ブックタイトル「近代の文化遺産の保存理念と修復理念」英語版

概要

「近代の文化遺産の保存理念と修復理念」英語版

37cities and religious sites, ③ Christian sites, ④superior artifacts, and ⑤ those from periodsother than the prehistoric era and the 20thcentury. Reflecting on this issue, the followingthree categories were to be given attention to,for their significance as resources. They are: ①cultural landscapes, ② 20th century architecture,and ③ industrial heritage properties.　In Japan, when we refer to this global strategyfor World Heritage, industrial heritage tend tobe focused on, but this is actually only the thirdin order. Also, it is clear that Japan’s nationalcultural property protection system has changedreflecting this strategy. For example, it wasin 2004 that cultural landscapes came to bedesignated as Important Cultural Properties(although the category is smaller in scalecompared to the definition of World Heritagecultural landscape) and the architecture ofthe National Museum of Western Art, Tokyocompleted in 1959 was designated as nationalImportant Cultural Property following aproposal from the French government8).　In accordance with this report, the WorldHeritage Committee commissioned specialiststo survey each of the fields and one report thatwas created listed nominations for railroadheritage as World Heritage. In this report, eightfacilities were selected and Japan’s Tokaidobullet train was included last, as case 8, amongthem. There were no Japanese members in theCommittee, so it is evident that its significancewas recognized by foreign specialists.　It was the system’s technical and social aspectsthat were highly evaluated. From the technicalpoint of view, the following can be noted: ①a technological achievement for realizingmaximum speed and comfort, ② a breakthroughin passenger train technology, ③ a raisedconcrete base to avoid steep gradients and curves,individual cars equipped with electric motors,and ④ exemplary safety standards including anautomatic train stopping system controlled bya seismograph. There were three points raisedfrom the social aspect: ① a completely renewedconcept of train travel, ② “a symbol of Japan’sfinal movement out of the shadows of wartimedefeat and industrial dependency,” and ③“a symbol of international leadership in thetechnology of high-speed land transport” 9).　This report concluded that the bullet train isqualified for being nominated for listing on theWorld Heritage List and thus, when applyingfor inscription, this report can well be referred to.(4) T w e n t y 2 0 t h - C e n t u r y H e r i t a g ePropertiesIn December 2015 at the general meeting ofJapan ICOMOS, activities regarding “20th-Century Heritage 20” were introduced. TheWorld Heritage Committee had requested eachcountry to create a list of twenty 20th-centuryheritage properties. At Japan ICOMOS, aworking group was established and they are nowin the process of choosing works of architecturalheritage and industrial civil engineering heritage.What heritage properties would be appropriatefor this nomination?　Among industrial civil engineering heritageproperties, the following eight have beenincluded as nominees for the list of “20th-Century Heritage 20.”1) Tokaido Bullet TrainThe Shinkansen bullet train system, mentionedearlier, was raised. However, at first, peoplehad questions as to whether this would beappropriate as a nominee, because although itstechnological aspect such as cars and the systemwere indeed highly evaluated, it was unclear