Examination of the concept of Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) in the Japanese context through a case study of the City of Kyoto, Japan

Ref.: 222
Key theme: 03 Visual integrity of historic urban landscapes
Date of reception: 25/10/2008

AUTHORS (*Main author)

JIMURA, Takamitsu * (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) - York St John University

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) concept in terms of visual integrity in the Japanese context through the examination of the City of Kyoto as a representative of historic cities in Japan.

The City of Kyoto is the ancient capital of Japan. 15 monuments in the City were inscribed as a cultural World Heritage Site in 1994 and they are scattered around the City. Intriguingly, however, none of them and their surrounding zones is designated on the World Heritage List as definite areas such as historic centres, which are mainly observed in Europe. This is because, each district which has such a historic monument also has modern buildings and they are completely mixed up within the district. Therefore, the district cannot be seen to have visual integrity. In the researcher's opinion, a HUL should be much larger than such districts or historic centres, and still needs to conserve its overall visual integrity. The City of Kyoto can satisfy the first requirement; however, it would not meet the second requirement.

When the concept of HUL is discussed in the Japanese context, however, the following issues peculiar to Japan need to be considered. These issues could be regarded as the reasons for poor visual integrity and for the existence of modern buildings which are not harmonised with nearby historic buildings.

Firstly, the climate during the reconstruction period following the Second World War needs to be addressed. The rapid economic growth of Japan started in the 1950s and the top priority was given to economic development. In other words, other important issues such as conservation of historic buildings were almost ignored. Secondly, in general Japanese people put more priority on being new than being old. Therefore, old buildings are usually demolished and replaced by new buildings. Moreover, most buildings are made of woods and Japan suffers from frequent earthquakes; hence, it is difficult to conserve original buildings for a long time. Lastly, as Spencer (1991) declares, in Japan nothing stands still for a moment and everything keeps changing. This view precisely grasps the essential attributes of Japanese culture and is deeply related to an ideology of Buddhism, impermanence (syogyo-mujo). Hence, even if the landscape which people had been familiar with totally changed, they could still cope with it.

As you can see from the above-mentioned points, the vital issue for Japanese people is not being "tangible" but being "intangible". Therefore, as far as the landscape of the City of Kyoto can make people feel "intangible" authenticity of the City as a whole, its landscape can be regarded as a HUL in the Japanese context, even if it does not have "tangible" visual integrity. In conclusion, the requirements to be regarded as a HUL are to satisfy the following all three, (1) and (2), or (1) and (3):
(1) Have much larger area than a district or historic centres in the city
(2) Successfully conserve its overall visual integrity
(3) Can make people feel "intangible" authenticity of the city as a whole.

REFERENCES

City of Kyoto (2008) New Landscape Policy [online]. Available at:
http://www.city.kyoto.lg.jp/tokei/soshiki/9-2-1-0-0_9.html (Accessed 24 January 2009).

Spencer, P. (1991) 'I see our future - and it's Japan'. The Mail on Sunday, 26 May 1991, p.17