Inspection by an expert of the local authority
In mid-February, I contacted the Oyodo Board 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.
(*)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 response much earlier than expected, and made an appointment smoothly. I’m working as a public officer as well, but the officials there are apparently more diligent than us.
REGISTERED CULTURAL PROPERTIES
The Japanese national government mainly
provides two categories of cultural property: 1) Designated Cultural Properties;
and 2) Registered Tangible Cultural Properties. The former is entitled to more
generous public assistance, but difficult to be selected.
In the website of the Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan, “Registered Tangible Cultural Properties (structures) is introduced as follows:
On October 1, 1996, the Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties was amended, and a cultural property registration system was introduced in addition to the existing designation system. Under the new system, the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology shall register architectural and other structural properties which are in particular need of measures for protection and utilization as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties.
This system was designed to protect and pass down widely-varying modern cultural properties of social value, that are endangered due to lifestyle changes, as well as national land and urban development. It includes moderate protection based on notification, instruction, and advice and serves as a supplementary measure to the traditional designation system that is based on careful selection, a permission requirement and other tighter regulations, and strict protection.
(see https://www.bunka.go.jp/english/policy/cultural_properties/introduction/ )
The effects of the registration are: 1) some financial support (sadly not extravagant); 2) the reduction of property and inheritance tax; and 3) technical advice from the national authority...after all, a miserable benefit. For example, however, some Japanese inns snare customers by saying ”you can stay at the registered cultural property”.
INSPECTION
On the morning of March 29, 2019, I headed off to
Yoshino by Shinkansen bullet train. The meeting with Mr. Matsuda, an expert of
the local authority, lasted about an hour. Here are the findings:
- How the house can be used is key for the registration of the property. In this regard, the circumstances around the town are better than I thought. Not only the expert of the authority, but some residents are also interested in the preservation and utilization of the local cultural properties (They are often regarded as just old and worthless in local regions).
- The annex has limited value as a building structure. (an
original mud wall was replaced by modernistic materials, and that deteriorated
the value of the property, my mum had said.)
- Got information on Mr. Okita.
My mum told the annex had been originally owned by Mr.
Okita, but we didn’t know who he was, and so we thought we were unable to know
the history around the annex. But actually he, Mr. Sakujiro OKITA, is a
politician of the Meiji era, the godfather of the town.
- THE BIGGEST DISCOVERY is antique
documents hidden inside the fusumas (*). Fusuma, Japanese paper doors with
wooden frameworks, are in the past reinforced by stuffing up with old or
spoiled documents (paper was valuable material in days of old).
(*) According to Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusuma):
In Japanese
architecture, fusuma are vertical rectangular panels which can slide from side
to side to redefine spaces within a room, or act as doors. … They consist of a
lattice-like wooden understructure covered in cardboard and a layer of paper or
cloth on both sides. They typically have a black lacquer border and a round
finger catch.
 |
| The paper doors |
ANTIQUE DOCUMENTS
Handwriting a century years ago is totally
different from that of today and very difficult to read. I could neither read
them nor recognize whether they are letters or not. But Mr. Matsuda read them on-site and guessed when these documents were written by using names of places as
clues: maybe 150 years ago. In the Meiji era (1868-1912), amid the upheaval
after the end of Seclusionism (the Japanese national isolation) from the early
17th to the mid 19th century, the names of places and authorities to
manage these places had been changed at a hectic pace.
Having contained in the Fusumas, they’re apparently in a good condition, fresh for their age, as if produced 30 years ago. Mr. Matsuda told that maybe they could lead to important findings, and therefore suggested keeping them in a safe place. But where should I store them without special facilities? So I left them in the annex falling into decay for the time being.
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