structures havecome under protection in Japan and in even thosecases, the buildings have been mainly preserved asmuseum objects. Even in Kyoto, where the citygovernment has been sensitive to preservinglandscapes and urban neighbourhoods of specialhistoric and architectural value, efforts to preserveless famous and architecturally less distinguishedvernacular buildings and architecture have beenfew, if any. In 1991, in the list of cultural assets ofKyoto, besides temples and other historic monu-ments, altogether seven privately owned buildingswere registered. Among them were five ordinarytownhouses. Meanwhile it was estimated that inthe historical grid-plan area alone there were al-together 40 000- 80 000 wooden townhouses left.

The failure to preserve traditional Kyoto town-houses is most evident in the city centre. Althoughthe concept of historical neighbourhood was es-sential in preserving the historic preservation ar-eas, the concept has been limited to areas withspecial architectural or historical value. Althoughfine representatives of Kyoto’s architectural her-itage and historic environments, they are all areaswhich illustrate some special type or function ofurban environment such as geisha areas and pil-grim routes. The protection of these areas is nat-urally welcome but the protected districts concernmost often outlying parts of the city, which werenot and even now not are, in immediate dangerin a way the urban neighbourhoods in more cen-tral areas are. Moreover, the limitations in the pro-tected areas leave too many areas and cityneighbourhoods in the city centre for boundlessdamage.

Focusing on monument conservation and theprotection of a few carefully selected areas has leadto the compartmentalising of the city and to a

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failure of city planning and heritage authorities toidentyfy heritage values of the urban fabric. Lim-iting the scope of protection to certain carefullyselected areas, the city planning authorities havebeen unable to create a wider impact that wouldbenefit protection of the urban heritage as awhole. It is evident that the heritage evaluationmethods and criteria in use have played more thana minor role.

Case Study Area and the Traditionof the Screen FestivalThe case study area comprises thirty-five hokoneighbourhoods in the Muromachi area of thetown. The neighbourhoods are known being re-sponsible for organising the Gion Festival, a tra-dition that has continued uninterrupted in thecity centre of Kyoto since the beginning of the16th century. The hoko neighbourhoods were se-lected as the case study area because of their cul-tural traditions and their great cultural significance.The Gion Festival is one of the three great townfestivals of Japan and one of the most splendidamong them all. Within the Gion Festival tradi-tion, the author focuses on the tradition of theScreen Festival, the display of folding screens bytraditional kimono families. The survey area is oneof the major centres for Japan’s kimono trade.

Once a year, during the urban festival, streetsin the city centre are gorgeously decorated includ-ing the display of antique screens. The light wood-en koshi, lattice partitions, which are the majorarchitectural elements of wooden-frame town-houses, are temporarily removed, and the interi-or of the house is exposed to the street as if it werea stage. The rooms, which open to the streets, aredecorated with folding screens and other hometreasures owned by Muromachi kimono families.The wooden town architecture plays a vital roleas the scenic stage of the festival.

Many of the displaying kimono families were,and still are, wholesale dealers of luxurious ki-monos and other kimono textiles adding to thesplendour and artistic quality of the displays.Among the displaying persons there are also ki-

mono designers and other kimono-related arti-sans. Many of the displays have many years ofpatronage with many beautiful museum-piecescreens. Even today there are screens which arespecially designed to be displayed in the festival.The history of the Muromachi area also explainsthe excellent artistic quality of the displayed artobjects and screens. With this background theScreen Festival is unique, not only in Kyoto butin the whole of Japan. In the thesis the screendisplay tradition is seen as a key example of cul-tural values and traditions that developed in thecity centre in the urban context of the Kyototownhouse.

Municipal authorities have paid attention tothe Screen Festival tradition only when it has beenable to boost tourism as a clearly measurable tour-ist value. In other words, the focus has been on afew, carefully selected landmarks and antiquescreens. Only one display has so far been protectedby law. The more ordinary home displays as wellas the whole wooden townhouse context havebeen given less if any attention. There is an acutelack of appreciation of such social and cultural val-ues as the inter-relationship between the houseand the street and their cultural expressions dur-ing the urban festival. Having failed to enhancesuch values the city planning has resulted not onlyin the making of deserted spaces in the city, butalso in the disappearance of cultural patterns andlocal landmarks vital for the city. Moreover, a setof cultural values, such as the special Japaneseunderstanding of space, has been sacrificed overmore practical and material values.

At the present moment the display tradition isin a drastic process of change. The total numberof screen displays has sunken very low and thewooden townhouse context as a scenic stage ofthe festival is getting rare. Among the 56 displaysthat were recorded during the field surveys, 26displays were found in new, multi-storey structuresthat were built in reinforced concrete or steel. Theincreasing number of window displays is one ofthe unfortunate trends that threats key meaningsin the festival. In addition, a growing number ofdisplays are screened off from public view.

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Fieldwork as an Evaluation ToolFor the thesis, the author measured more than onehundred (mostly traditional wooden) buildingsanalysing their facade types in every detail includ-ing building materials, categories, styles and theirnumber of floors. The analysis, which consists ofthe streetscapes of three hoko neighbourhoods, isthe first systematic urban conservation documen-tation in the Muromachi area so far. The neigh-bourhoods are in the thesis analysed in theirpresent condition with all the changes and alter-ations they have gone through time; in otherwords not as our pre-conceived images of themmight be. Through the fieldwork such criteria asthe ‘beauty of streetscape’ and criteria of authen-ticity were tested and analysed.

Traditional dwelling patterns in the survey areaare in the thesis examined through a number ofpre-modern dwelling plans such ‘the sleepingplace of an eel’, unagi no nedoko, and the tenementpattern, nagaya. The former illustrates the ‘classic’Kyoto dwelling pattern that evolved in the deepand narrow building sites. The pattern gives char-acter and identity to the city structure as a whole.During the urban festival the deep site visiblethrough the open wall is also one of the greatcharms of the screen displays. Furthermore, theauthor participated in a municipal documentationwork that consisted of seven historic urban dwell-ings. Through this fieldwork the author couldobserve municipal evaluation methods on-site.

