Important Cultural Property Research Articles

STUDY ON RESTORATION AND PRESERVATION OF OYA STONE PARTS OF THE MYONICHIKAN

Jiyugakuen Myonichikan was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and his disciple Arata Endo. The Myonichikan was designated as an important cultural property in May 1997. Oya-stone is used extensively in the Myonichikan as well as in Imperial Hotel in Tokyo beacase it is soft enough in which to carve geometrical patterns. However it also deteriorates easily. Because the Myonichikan had become superannuated many parts of Oya-stone have deteriorated and there were structural problems. Therefore restoration work was conducted from 1999 to 2001. This paper arranges details of restoration according to various building structures where Oya-stone is used such as basements, columns, fireplace, chimney, etc. This will provide important data for restoration and preservation of buildings using Oya-stone.

Architectural Features the Main Hall of Takenami Shrine, an Important Cultural Property Designated by the National Government

Architectural Features the Main Hall of Takenami Shrine, an Important Cultural Property Designated by the National Government

Officials of the Afterworld: Ono no Takamura and the Ten Kings of Hell in the Chikurinji engi Illustrated Scrolls

Takamurayama Chikurinji engi emaki is a two-scroll emaki preserved at Chikurinji, a Shingon temple in Nyuno, Hiroshima prefecture, and dated to the Muromachi period. The first scroll of Chikurinji engi begins with the story of the founding of the temple by Gyoki; Ono no Takamura's mysterious birth; and the early stages of Takamura's life as a courtier. This paper focuses on the second of the two scrolls, which recounts the death of Takamura's father-inlaw, his tour through hell, and his encounter there with Takamura, identified as the third of the Ten Kings of Hell. In particular, the paper looks into the development of Takamura's hell-legend, as well as the juxtaposition in the second Chikurinji engi scroll of early medieval motifs of hell with the cult of the Ten Kings. My comparison of the scroll with other medieval Japanese visual and literary sources, such as setsuwa, hell paintings, and sculptures of the Ten Kings and Enma, reveals that the emaki illustrates a representation of the afterworld that is typical of images from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. keywords: Takamurayama Chikurinji engi emaki-Chikurinji-Ten Kings of Hell- Ono no Takamura-Enma-Hell Paintings (ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.) Takamurayama Chikurinji engi emaki ... (hereafter Chikurinji engi) is a two-scroll emaki preserved at Chikurinji, a Shingon temple in ..., Hiroshima prefecture, a place traditionally known as the birthplace of Ono no Takamura ?...1 The temple's main hall, which was completed in 1543, is designated today as an Important Cultural Property.2 The scrolls have been dated by scholars to the Muromachi period. A copy made in 1638 has also been preserved at Chikurinji; furthermore, the temple owns a set of three hanging scrolls dating from the mid- to late-Edo period, while a mid-Edo period copy of the text is presently in the possession of Hiroshima University. Chikurinji engi opens with the founding of the temple by ..., but much of it deals with the life of Ono no Takamura, who, according to the engi, was born mysteriously from a virgin who was a devotee of the temple. Though renowned as a courtier and scholar of the Heian period, Takamura is also famed for having been an at the Court of Enma in hell, and for having traveled freely between this world and the afterworld. In Chikurinji engi, he is identified as ..., the third of the Ten Kings of Hell who preside at the entrance of the afterworld assigning souls to one or another of the six realms of existence. This paper focuses on the second of the two Chikurinji engi scrolls in order to examine the evolution of Ono no Takamura's legend and images of hell in the late medieval period. In particular, I wish to look into the rather awkward juxtaposition of early medieval motifs with the cult of the Ten Kings as revealed in the scroll: in the earlier part, Enma ...? is presented in his court without the Ten Kings, but this is followed thereafter by an abrupt introduction of Takamura as the third official (...) with an emphasis on the Ten Kings. It is only through a close examination of the scrolls within the context of contemporary images of hell and the Ten Kings that this enigma can be explained. Chikurinji engi and the Medieval Narratives of Ono no Takamura Ono no Takamura (802-852) was a scholar, poet, and courtier of the early Heian period. He is known as the leading poet of his time, renowned particularly for his erudition in Chinese. Most interestingly, he appears in Heian- and Kamakuraperiod setsuwa ?... as an of Enma's court (Asano 1987; Matsumoto 1987; Tanaka 2002). Chikurinji engi reveals interesting developments that the Takamura legends pertaining to Enma and the Ten Kings had undergone by the late medieval period. The first Chikurinji engi scroll begins by telling of the founding of the temple by Gyoki. It then goes on to tell of the life of Ono no Takamura, beginning with his mysterious birth, his successful marriage to the daughter of the regent Ono no Yoshisuke (a. …

The Restoration of the Main Hall of Ryuhuku-ji Temple, an Important Cultural Property

The Restoration of the Main Hall of Ryuhuku-ji Temple, an Important Cultural Property

DIMENSIONAL RELATION BETWEEN RAFTER PLACEMENT AND BRACKET COMPLEX OF “NON-ROKUSHIGAKE” ARCHITECTURE

As for the relation between the rafter placement and the bracket complex, Rokushigake architecture, which is the combination of the outer surface of each block and the outer surface of the two rafters, is well known. However, there are quite a few non-Rokushigake Japanese shrines and temples designated as national treasure or important cultural properties. This paper will analyze the dimensional relation between the rafter placement and 3-on-1 bracket complex among the non-Rokushigake architecture. Consequently, it became clear that the outer surface of three-block bracket arms or its center are matched systematically with the inner surface of the rafter above and its center or the outer surface from the six-rafters placement to three-rafters placement.

