Inspection by an expert of the local authority
In mid-February, I contacted the Oyodo B oard of Education, hoping that the tea house could be selected as a “Registered Tangible Cultural Property”. The tea house clings to the side of the small mountain behind our main house. My mum told me that it had been built more than a century ago, before my great-grandmother had settled there. The annex for tea ceremony had been originally owned by a wealthy person named Mr. Okita, but his family was moved to Tokyo, and we don’t where they are now at all. As described later, there are some categories of cultural properties, in any case, it’s suggested to first contact the municipality(*), where the property is located. Further destination and procedures depend on the opinion of and appraisement by officials in charge of cultural property. (*)Japan has three levels of governments: 1) national; 2) prefectural; and 3) municipal. Anyway, I sent a message via the contact form of the relevant division. Surprisingly I got a respon...