Furthermore, an indispensable material for thethesis was provided by an extensive field work thatwas organised as a multidisciplinary joint-projectby Prof. Koji Nishikawa’s laboratory’s researchteam. The author worked as a member of theteam. In this field survey that took place in threefollowing years during the Gion Festival, all thescreen displays that were found in the city centrewere documented in every detail including theexamining of more than one hundred neighbour-hoods and 160 antique screens. Rather than be-ing an historical or art historian survey the focusof the research was on the urban settings of thedisplays. The research identified, for instance, such

time honoured cultural patterns as the open walland entrance pattern. In both these patterns theaudience can visually enjoy or even partially en-ter the interior of a traditional townhouse thatnormally is not open for public view.

Questioning the HeritageEvaluation Methods in Use. TheMethodology of the WorkFor the thesis the author developed a variety ofmethods of architectural assessment both on thegeneral level and for the chosen place. Heritageevaluation practices in Kyoto base conservationlargely on architectural and historical criteria rath-er than accommodating some of the perceptionsand reactions of everyday users of historic envi-ronments. As a result, some interest groups remainunder-represented in the evaluation process andsome views may never be represented by ‘experts’.Many of the elements that make up the ‘wholeplace’ remain unidentified, despite the fact that itis the whole rather than the parts that will haveheritage value and meaning. In the thesis the au-thor pays attention, in particular, to the selectivi-ty of the criteria and their inability to identifyheritage values of the ordinary building stock andsuch cultural traditions as the Screen Festival.

An important part of the approach in identi-fying cultural values is acknowledging the impor-tance of place. A special attachment to place mayinclude a long-standing spiritual or religious at-tachment or other long-standing value-categoriessuch as a continuous use. The Gion Festival tra-dition, which has continued in the city centre ofKyoto for centuries, is itself already such a value-category. Furthermore, focusing on a few, speciallyselected landmarks, has not enhanced continuityand everyday use. The use category is especiallyimportant in Kyoto where traditional townhouseswere never just residential spaces but had impor-tant production (silk textile industry, pottery) andcultural functions (tea ceremony, flower arrange-ment) as well. Although the Screen Festival willcontinue in modern business facilities set up bywealthy kimono companies, the loss of ordinary

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home displays will evidently reduce the value ofthe whole place and thus, key meanings in the fes-tival.

The methodological approach taken in thethesis aims thus at an approach where dwellingpatterns and cultural patterns are identified as anentity. The inter-relationship between the urbandwelling and the street, and the manifold expres-sions this relationship takes during the urban fes-tival, is one of the key areas to be focused on.Heritage argumentation methods are seen as animportant tool how to cope with and enhance theprotection of heritage. Individual and collectiveinterpretations, cultural values and readings areseen to add to the significance of the place. Theyare seen as elements that should be included as ar-gumentation criteria in the evaluation work.

The two Japanese concepts hare and ke, sacredand everyday space, play an important role in theinterpretation of what is the cultural significanceof Kyoto’s urban space. The role of street as com-munal space, the pre-modern concept ofryogawacho, ‘neighbourhood on both sides of thestreet’ and the cultural significance of the urbanfestival are analysed and evaluated in terms of theircontribution to the analysis of Kyoto’s urbanspace. The urban institutions of the area are in thethesis illustrated by a number of pre-modernbuilding types such as common facilities, localShinto shrines and Buddhist halls and local store-houses for festival floats. Many of these buildingtypes are unique for the survey area and cannotbe found in other areas of the town.

ConclusionsThe value categories in use have in Kyoto beenspecialist oriented, and have been able to identi-fy only to a limited extent the culturally depend-ent and place-oriented value categories. Less orin sufficient concern has been given to such qual-ities as individual or collective interpretations orthe display setting as a whole. A number of indi-vidual and collective value categories are in thesurvey area connected to a group of people whovalue the place and who help to keep the display

as a living tradition. Those individuals who valuethe tradition and participate in it contributed toits continuation, helping to shape the culture ofthe place. This included not only the displayingperson but the accidental visitor (even the re-searcher herself may contribute to the value orvalueless of a place) and the audience as well. Theexperience of place was thus widely shared dur-ing the festival. The place became a landmarkthrough all the collective associations and partic-ipation.

Aside purely historical or aesthetic value-cat-egories there were many other, equally importantvalue-categories. Among these were such catego-ries as the special way the screens or other artobjects had come into family ownership and the”story” of the screens. An important aspect of thetotal value of the screens was their place. Thematerials (wood, plaster, tiles), lightning condi-tions, scale and proportions of traditional Kyototownhouses differ greatly from that of a modernbusiness facility (steel, reinforced concrete). Thecontextual value category also included suchthings as the psychological ‘remoteness’ of thedisplay room, darkness or ‘difficulty to see or find’.In other words, anything that contrasted with thecommercialised, over-crowded mass performance.Many of the kimono home displays were locatedin well-preserved historic neighbourhoods en-dowing them with a special sense of authenticityand charm. Therefore, more than any individualmuseum-piece screen, it was the whole urbansetting, which contributed to the value and mean-ing of the displays and to their value as ‘landmark’.

The conclusions of the thesis suggest that thevalue of the Screen Festival tradition (or anyculturally dependent local tradition) cannot beassessed through selected, expert values alone, butalso other values and meanings must be taken intoconsideration. The Australian Heritage Commis-sion even equates the broadest definition of so-cial value to its cultural significance. This meansthat the cultural and individual experiences thatshape people’s own views of place are importantand they should have their own place in the eval-uation methods of heritage.

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In general, the problems identified in the pro-tection of the Screen Festival tradition were nota separate question, but illustrated urban conser-vation and heritage evaluation problems that werecharacteristic for the city centre of Kyoto as awhole. The wooden town heritage cannot be as-sessed through selected (expert) values alone, butalso other values and meanings must be taken intoconsideration. The wooden town heritage is ap-preciated, not only because of its visual and his-torical characteristics but also because of itscapacity to hold cultural values and ways of life.

The conclusions of the work do not apply onlyto Kyoto but are closely related to the urban con-servation problems of wooden towns in general.Because of the fragility of the wooden town tra-dition and the authenticity problems involved, themethodological approach should be paid specialattention. The wooden town heritage cannot beevaluated using same criteria as towns built instone or brick. Changes and alterations must betolerated if any of the wooden town heritage isto be saved. Social values, cultural practices and in-dividual and collective interpretations add impor-tant elements in the evaluation practices ofheritage.

