C O N T E X T 9 7 : N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 6 27 relies to a great extent on the goodwill of their owners. Under Japanese law, cultural properties are ‘the possessions of the Japanese people’. Accordingly the law considers that their preservation is entrusted mainly to their direct owners. The role of national and local government is to take measures to protect cultural properties by giving advice, orders for their proper management and grants for repair. The cultural exchange programme was an intensive mix of field visits, symposia and receptions. The field visits to heritage sites included historic wet and dry docks in Yokohama City, which have been integrated into the modern city, and red-brick warehouses of 1910, which have been restored and converted to cultural, retail and leisure uses; the enviable National Research Institute for Cultural Properties in Tokyo; the reinforcement of the 8th century timber Todai-ji Temple in Nara with an inserted steel frame made in the UK’s Shelton Steelworks in around 1910; the world’s oldest timber building at Horyu-ji Temple; and solemn contemplation in Kobe at the memorial for the 6,000 who died in the earthquake of 1995, and to admire the incredible reconstruction of the port, the city and the waterfront and its dazzling night-time illumination. At a symposium at the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties in Tokyo, Keith Falconer gave a presentation on the UK’s industrial heritage and its representation on the world heritage list; John Rodger discussed protection, promotion and community regeneration at Blaenavon industrial landscape world heritage site; and I gave a presentation on conservation and adaptive re-use at the Liverpool maritime mercantile city world heritage site. At a symposium in Gunma, attended by around 130 Japanese practitioners, students and others parties, the same presenters spoke respectively about the sustainable re-use of historic industrial sites in England; industrial heritage networking, with reference to the European Route of Industrial Heritage; and the Historic Environment of Liverpool Project (HELP) and the RopeWalks Project. My abiding personal memories of the exchange programme are the efficiency, cleanliness, complexity and extent of the public transport system; the respect of the Japanese people for each other, at least as individuals, and for their environment; the massive scale of urbanisation, with miniscule apartments, capsule hotels, plot cramming and stacker car parks; and the healthy diet. From a professional viewpoint, one of the lessons related to the difference in approaches to authenticity. UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee agreed the Nara Document on Authenticity at its meeting in Nara in 1994. This statement is still the definitive international word on authenticity and integrity, and the benchmark for much decision-making. It is therefore curious that Japan sometimes adopts an approach to the authenticity of its historic environment which is less rigorous than might be expected. For example, the 77-storey Landmark Tower inYokohama (the tallest in Japan) has seemingly been built on the axis of an historic dry dock, is visually stunning and has the appearance of being a perfect architectural response to archaeology. But the authenticity of the dock is questionable as its stepped walls have had restaurant windows and doors inserted in them, and the dock was relocated and fore-shortened to fit the construction of the tower. The Bank Art exhibition space inYokohama appears to be a good example of adaptive re-use of a former bank, and certainly provides a popular and attractive gallery. But it is not authentic, as only the front porch of the bank is original, and even that has been moved 200 metres. The 19th century rendered house in Kobe city centre appears to be a well-preserved example of a western-style house, but it was completely destroyed in the earthquake of 1995 and has been accurately rebuilt on earthquake-proof rubber springs. Many of the ancient timber temples, shrines and pagodas have been dismantled, comprehensively repaired and/or relocated over the centuries. The conservation project at Toshodai-ji Temple in An attic extension to an historic building, Kobestyle A ten-year reconstruction and restoration project at Toshodai
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