On the Restoration of the Former Temiya Railway Facilities, an Important Cultural Property designated

On the Restoration of the Former Temiya Railway Facilities, an Important Cultural Property designated

From preservation repair project of the Shuedo of Chion-in Temple, an Important Cultural Property designated by the Japanese Government

From preservation repair project of the Shuedo of Chion-in Temple, an Important Cultural Property designated by the Japanese Government

Materials, Skills and Cultural Resources: Onta Folk Art Pottery Revisited

This article looks at a variety of issues surrounding the use of skills and materials in the production of Onta pottery, a style of Japanese mingei, or “folk art,” whose methods of production have now been designated an Important Intangible Cultural Property by the Japanese Government's Agency for Cultural Affairs. It relates how a fall-off in market demand has threatened the continued manufacture of traditional forms, and, as a consequence, the throwing skills that underpin them. It also describes how various external developments, beyond the potters' control, have affected their access to natural glaze materials, before showing the potential consequences these developments have on Onta pottery's designation as a traditional cultural form. Its particular theoretical concern is with the ways in which cultural resources are appropriated by and negotiated among various actors, including the potters themselves, critics, aesthetes, government officials, marketing agents, and consumers.

東京都の歴史的建造物とその敷地用途の関係に関する研究

We attempt to consider the preservation of historic architecture from the features of the sites where the historic architectures locate to realize the architectural preservation issue in urban context.In terms of methodology, we first specify the site, site size and site use for each of 628 historic architectures reserved as "the important cultural properties" and "the registered tangible cultural properties" by Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Tokyo Metropolitan Government Board of Education and other cities' Board of Education in Tokyo Prefecture. Then we study interrelation between the historic architectures' data, as the registered year, the preservation institute, the original function and the present function, and their sites' data of size and use. The results are follows. There are 369 sites for 628 historic architectures at present in Tokyo prefecture. 147 sites, the largest number of the site use, are use for the temples and shrines. The historic architectures which have not changed their function are 486, and those have changed are 112. The sites use for the historic architectures that changed their function show a tendency to park and cultural use. Lastly, we propose the possibility of preservation of historic architectures through the control of site use policy.

居住用の西洋館内部の色彩傾向―長崎・神戸・横浜の重要文化財を中心として

This investigation was conducted for the purpose of clarifying the tendency of the indoor color of the Western-style houses, mainly in the important cultural property specified in Nagasaki, Kobe, and Yokohama.The findings are stated as follows.1) Walls and Ceilings are mainly finished with high-brightness and low-chroma plaster, or with plaster and wallpapers of pastel color.2) Flooring are made of wood or put down a carpet in low-brightness tone.3) Skirtings are stained in dark tone or painted in light beige and light green.4) Many kind of colors are used in the Western-style houses, as many kind of styles and designs are used.5) These tendencies are similar to those of the present.

The materials diverted from the former main hall erected in the Heian period to the present main hall of the Myō'ōin Temple, an important cultural property designated by the Japanese Government

The materials diverted from the former main hall erected in the Heian period to the present main hall of the Myō'ōin Temple, an important cultural property designated by the Japanese Government

Sen’s capability approach applied to the identification of new heritage value: empirical study on the effects of flood control project

The effects of the flood control project of the Kakehashi River on the heritage value of Komatsu Tenmangu (a Shinto shrine) in Japan are analyzed in terms of Amartya Sen’s capability approach. The shrine was founded in 1657, and its main buildings are nationally designated “important cultural properties” such that its historical location is to be conserved by an embankment encircling the shrine. Qualitative and reflective exercises of the shrine’s functionings revealed a new heritage value in which intangible cultural heritage of traditional ritual and currently forgotten memories of political thought were embodied in newly found tangible heritage such as the consistent positional patterns of the shrine buildings in relation to the winter solstice sunrise and to the 15-story stone tower. The article also clarifies the rationale for an adequate buffer zone around a historic place by explaining how the risk of external diseconomy inflicted on the shrine entity’s capability was dealt with in a precautionary way.