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References

Chapter 31 “Book to Focus on Ornate Floats of Kyoto

Festival”, The Daily Yomiuri Shinbun 1993.2 Herbert E. Plutschow, Historical Kyoto (Tokyo: The

Japan Times Ltd.1986), p. 119. According to Prof.

Masuda, even 30 000 houses were destroyed in the

Shirakawa area of the town. Masuda, T., Japan

(1969), p. 174.3 Bakufu, central government; literally ‘tent

government’. Commonly translated in English as

‘shogunate’. Since the Kamakura period the term

became the generic term for all later governments

of the warrior class. Ewdward O. Reischauer, Japan.

The Story of a Nation, p. 46.4 The Old Capital (San Francisco: North Point Press

1987), p. 755 Edward Morse, Japanese Homes and Their

Surroundings (Rutland, Vermont & Tokyo: Charles E.

Tuttle Co. 1986), p. 180.6 Every historic float except Hoteiyama in

Ubayanagicho.7 The three floats are: Gaisenfunehoko, Takayama,

Hoteiyama.8 Toroyama, Shijokasahoko, Ayagasahoko were

excluded the nomination because they are recent

reconstructions.9 Since 1975, five individuals and three organisations

have been recognised as holders of traditional

conservation techniques necessary for

architectural preservation. Knut Einar Larsen,

“Authenticity in the Context of World Heritage:

Japan and the Universal”, p. 71.10 Kyoto Fu Bunka Zai Hogo Kikin (ed.), Kyoto no

Bunka Zai Chizu Cho (‘Map on the Cultural Assets

of Kyoto’), 1984.11 The Burra Charter 1996.12 Kyo no Sumai. Chiiki to Bunkazai to Shite no Minka

(‘Dwelling in Kyoto. Historic Urban Dwellings as

Local Landmarks’), Kyoto 1993.

Chapter 413 Masafumi Yamasaki, Kyoto Its Cityscape Traditions and

Heritage (Tokyo: Process Architecture No. 116,

1994), p.18, p. 21.14 Edwin O. Reischauer, p. 134.15 Ibid., p. 12816 Hiroshi Mimura, Hajime Shimizu, “Issues and

Prospect for Development and Conservation in

Inner City Area of Kyoto” (Tokyo: International

Seminar on Planning and Management of Asian

Metropolises 1985), p. 5.17 Stewart, p. 85.18 Atsushi Ueda, The Inner Harmony of Japanese House,

p.172.19 Peter J. Fowler, The Past in Contemporary Society.

Then, Now, p. 27.

Chapter 520 Masafumi Yamasaki in his lecture on the Kyoto

townhouse at Kyoto University 1992.21 Kyoto Its Cityscape Traditions and Heritage (Tokyo:

Process Architecture No. 116, 1994), pp.46-59.

Chapter 622 Chris Fawcett, The New Japanese House. Ritual and

Antiritual. Patterns of Dwelling (London: Granada

1980), pp.10-11.23 Arata Isozaki, Katsura Villa - Space and Form (New

York 1987).24 Stewart, p. 63.25 Koseki, p. 15.26 Vesterinen, Japanin kulttuurin antropologista

tarkastelua (‘Anthropological Observations of

Japanese Culture’), p. 246.27 Steven Baker et al. (ed.), Gaijin Scientist (Tokyo:

The British Chamber of Commerce in Japan

1990), p. 5.28 Quoted by Hannu Marttila in “Kirjailija joka sanoo

itseään Todeksi” (‘A Novelist who Calls Himself

Truth’) , Helsingin Sanomat 1994.29 The life’s work of Soetsu Yanagi includes, among

other things, the founding of the Japan Folkcraft

266

Museum (Mingei-Kan) in Tokyo. He is known in

Japan as the founder of the Japanese Folkcraft

Movement.30 On the subject, also, see Markku Graae,

“Käsityöläisen identiteetti” (‘The Identity of an

Artisan’), Muoto 1993, pp. 51-53.31 A sharp and even now very timely critique was

provided by the Nobel prize winning writer

Yasunari Kawabata in The Old Capital (San Francisco:

North Point Press 1987).32 According to Yanagi, objects that cannot be used

have something negative in themselves although

they are perfectly beautiful. Soetsu Yanagi, The

Unknown Craftsman - A Japanese Insight into Beauty

(Tokyo: Kodansha International 1982), p.179.33 Ilmari Vesterinen, Lohikäärme ja Krysanteemi.

Näkökulmia Itä-Aasian kulttuureihin (‘Dragon and

Chrysanthemum. Viewpoints to East Asian

Cultures’). Hämeenlinna: Karisto Oy 1988.34 Mr. Imae commenting on the field survey in his

house 1993.35 Ilmari Vesterinen, Lohikäärme ja Krysanteemi.


Chrysanthemum. Viewpoints to East Asian

Cultures’), p. 110.36 ibid., p. 109.37 Marcia Muelder Eaton “Estetiikan ydinkysymyksiä”

(‘Key Problems in Aesthetics’) in Basic Issues in

Aesthetics, p. 171.38 In Europe the ma concept has become known

especially through the ma exhibition which was

organised by Arata Isozaki and which visited Paris,

New York and was even seen in Helsinki at the

end of the seventies. The modern puristic concept

of time has been sharply analysed, for instance, by

Richard Sennet, in his analysis of the Farnsworth

House of Mies van der Rohe. For Sennet the

house represents a kind of crystallisation of the

spatial concept of Modernism. Richard Sennet, The

Conscience of the Eye. The Design of Social Life of

Cities (New York: Knopf 1990), pp. 112-113.39 Ishii has defined the temporary characteristic of

Japanese culture as ‘art of fast changes’. This is

portrayed in the ability to instantaneously

transform an ordinary profane space into a

ceremonial, sacred one. Kazuhiro Ishii “The Sources

of My Inspiration; in Response to Reyner Banham”

(Space Design 8904,) p. 01340 Fred Thompson, “Japanilainen ulkotila ja läntinen

yhteinen tila – vertailua” (‘Japanese Outdoor Space

and Western Public Space, Comparison’), Arkkitehti

(‘Finnish Architectural Review’) 1/1996.41 According to the Yamahoko survey the standard

width of the common facility was 6.7 metres and

the depth of the site 37 metres. In other words, the

sites were very similar in size to the ordinary

dwelling sites.42 In Japan known as kekkonshikijo, wedding place.43 Masuhiko Hayakawa, Gion Matsuri ni Okeru Byobu

Kazari ni Kansuru Kenkyu (‘A Survey on the Screen

Festival’), Kyoto: Kyoto University 1978, p. 11.44 Louis Frederick, Daily Life in Japan at the time of the

Samurai, 1185-1603 (Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle

Company 1988), p. 59.45 Mrs. Ito, when I talked to her during the field

work.

