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

Előadások - Herb STOVEL: The interpretation of authenticity in Japan

years. The cycle is varied, but 20 years is a kind of standard. That 20 year period corresponded to the life cycle of the deity, the God who was belieced to live in the temple. With the death of the God after 20 years the original temple was felt to be unclean, so it must be taken apart and a new temple reconstructed. This practice which many people know about is in act only found now in one place in the country. The Ise shrine is the only place where you see this ancient approach to the Shinto religion in living use. Why only one place? I think it somehow has to do with the fact that this practice of rebuilding is too expensive. The ritual rebuilding of the Ise shrine every 20 years cost about 20 million dollars. So for practical reasons people said, that belongs to the past, we will keep this idea alive in place in the country. The interesting thing is that until recently what happened here, has never been thought of as cultural heritage. It was simply thought of as religious life. Recently these practices and in fact the Ise shrine itself seem to be passing into this sphere of cultural heritage and it seems likely that in the near future the Ise shrine will be designated as a cultural property in Japan. But as an intengible cultural property the focus will be on what is represents, not on the physical substance. So I think for a western mind it is very strange to go and see an intangible cultural property which you can touch, you can see, you can photograph, but which, for the Japanese is ot tangible. The other broad line is the influence of Buddhism, the growth and development of Buddhism over 2000 years. Here the influences are much more easily understandable to western minds, because the development is in someway parallel to Christianity. You can find in the beginning a reverence for the Holy World, the saints, of the Buddha, you can find at some points the beginning of a transfer of reverence to the objects associated with the Buddha and in that we can parallel the christian reverence for relics, of the Holy Cross and finally art work, paintings, mirrors, buildings, temples. All of this things which depicted, showed the Buddha and how is the Buddha also themselves came to their value. In Japan untimately in the modern era of conservation when the Japanese began to look at their temples, they classified these as tangible cultural heritage. They have devloped this system for tangible cultural heritage which in some way comes out of early preoccupation with Buddhism. That system is changing. More and more this system say, how we can acknowledge thes characteristics on this side and bring these into our system for conservation management. You can see the proof of that how legal mechanisms have developed in Japan for conservation. In the beginning the preoccupation was very similar to the western approach. In the beginning the designation was for single properties or single places. Putting them on the list you can see here an evolution in time. Cultural heritage was mentioned 120-125 years ago for the first time, then a concern grew with the works of art, the monuments at the turn of the century. By 1990 the focus has widened again, there is a concern for historic sites, places of beauty, of scenic interest, natural heritage sites making lists of special places. This is the summary of the development of the two traditional lines and the peculiarities of the Japanese conservation.