On the major repair with complete dismantlement at the Ôguri and Kamaya of Zendoji Temple, an Important Cultural Property designated by the Japanese Government

On the major repair with complete dismantlement at the Ôguri and Kamaya of Zendoji Temple, an Important Cultural Property designated by the Japanese Government

On the Restoration Work at IKUWA JINJA MASSHA KASUGA JINJA MAIN HALL, an Important Cultural Property Designated by the Japanese Government

On the Restoration Work at IKUWA JINJA MASSHA KASUGA JINJA MAIN HALL, an Important Cultural Property Designated by the Japanese Government

実大木造軸組み架構の耐震補強実験

In Japan, there are many old and historically valuable buildings. They should be preserved as cultural properties. Most of them, however, do not have enough seismic capacity according to the current building code. They need to be retrofitted but with minimum change to the original building, since they are cultural properties. A wooden building located in Zentsuji city, Kagawa, is nominated to be one of the national important cultural properties, but is evaluated that it does not have enough seismic capacity. In order to strengthen the building, a new retrofitting technique to glue new triangle frames into existing frames is proposed, and loading tests on full scale wooden frames are conducted to demonstrate the performance of the proposed technique. The test results shows that the proposed technique can increase effectively the strength and energy dissipation capability.

On the Restoration of Honden (the Main Sanctuary) of Iwaya Shrine, an Important Cultural Property designated by the Japanese Government

On the Restoration of Honden (the Main Sanctuary) of Iwaya Shrine, an Important Cultural Property designated by the Japanese Government

Growth and Development of the Conservation Profession: A Matter of Degrees

The conservation community in the United States has systematically and progressively professionalized the field of conservation. While this accomplishment is noteworthy, the field is now challenged with building its membership, acquiring continued support from related communities that advocate conservation concepts, and effectively preserving important cultural property throughout the United States. Because professional groups involved with the preservation of cultural property have been experiencing loss of members for several years, there is justification in reassessing degrees of similarity and ultimately considering unification of those involved with the preservation of cultural property for the benefit of society.

Les pots de médicament de Yakushi Bouddha (bouddha de la guérison) au Japon

The origin of Yakushi buddha (Bhaisajyaguru in Sanscrit, buddha of healing) is not clearly known. It has been proposed the original statue of Yakushi buddha may have been conceived from Varna, a god in Brahminism, believed to be a god of justice who possessed medicines and prolonged life. It is believed that Yakushi buddha appeared in Japan when the buddhism was imported from Korea and China in VI century, Yakushi buddha was believed more profoundly in Japan, compared with Korea and China.The reasons are probably as follows: Yakushi buddha is buddha of healing, Emperor Temmu (672-685) built Yakushi-ji temple in Nara, Emperor Shomu (724-749) built Kokubun-ji temples at principal towns. The principal statues of buddha in these temples are Yakushi buddha. In Japan, there are 252 Yakushi Buddha statues in Buddhistical Temples, which are listed in Important Cultural Property including 14 National Treasures. Belief in Yakushi Buddha was especially prevalent from the 7th to the 13th centuries in Japan. The oldest wooden Yakushi Buddha statue is in the Horin-ji temple in Nara. Among the 252 Yakushi Buddha statues, 224 are in wood, 15 are in copper, 6 are in picture and etc. 212 (84,1%) have medicinal pots (or rarely, a bowl) on the palm of left hand. However, these medicinal containers are wooden blocks. Very recently, it was found that Yakushi Buddha statue in the Suho-Kokubun-ji temple (Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan) has a medicinal pot on the palm of the left hand in which an offering (220 g materials) was found. The date on the reverse side of lid places the offering at October 12, 1699. The offering is composed of five cereals (rice, barley, wheat, soybean, adzuki bean), five medicinal plants (Acori Graminei, Acori Calami, Radix Ginseng, Flos Caryophylli, Lignum Santali Albi), and five minerals (rock crystals, purple and blue glasse, CaCO3, particles, silver and golden foils). DNA analysis proved those three randomly selected seeds of rice all belongs to the template japonica, which is predominant in the present variety of Japan.

1014 重要文化財に指定された「123号機関車」の来歴とその産業技術史的意義(S91-3 機械技術史・工学史(3),S91 機械技術史・工学史)

An English-made No.123 old steam engine was designated the Japanese Natural Important Cultural Properties in June 2005. This old steam engine that was made in 1873 at the Robert Stephenson & Co., Newcastle upon Tyne is now preserving at the Kaya Steam Locomotive Plaza, in the Kyoto Prefecture. It is the oldest and famous locomotive builder in the world. In 1843, this famous builder invented well-known "Stephenson type valve gear system" and this system contributed to the modern other valve gear design method. This No.123 steam engine was mainly used in the Kyoto-Kobe railway transportation business of the I.G.R.J., in those days of the Meiji Era. In this report, a short history of the No.123 steam engine and its historical significance of industrial technology are described.

The Investigation of the Initial Design and the Constructing Method in the Restoration Work at the Kokawa-dera Daimon, an Important Cultural Property

The Investigation of the Initial Design and the Constructing Method in the Restoration Work at the Kokawa-dera Daimon, an Important Cultural Property