1. The Historical Background and the Present State of Preservation of the Cultural Properties in the City of Kyoto

The city of Kyoto, today, is a formation of two main areas. One is the urban area which was originally the ancient capital of "Heian-kyo", and the other is the surrounding suburban area, which has culturally and historically maintained a close relationship with the urban core. Each of these has undergone different kinds of changes according to the differences in historical backgrounds and the influences of protection laws in modern times since the Meiji Period.

It is of paramount importance to mention the legal protection system in Japan, by which the City of Kyoto was greatly influenced. The existing national law, the "Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties", was enacted in 1950 based on the former the "National Treasures Preservation Law"(1929, which originated as the "Ancient Shrines and Temple Preservation Act" in 1897) and the "Law for the Historic Sites, Places of Scenic Beauty and Natural Monuments" (1919). The original law of 1897 was established to protect the treasures in the possession of shrines and temples from being lost, destroyed or taken away to foreign countries. The existing law was basically established by adopting this original policy and simply expanding the categories of cultural properties, including such categories as intangible properties and folk-cultural properties; the emphasis was on the protection of separate individual sites rather than on a wider-area scope of protection for important historic cities such as Kyoto. Preserving the entire area of the ancient city is, therefore, a concept which emerged much later.

As for the city of Kyoto, most of the buildings inside the area of the historic city had been repeatedly destroyed by wars and fires and had been rebuilt throughout the history of the city. In other words, the historical setting in the central area of Kyoto had been maintained not with the remaining original building fabric but with structures that had been rebuilt following traditional styles. As a result, in Kyoto most of the original historic monuments remain not in the central zone but in the suburban areas.

2. The Features of the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto

Many historical monuments remain in Kyoto City, and about 200 historical buildings have been designated by the national government as National Treasures or Important Cultural Properties under the Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties. About 95% of them are old Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples, and others are traditional-style houses and other building types. In addition, many other historical buildings are also protected either by prefectural or municipal-level protection regulations (about 30 are protected as prefectural cultural properties and 80 as municipal properties).

Among these, we selected seventeen monuments that represent ancient Kyoto in terms of their cultural and historical importance -- the same sites that were recently inscribed on the World Heritage List. Among these inscribed properties are Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples built by the Imperial court or nobles in ancient times as well as buildings that reflect the samurai culture of the middle ages up to the early modern age. These buildings as a group represent the full spectrum of the history of Kyoto and all are irreplaceable as examples to help describe the history of Kyoto. Consistent with the general pattern mentioned above, with most of the city's remaining historic properties located in the surrounding areas, most of the properties inscribed on the World Heritage List are also located in the suburban mountainous areas around Kyoto.

These properties in the surrounding suburban areas should be regarded not only as monuments within the environmental landscape but also as cultural landscapes, by virtue of their having been described and referred to in countless works of literature and art throughout the history of Japan. Among these, as one example, we can point to the establishment of the aristocracy's artistic world through the Tale of Genji (Genji-monogatari) or The Pillow Book (Makura-no-soshi) in the Heian period. The Sagano and Uji areas are examples of those cultural landscapes which became the stage of the Tale of Genji. In the early modern age, many kinds of "Meisho-zue" were published as guide-books about Kyoto, and these areas have been introduced as recreational spots and tourist sites for the general public.

Today these areas still express the historical landscape of Kyoto, consisting of both natural settings and cultural properties. In the green suburban surroundings these historical environments have been maintained in good condition up through the present time. In order to protect these landscapes in Kyoto, various measures for landscape conservation have been provided in the city plan, including the establishment of such categories as Scenic Zones and Special Zones for Preservation of Historical Natural Features.

3. Institutions for the Control of the Environment and the Designation of Buffer Zones in Kyoto

Under the Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties, as appropriate to its status as a Historic Site or other designation category, the core area of each World Heritage site is protected by restrictions on changes to the existing state. In the area surrounding each site, buffer zones are set up by the City of Kyoto in accordance with the existing measures for landscape control. Within the buffer zones, the design of buildings, including such factors as building height and site coverage area, are limited to meet the needs of each zone.

The cityscape and landscape control system of Kyoto has been enforced consistently and the scope off control has been expanded since the first regulated districts were designated in 1930. This is due in part to the fact that the citizens of Kyoto actively approved the idea of protecting the natural and historic landscape of Kyoto while pursuing the development of their city.

In Kyoto, the suburban areas are regulated to conserve the natural and historic landscape, and most of them are designated as protection areas to prevent development there. On the other hand, the inner city is dedicated to achieving a harmonious urban landscape, and therefore our policy is to maintain the urban setting by providing appropriate guidance together with the necessary restrictions.

As a result, a relatively broad area is established as a buffer zone around the properties in these suburban areas. These landscape-control regulations are also effective in protecting the overall environment around the nominated properties.

As for the buffer zones in the inner city area, such as around Hongan-ji, Nijo-jo and Kyo-o-gokoku-ji, these are designated to keep the areas in harmony with the protected properties. The settings around these properties had already undergone changes over a long period of time, and therefore the main purpose of the buffer zones was to create the appropriate atmosphere to match the historic monuments rather than to concentrate on preserving the present state of the buffer-zone environments.

In addition to the buffer-zone provisions mentioned above, the City of Kyoto also provides secondary measures of controlling the city's historical and natural settings (the Historic Environment Control Areas). Although the sites are scattered around the city, these measures define the seventeen properties as a group, and the appropriate guidance and regulations are determined as part of a comprehensive program.

4. Conclusion - Our Task for the Future

The city of Kyoto has been making a great effort to protect our valuable cultural environment by broadening the scope of appropriate conservation policies as part of the city planning policy. Our environmental-control program is one of the best-established programs in Japan, with control systems of various types and levels. The buffer zones for World Heritage sites were established to help make this system of protection as effective as possible.

As mentioned above, the goal of the policy of the landscape control system of Kyoto is to preserve the suburban natural environment, whereas the objective in the inner city is to improve the harmonious urban environment. As a result, the historic and natural landscapes in the suburban areas have been well conserved. Our future task is to pursue both the development of the city and the creation of an environment that is harmonious with the cultural properties, giving the appropriate guidance while strictly enforcing the necessary regulations.

In order to cope with these tasks, although we have recently renewed our programs and systems, our policy is to continuously re-examine and improve them to gain more effective control and maintenance of our environment.