Műemlék-helyreállítások tegnap, ma, holnap (A 27. Egri Nyári Egyetem előadásai 1997 Eger, 1997)

Előadások - Herb STOVEL: The interpretation of authenticity in Japan

scapes in ways that are special to us. Without asking farmers to remain forever in the 19th century in their practices. Just to summarize, the purpose of the examplex to reinforce, emphasize the value in our own thinking of trying to strengthen the links between the attributes where we look for authenticity and the values which are the beginning of the process. It is obbvious that our traditional concern from material and form, and to look at some of these other more difficult to assess, to understand attributes and to ask what role they might need to play in our decision making. Japan. I try to very briefly summarize the main ideas that I think characterize conservation practice in Japan and which are important to understand their approach to authenticity, I am not an expert in Japanese conservation. I have had good fortune to spend 5 or 6 weeks in Japan studying conservation so I have learnt something of their approach. However, certain ideas emerge very quickly when looking at what happens in Japan in the name of conservation. The first thing to realize - and this is somehow discouraging - that when you talk to the Japanese about authenticity, they have difficulty. Because there is no single word which corresponds precisely to the western word authenticity" in their language. The situation becomes more incouraging when you discover that, however, there are two words: one for „genuine" and one for reliable", both of which are used in the conservation practice to talk about these kinds of ideas the situation becomes very incouraging when you talk to a Japanese architect about their work, if you are looking at their sights, buildings. You will discover, that they have precisely the same reverence for surviving original material as we do. They are just as committed to try to ensure the survival of as much original materials as possible. There is no difference in their thinking. However, what is different, and I hope I am not trivilizing the differences but what is different is the existence of a kind of complementary parallel focus on something else inside the conservation field. There is a complementary focus on the importance of renewing materials, traditions and it is always a part of the Japanese dialog: on the one hand the reverence for original material, on the other hand a complementary reverence for traditions and renewal in a traditional way. What are the sources of these differences in approach? It is very easy to be in Japan as a forigner where you cannot understand the language and where you are surrounded by a dominantly Buddhist culture which is someway quite different from the Christian culture and to say: „this is a different society, I cannot find a point of undrestanding, a point of connection." I think the reality is if you look at Japanese history, geography, you can begin to find the reason for the apparent cultural differences. One of the important sources of those differences is the natural environment in Japan. One, in which wood is present abandonedly and at the same time then is a climate in which encourages rapid decay of wood. So wood is a dominant material and wood is always on the threat. As a reult you can find even going back 1000-1500 years that the Japanese developed special techniques of building and taking apart wooden buildings to look after the need, to monitor wood decay. So we look at their tendency to occassionally dismantle entire buildings and say, that is a very strange thing to do. But if you trace it back in their history, you discover the logical, practical reasons why this practice exists. And obviously there are cultural reasons which really have to do with religious basics of the nation. You can trace two broad lines of religious start in Japan's development. The original line of thought, which is still present, that I would describe as animizm, is a kind of religious belief system, tied very closely to the values of the agricultural cycle and the annual renewal of life lead to the invention of the existence of God or Deities, who had similar kinds of life cycles. In an animistic religions gods are not immortal, the gods live within a prescribed life cycle. You see this approach manifest very strongly in the Shinto religion. At one time in Japan (it is not the case now) most Shinto shrines were rebuilt in new materials, perhaps every 20