Chapter 746 The BST is a law that applies to all buildings

throughout Japan. BST consists of both building

codes and zoning codes (standards ensuring the

safety of urban areas). Zoning codes are enforced

within the city planning areas.47 According to the building standard law: “...In order

to prevent destruction of buildings by fire, the

principal building parts shall, in principle, not be

made of wood if the building has a height of more

than 13 metres or has eaves at a height of more

than nine metres or has a floor area of more than

3000 sq.m.” Outline of the Approval & Certification

System under the Building Standard Law (Tokyo: The

Building Centre of Japan 1990), p. 22.48 Masafumi Yamasaki, Kyoto, Its Cityscape Traditions and


1994), p. 147.49 Referred by Tomoko Shibazaki in “Kansai Architects

Converge to Save Traditional Wooden Homes in

Kyoto”, The Japan Times, 9.10.1990.50 Diane Durston, Seven Paths to the Heart of the City

(Tokyo: Kodansha International 1987), p. 6.51 Mrs. Sugiura, when I visited her house for the first

time in 1991.

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52 Yamasaki 1992, commenting on the poor

understanding of traditional architecture by

university students.53 Steven Baker et al., Gaijin Scientist. How to find a post

in Japan and what it’s like when you get there. (Tokyo:

The British Chamber of Commerce in Japan 1990),

p. 5.54 Ms. Tomoko Izumita 1994, a Japanese landscape

architect, when observing some well preserved

wooden townhouses in Finland.55 Assoc. Prof. Masui 1990, when commenting his own

topic of research: the early modern (Tokugawa era)

township community.56 Masafumi Yamasaki, Kyoto Its Cityscape Traditions and


1994), p. 12.57 In the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto area the average size of

the building sites was 961 sq. m. and in the Tokyo-

Yokohama area 810 sq. m. in buildings with more

than three floors. Machiya Kata Kyodo Jutaku

Kenkyukai (ed.), Machiya Kata Kyodo Jutaku no

Kaihatsu to Moderu Kensetsu Sokushin ni Kansuru

Chosa Kenkyu (Kyoto: Kyoto Shi Jutaku Kyoku

1992), p. 13. The size of the sites, see Table 2.2.6,

same page.58 Kyo-Machiya. Kyoto: The Kyoto Museum 29.9.-

28.10.1990.59 Diane Durston, “Saga of Tokusayamacho”, Kyoto

Journal 9/1989, pp. 6-8.

Chapter 860 Koji Nishikawa, Teiji Ito, “Japan: Two Ancient Capitals

and the Menace to Them”, The Conservation of Cities

(Paris: Unesco 1979), p. 122.61 Tapio Periäinen 1995, commenting on the level of

city planning in Kyoto in the 1960s. After the

comment he added, that in that respect things had,

unfortunately, not much changed.62 This was the situation in 1992 when I interviewed

Dr. Lim Bon at Kyoto University.63 Riitta Salastie, Masaya Masui, “Trends and Meaning

of Land Ownership in Yatacho and Shinkamanzacho

in Two Cross Sections in 1912-1992”, Proceedings of

the Research Meeting, pp. 845-848.64 Buildings which had more than three floors, were

counted in the multi-storey category. Machiya Kata

Kyodo Jutaku Kenkyukai (ed.), Machiya Kata Kyodo

Jutaku no Kaihatsu to Moderu Kensetsu Sokushin ni

Kansuru Chosa Kenkyu (Kyoto: Kyoto Shi Jutaku

Kyoku 1992), p. 7.65 In 1988, at the peak of the building boom, among

the 3448 new apartments produced, 1622 (47%)

were in the ‘one room manshion’ category.

Furthermore, among these, 63 apartments were in

the super expensive category. Two years later, the

number was 154. In 1990 there were 2036 new

apartments. In Japanese the name of such luxury

apartments is: okushon. ibid., p. 83.66 Kazuo Hayakawa, Housing Poverty in Japan, p. 5.67 During the five-year period 1987-1991 among the

houses produced 60.2% were tenant houses, 39.6%

ownership houses, and only 0.1% cooperative

dwelling houses. In addition, when the profile of the

contractor was examined, 82.6% were from Kyoto

City and 17.4% from outside Kyoto. As many as

6.1% of outside contractors were from Osaka.

Machiya Kata Kyodo Ju taku no Kaihatsu to Moderu

Kensetsu Sokushin ni Kansuru Chosa Kenkyu , p. 8.

Especially, see Fig. 2.1.2, Table 2.1.3.68 Masafumi Yamasaki, Kyoto Its Cityscape Traditions and


1994), p.146.69 Barry B. Greenbie, Space and Spirit in Modern Japan

(New Haven and London: Yale University Press

1988), p. 36.70 David B. Stewart, The Making of a Modern Japanese

Architecture 1868 to the Present Moment (Tokyo:

Kodansha International 1987), p. 15.71 Hiroshi Mimura et al., (eds.), Kyomachiya, Juunin no

Kokoroiki - Do naru? Do suru? (‘The Fate of the

Kyoto Townhouses?’72 This category included: kimono textile industry,

industrial art, Japanese style confections.

Chapter 973 Shigeyoshi Murakami, Japanese Religion in the

Modern Century (Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press

1983), p. 24.74 Among them, 158 were in the first category, shitei,

and 119 in the second category, toroku. Kyoto Shi

Bunka Kanko Kyoku (ed.), Kyoto Shi no Bunkazai

(‘The Cultural Assets of Kyoto City’), p.29.

268

75 Ibid.76 General Plan Map of Kyoto, Map No. 3, 1987.77 A description of the four historic preservation

areas: see Riitta Salastie, Kioton kaupunkirakenne ja

ympäristötyypit (Helsinki: Helsinki University of

Technology 1989), pp. 126-139.78 One such preservation struggle which took place

in the environs of the Yasaka Pagoda is described

and documented by Masafumi Yamasaki in “Kyoto

no Keikan Mondai to Kenchiku no Kadan”, Kenchiku

Jaarunaru 7/1991, pp.8-17.79 Giovanni Peternolli, “The Image of Kyoto Between

Past and Present” in Kyoto in the Fifties as Seen by

Fosco Maraini, p. 25.80 In new buildings the maximum height has been

reached only partially. In the 31 metre height

category the average height of a building was

19.5m, in other words 61.5% of the allowed height.

Furthermore, in the 45-metre height category the

height was no more than 45.8% of the maximum

height. Machiya Kata Kyodo Jutaku Kenkyukai (ed.),

Machiya Kata Kyodo Jutaku no Kaihatsu to Moderu

Kensetsu Sokushin ni Kansuru Chosa Kenkyu (Kyoto:

Kyoto Shi Jutaku Kyoku, 1992), p. 12: Table 2.2.5.81 See, for example, Barry Hillenbrand, “Kyoto’s

Demon for Progress, Greed and Indifference are

Ruining the Charm and Treasures of Japan’s most

Revered City”, The Times 1.7.1991, p. 46.82 Peter J. Larkham, “Conservation in Action.

Evaluating Policy and Practice in the United

Kingdom”. Town Planning Review 64(4), 1993, p.352.83 Masafumi Yamasaki in “Historic Urban Environment

with Historic Suburban Nature for Livable City”,

(Kyoto: 1987), p. 13.84 Kyoto Shi Bunka Kanko Kyoku (ed.), Kyoto Shi no

Bunkazai (‘The Cultural Assets of Kyoto City’),

Kyoto 1992.85 Among the five listed everyday buildings, three are

located in the hoko neighbourhoods: the Sugimoto,

Hata, Ban house.86 Kyo-Machiya. The Kyoto Museum 29.9.-28.10.1990.

The estimations vary between 40 000 – 80 000

preserved townhouses.87 Gunther Nitschke, “A Sense of Place, Urban

Preservation and Renewal in Kyoto”, Kyoto Journal

4/1987, p. 19.

88 Masafumi Yamasaki, Shin Miyako no Sakigake (1990).89 Kyoto City and People in Transition, p. 91.

Chapter 1190 On the subject, among others, Veeser and Hunt.91 Hubbard, Philip, “The value of conservation”, Town

Planning Review 64(4), 1993, p. 365.92 Per Kirkeby, p.42.93 Mrs. Sugiura, a talk between her and the author.94 Harsha, Munasinghe, Urban Conservation and City

Life, Case Study of the Port City of Galle, Acta

Universitatis Ouluensis, Oulu 1998, p. 55.95 Australian Heritage Commission, What is Social

Value?, p. 6.96 The Old Capital (San Francisco: North Point Press

1987), p. 77.97 Ito Teiji, Koji Nishikawa, “Japan, Two Ancient

Capitals and the Menace to Them” in The

Conservation of Cities, p. 122. The irony is that most

of the everyday buildings that have been

protected and preserved so far, are actually,

museums.98 Dr. Shintani 1992, commenting on the problems in

the listing system.99 Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American

Cities, p. 193.

Chapter 12100 Dr. Shintani, commenting on the difficulties in the

fieldwork and documentation in 1992.101 As architect George Woolston described the

phenomenon in “Popularisation of building

inventory procedures”, in Anu Ahoniemi (ed.),

Conservation Training - Needs and Ethics (ICOMOS -

CIF Training Committee Meeting Suomenlinna

Helsinki Finland 12.-17.6.1995), p. 172.

Chapter 13102 Recently among others, Leon Pressoyre: La

Convention du Patrimoine mondial, vingt ans apres

(Paris:Editions Unesco 1993). Referred by Larsen in

“Authenticity in the Context of World Heritage:

Japan and the Universal” in Knut Einar Larsen and

Nils Marstein (eds), Conference on Authenticity in

Relation to the World Heritage Convention (Tapir

Forlag 1994), p. 65. This idea was also discussed in

269

the author’s licenciate thesis (Helsinki: Helsinki

University of Technology1989).103 Nobuko Inaba, “What is meant by ‘Another

Approach’ to Conservation?” in Anu Ahoniemi (ed),

Conservation Training - Needs and Ethics (Helsinki

1995), p. 152.104 Knut Einar Larsen, “Authenticity in the Context of

World Heritage: Japan and the Universal”, p. 73.105 Ibid., p.72.106 Larsen gives an excellent analysis on the concept of

authenticity as it is understood and practised

throughout the building repair and conservation

process in Japan. See, Larsen, Architectural

Preservation in Japan (Trondheim: Tapir Publishers

1994).107 Eugene Benda, Kyoto City and People in Transition

(The Kyoto Museum 1991), in the preface to the

exhibition catalogue.108 Knut Einar Larsen, Nils Marstein (eds), Conference

on Authenticity in Relation to the World Heritage

Convention (Tapir Forlag 1994), pp. 35-64.109 Larsen, in “Authenticity in the context of world

heritage: Japan and the Universal”, p. 74.110 Herbert Stovel, “Cultural Diversity and the

Ethics of Conservation” in Anu Ahoniemi

(ed),Conservation Training - Needs and Ethics

(Helsinki 1995), p. 153.111 Koren, Leonard, Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets

and Philosophers (1994).112 Larsen, in “Authenticity in the context of world

heritage: Japan and the Universal”, p. 74.113 See, for example, the guide books that the Kyoto

City has published on historic preservation areas.

Also Yamasaki presents the principle of pattern

books in Kyoto Its Cityscape Traditions and Heritage

(Tokyo: Process Architecture No. 116, 1994). In

Finnish the material has been published in the

licentiate thesis of the author (Helsinki 1989).114 Masafumi Yamasaki, “On the Historic Townscape

Conservation Area in Kyoto” (Kyoto: Kyoto

University 1987), pp. 1,2.

Chapter 14115 ICOMOS (1987)- “First Brazilian Seminar about the

Preservation and Revitalization of Historic

Centres”. ICOMOS Brazilian Committee, Itaipava.

116 Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American

Cities, p. 198.117 Ibid., p. 197.118 David Lowenthal, The Past is a Foreign Country, p.

356.119 David Lowenthal, “Criteria of Authenticity”, p. 56.120 Hubbard, Philip, “The Value of Conservation”, Town

Planning Review 64(4), 1993, p. 365121 What is Social Value? Technical Publications Series

Number 3. Australian Heritage Commission

1994.122 Dr. Shintani 1992, the Cultural Heritage Office.

Chapter 15123 See, for instance, Kisho Kurokawa, Rediscovering

Japanese Space (Tokyo: Weatherhill 1988), p. 21.124 Naoki Tani et al., “Kinsei (Machi) Kyodotai ni Okeru

Toshikyoju Systemu ni Kansuru Kenkyu” (‘Research

on the Urban Dwelling System in the Pre-Modern

Period’), in Jutaku Sogo Kenkyu Zaipan Kenkyu Nenpo.

Toshi Jutaku, 16/1989.125 Outside the Yamahoko area the common facility is

found only in one neighbourhood, Matsubara Naka

no Machi.126 The lack of common facility was actually evidence

of the overall collapse of the cho community.127 According to the Yamahoko inventory the common

facility served as the exhibition facility in 22

Yamahoko communities.128 In the Yamahoko survey a great variety of functions

was identified such as public gathering place,

festival management, working space or flower

arrangement classroom.129 An important source for the Yamahoko

documentation was provided by the measurement

works and architectural historic surveys by Prof.

Tani, who surveyed the common facilities in the

mid 1970s.130 According to the Yamahoko survey these

communities were: Kankohokocho,

Niwatorihokocho, Hakurakutencho, Eboshacho,

Koromotanacho.131 This was the situation in 1993. Three years later, in

1996, the conservationists had won the fight for

protection. The structures had been carefully

repaired and they were in excellent condition.

270

132 The common facilities of Hokahoko, Mosoyama,

Araretenjinyama, Hoshoyama.

Chapter 16133 Bruno Taut, Houses and People of Japan, p. 236.134 Gallian has recorded the history of the family in her

doctoral thesis. A wooden plate from the construction

ceremony is preserved. According to this plate the

ceremony took place on 23.4.1870. Claire Gallian,

L’Evolution du Mode d’Habiter et ses Consequenses pour

la Protection du Patrimoine Architectural et Urban au

Japon (Kyoto: Kyoto University 1989), p. 38.135 Mr. Sugimoto1992, when the author visited the house.

Chapter 17136 Louis Frederick, Daily Life in Japan at the time of the

Samurai, 1185-1603 (Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle

Company 1988), p. 59.137 Edwin O. Reischauer, p. 101.138 Yasunari Kawabata, The Old Capital (San Fransisco:

The North Point Press 1987), p. 81-82 .139 Illustration of the Gion Festival 1596-1658.140 Historical Record on the Gion Festival 1757.

Chapter 18141 From average 192.5 inhabitants per neighbourhood

in 1960 to 75.9 inhabitants per neighbourhood

in1990.142 Altogether 27 new apartment buildings were built

in the D-group of neighbourhoods. The total

number of new apartment buildings in the hoko

neighbourhoods in 1992 was 32.143 Koromotanacho, Shijocho, Ubayanagicho excluded.

Source: Dwelling Standard Register.

Chapter 19144 Kawa means leather.145 Shiryo. Kyoto no Rekishi (Kyoto: Heibonsha 1981), pp.

6-17.146 Kyoto Shi no Chi Mei (Tokyo: Heibonsha 1979).147 Kuya, also called Koya was a monk of the Tendai

school of Buddhism who lived in 903-972. He entered

the priesthood at an early age, and wandered about

the country, building bridges, digging wells etc. While

urging people to recite Buddha Amida’s name.

H. Inagaki, A Dictionary of Japanese Buddhist Terms

(Kyoto: Nagata Bunshodo 1984).148 The author used the same classification methods

and categories as used by the Nishikawa laboratory

in the four historic districts.149 The author sorted the shops into five categories: 1)

restaurants and cafes, 2) shops in the field of

traditional industries, 3) food shops and 4) other.

There were: five restaurants or cafes; two shops

in the field of traditional industries (the articles

were umbrellas and Nishijin textile bags), four food

shops. Other listed products were: thread,

raincoats, electric equipment, hearing-aids,

pharmacy, cigarettes, men’s shirts and flags. In

addition, one ‘Sewing Academy’, one kiosk and

three barbers or hairdressers were recorded.150 Masafumi Yamasaki, “On the Historic Townscape

Conservation Area in Kyoto” (Kyoto: Kyoto

University 1987), p. 2.151 Edward Morse, Japanese Homes and Their


Tuttle Co., 1986), p. 251.

Chapter 20152 Kyo no Sumai. Chiiki to Bunkazai to Shite no Minka

(Kyoto: The Cultural Heritage Office of Kyoto City

1993). The houses portrayed in the book were: the

Kobayashi, Matsumoto, Naka, Nakae 1 and Nakae 2

houses.153 In Kyoto the business is known as kobon some.154 With an attached writing alcove, shoin.155 Dr. Shintani, commenting on the architecture of the

house 1992 .156 In Japanese: kyo some ginsai kugei.157 In Kyoto known as kofuku no roshi.158 191 cm x 95.5 cm.159 not uranagaya, the back street nagaya161 Information of Mrs. Sugiura; also see Edwin O.

Reischauer on the land reform programme in Japan

in 1947-49, p. 234.

162The youngest daughter married and moved away in

1994.

Chapter 21163 Screens which are owned by the hoko

neighbourhoods and preservation organizations

were outside this study.

271

164 sumie: literally ink painting165 In 1991 51 displays were investigated. In 1992 the

number was 47. In this research we noted the

total number of different displays, in other words

56 displays.166 Masuhiko Hayakawa, Gion Matsuri ni Okeru Byobu

Kazarini Kansuru Kenkyu (Kyoto: Kyoto University

1978), p. 21.167 In 1977 14 structures were of traditional

townhouse, machiya style, five had shop sign,

kanban facades, one was rebuilt in the townhouse

style, six were office buildings and four other

structures. ibid., p. 16.168 Mr. Kojiro Yoshida 1993, commenting on the recent

history of the Screen Festival when I visited his

house in Rokkakucho.169 “Machiya o butai mitai ni okasete soko wa Byobu

Matsuri no hitotsu no ookina imi o sagashite miooka...“

Dr. Iwama 1993.170 Mr. Sugiura1992, talk with the author.171 Mr. Kojiro Yoshida, as he said in our interview in

1993.172 Edward Morse, Japanese Homes and Their


Tuttle Co. 1986), p. 316.173 Mr. Matsuuma in 1991 during the site survey in his

house.174 Mr. Imae, in 1992 when the author surveyed the

display.

Chapter 22175 David Lowenthal, in The Past is a Foreign Country, p.

356.176 Laura Tuominen, 1900-luvun rakennusperintö.

Luettelointi- ja suojelukysymyksiä. Helsinki:

Ympäristöministeriö (‘The 20th Century Built

Heritage. Preservation and Listing Issues’ Ministry

of Environment, Report), 8/1992, p. 63. Tuominen

gives an excellent summary of the value criteria

and listing systems heritage authorities currently

use in different countries.177 Ibid., p. 63.178 Strike, James, Architecture in Conservation, Managing

Development at Historic Sites, p.14.179 Giovanni Peternolli, “The Image of Kyoto“, Kyoto in

the Fifties as Seen by Fosco Maraini, p. 30.

180 There has been increasing apprehension about the

future of Kyoto’s architectural heritage amongst

the international preservation community. One

concrete expression of the international debate is,

for example, the ‘Save Kyoto Movement’.181 Soetsu Yanagi, The Unknown Craftsman - A Japanese

Insight into Beauty (Tokyo: Kodansha International

1982), p. 155.182 Alessi 1994, in an interview in Vogue Interior, the

number of issue unidentified.183 For more on the subject, see Christer Bengs

“Kaupunki korjausrakentamisen kohteena”,

Korjausrakentamisen tutkimusohjelma 1986- 88 (‘City

as Subject of Renovation. Research Program for

1986-88’). Helsinki: Valtion Teknillinen

Tutkimuskeskus (The State Research Center) 1989.184 Masafumi Yamasaki, “Historic Urban Environment

with Historic Suburban nature for Livable City”,

International Seminar on Innovative Planning Strategies

for Metropolitan Development and Conservation

(Kyoto: Symposium of World Heritage Cities 1992).185 Junichiro Tanizaki, In Praise of Shadows (Rutland,

Vermont & Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1988) , p. 18.186 Julia Kristeva, Muukalaisia itsellemme (Gaudeamus

1992), p. 21.187 Kojiro Yoshida, his comment on the urban

preservation 1993.188 Charles Jencks, The Language of Postmodern Architecture

(London: 1984) p. 127. quoted David Harvey in The

Condition of Postmodernity : an enquiry into the origins

of cultural change (Oxford: Blackwell 1990).189 David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An

Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change (Oxford:

Blackwell 1989), p. 301.190 City Planning Symposium “Kyoto - City and People

in Transition”. Kyoto 29.11.1991.191 Robert Hewison, The Heritage Industry: Britain in a

Climate of Decline (London: Methuen 1987), p. 135,

quoted in David Harvey, The Condition of

Postmodernity : an enquiry into the origins of cultural

change (Oxford: Blackwell 1990), p. 62.

Please note: notes 11, 17, 18, 19 are to be found in

chapter 10 and note 12 in chapter 2.

272

17

273

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Architectural et Urban au Japon. Ph.D.Thesis. Kyoto

University. Faculty of Architecture 1989.

Hayakawa, Masuhiko, Gion Matsuri ni Okeru Byobu

Kazari ni Kansuru Kenkyu. M. of Eng. Thesis. Kyoto

University. Faculty of Architecture 1978.

Munasinghe, Harsha, Urban Conservation and City Life.

Case Study of Port City of Galle. Acta Universitatis

Ouluensis C Technica 115. University of Oulu

(Finland) 1998.

Nakamura, Jun, Rekishiteki Toshi ni Okeru Chiiki

Community ni Kansuru Kenkyu -Kyoto Shi Toshinbu,

Yamahokocho oyobi sono Shuhen o Jirei to Shite. M. of

Eng. Thesis. Kyoto University. Faculty of

Architecture 1992.

Nakao, Tatsuo, Toshin Chiiki ni Okeru Sorin-Kinrin-Kankei

kara Mita Rekishiteki Kankyo no Hozon ni Kansuru

Kenkyu. M. of Eng. Thesis. Kyoto University. Faculty

of Architecture 1992.

Salastie, Riitta, Kioton kaupunkirakenne ja

ympäristötyypit. Licentiate thesis. Helsinki University

of Technology (Finland) 1989.

Tanaka, Toshihiro, Toshi Sairei ni Okeru Kukan no Riyu to

Enshutsu - Kyoto, Gion Matsuri o Jirei to Shite. M. of

Eng. Thesis. Kyoto University. Faculty of

Architecture 1992.

PUBLISHED MAPS, CHARTS AND OTHER

PRINTED MATERIAL

City guide maps.

Geishinsha’s Chronological Chart of World Cultural

History. Tokyo: Geishinsha 1983.

Gion Festival guide maps and tourist pamphlets.

Inazu, Kintaro ed., Kyoto-shi oyobi setsuzoku cho¯son

chisekizu (‘The Land Register Map. Kyoto and

Environs’). Kyoto 1912. The publisher

unidentified.

Kotama, K., ed., Nihonshi nenhyo chizu (‘Tables and

Charts of Japanese History’). Tokyo: Yoshikobunkan,

2nd ed. 1996.

Kyoto City Planning Department: Ground maps and

city planning maps.

Kyoto Fu Bunka Zai Hogo Kikin ed., Kyoto no Bunka

Zai Chizu Cho (‘Map on the Cultural Assets of

Kyoto’). Kyoto: Nihon Shashin Insatsu Co. 1984.

Kyoto Journal 1987-1993.

Nihon Meisho Fuzoku Zufu. Tokyo: 1979.

SURVEY REPORTS, PRINTED MATERIAL

PUBLISHED BY THE CITY OF KYOTO

Kyoto City Planning. Introduction in English to Master

Plan documents. Kyoto City 1984.

Kamigamo Machinami Chosahokaku (‘Survey Report

on Kamigamo Building Group’). City Planning

Department 1978.

Kyoto City - The Road towards a Healthy Environment.

City Council of Kyoto 1991.

278

Kyoto no Machinami. Gion Shimbashi Dentoteki

Kenzobutsu Gun Hozon Chiku Hen. Kenchiku Yoshiki

Sanko Tosho. City Planning Department 1977.

Kyo no Sumai. Chiiki to Bunkazai to Shite no Minka

(‘Dwelling in Kyoto. Historic Urban Dwellings as

Local Landmarks’). Cultural Heritage Office

1993.

Kyoto1200th Celebration. Tradition and Creation.

Heiankyo 1200th Anniversary Memorial Foundation

1993.

Kyoto Shi no Bunkazai - Kyoto Shi Shitei-Toroku Bunkazai

Dai Kyu Shu (‘The Cultural Assets of Kyoto City’).

Cultural Heritage Office 1992.

Machiya Kata Kyodo Ju taku Kenkyu kai ed., Machiya

Kata Kyodo Jutaku no Kaihatsu to Moderu Kensetsu

Sokushin ni Kansuru Chosa Kenkyu. Housing

Department 1992.

Outline of the New Master Plan of Kyoto City.

Developing Kyoto in the Heisei Era - Toward a Core

Capital Culture. City Council of Kyoto 1993.

Saga Torii Moto. Saga Torii Moto Dentoteki Kenzobutsu

Gun Hozon Chiku. City Planning Department 1985.

Sanneizaka. Preservation Area for Groups of

Historic Buildings. City Planning Department

1984.

UNPUBLISHED MATERIAL

Kitani, Koji, A Study on the Practical Use of Common

Space During Festival - Gion Matsuri 1990:

Habitation in Central Districts Evaluated through

the Urban Festival. Kyoto University 1991.

Koseki, Rikiya, On Bruno Taut’s Proportion (a

manuscript received from. Dr. Periäinen).

Nakamura, Jun, A Study on Town Communities in

Urban Central Districts - Gion Matsuri 1990:

Habitation in Central Districts Evaluated through

the Urban Festival. Kyoto University 1991.

Nakao, Tatsuo, A Study on Use Form of Urban Blocks

in Town Festival - Gion Matsuri 1990: Habitation in

Central District Evaluated through Urban Festival.

Kyoto University 1991.

Tanaka, Toshihiro, The Meaning of the Urban Festival

in the Urban Study -Gion Matsuri 1990: Habitation

in Central Districts evaluated through the Urban

Festival. Kyoto University 1991.

Yamasaki, Masafumi, On the Historic Townscape

Conservation Area in Kyoto. Kyoto University 1987.

MUNICIPAL REGISTERS

The land register of the Shimogyo district.

PRIVATE ARCHIVES

Home archive of Mr. and Mrs. Sugiura, dwelling

owner’s archive, Kyoto

Home archive of Mr. Takuji Segawa, noodle restaurant

owner’s archive, Kyoto

Author’s archive, Helsinki, measured drawings of 98

buildings 1990-1993;

Photograps of Kyoto 1990-1996; field study notes,

1990-1996

INTERVIEWS

Mr. Fukuyama. Kimono dealer and designer.

Displaying person. Kyoto.

Mr. Ida. Lawyer. Kyoto.

Mr. Imae. Kimono dealer. Displaying person. Kyoto.

Mr. and Mrs. Ito. Landowner and his wife. Retired.

Kyoto.

Ms. Tomoko Izumita. Landscape architect. Tokyo.

Ms. Iwama. Art historian. Associate Professor. The

Setsunan University. Osaka.

Mr. Hiroshi Kyogoku. Photographer. Tokyo.

Mr. Lim Bon. Architect. Kyoto University.

Masaya Masui. Associate Professor. Nara Women’s

University.

Mr. and Mrs. Matsumoto. Kimono artisans. Kyoto.

Mr. Matsuuma. Kimono dealer. Displaying person.

Kyoto.

Mrs. Morii. Wife of a kimono artisan. Displaying

person. Kyoto.

Mr. Naka. Retired. Kyoto.

Mr. and Mrs. Nakae. Kimono dealer and his wife.

Kyoto.

Dr. Tapio Periäinen. Architect. Helsinki.

Mr. Takuji Segawa. Resident. Naginatahokocho.

Kyoto.

Dr. Akira Shintani. Researcher. The Cultural

Heritage Office. Kyoto.

279

Mr. Sugimoto. Professor in French Literature. Kyoto.

Mr. and Mrs. Sugiura. Kimono artisans. Displaying

persons. Shinkamanzacho. Kyoto.

Naoki Tani. Associate Professor. Osaka City

University. Osaka.

Masafumi Yamasaki. Professor. Kyoto.

Mr. Kojiro Yoshida. Artist. Displaying person. Kyoto.

281

Illustration Sources

CGM, City Guide Map

CHO, Cultural Heritage Office of Kyoto City

GFM, The Gion Festival Guide Map

HK, Hiroshi Kyogoku

CPD, Kyoto City Planning Department

WS, Kyoto Waga Sanga, Kyoto Shinbunsha, 1981:

aerial photo of Kyoto in Part III

HM, Hiroshi Mimura

RS, Riitta Salastie

TS, Home archive of Taguchi Segawa

SS, Home archive of Mr. and Mrs. Sugiura

KB, Yasuhiko Tanaka, Kyo Bojo, Kyoto: Ky o

kataru kai 1974

WT, W.R. Tingey, The Principal Elements of

Machiya Design in Process Architecture, n:o 25,

1988

YT, Yamahoko team

MY, Masafumi Yamasaki

Calligraphic works: Shingai Tanaka

If not otherwise indicated, photographs by the author.