Feature JAPANESE WORLD HERITAGE JAPAN’S NINETEEN UNESCO 8 WORLD HERITAGE SITES In 1993, Horyu-ji, Himeji Castle, Shirakami Sanchi and Yakushima were registered as Japan’s first four UNESCO World Heritage sites—a list that has now expanded to include fifteen World Cultural Heritage sites and four World Natural Heritage sites. Japan further boasts twenty-two items on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage List, which aims to protect aspects of intangible culture such as traditional music, dance, theater and industrial arts. ITSUKUSHIMA SHINTO SHRINE Location 13 4 Hiroshima Prefecture 1996 Year Inscribed Together with the surrounding sea and 4 the primeval forests of nearby Mount 16 19 Misen, the entire shrine complex has been 17 2 6 registered as a World Heritage Site. 5 10 © MINISTRY OF THE ENVIRONMENT GOVERNMENT OF JAPAN 18 SHIRAKAMI-SANCHI Aomori Prefecture, Akita 9 19 14 17 19 Prefecture 1993 12 Hosting a diverse variety of flora and fauna, the area 7 1 is exemplary of the forests of Siebold’s beech trees 19 8 9 that flourished in East Asia immediately following 3 12 the last ice age.
5 11 15 HISTORIC MONUMENTS OF ANCIENT NARA Nara Prefecture 1998 These monuments embody the cultural 1 heritage of the Nara Period, during which the foundations of Japan as a nation were established. Architectural elements such HISTORIC MONUMENTS OF ANCIENT KYOTO as Todai-ji Temple and natural landscapes, [KYOTO, UJI AND OHTSU CITIES] including Kasugayama Primeval Forest, form Kyoto Prefecture, Shiga Prefecture 1994 a synergistic environment. From its foundation by Emperor Kanmu in 794 AD, BUDDHIST MONUMENTS IN THE HORYU-JI Kyoto flourished as the imperial capital of Japan for a 10 AREA Nara Prefecture 1993 thousand years. Kyoto overflows with shrines, temples Several of these forty-eight Buddhist and castles preserved to the modern day. monuments date from the late seventh to early eighth centuries, making them some of the oldest surviving wooden buildings in the world. 6
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SHRINES AND TEMPLES OF NIKKO Tochigi Prefecture 1999 A grouping of majestic structures HISTORIC VILLAGES OF SHIRAKAWA-GO AND centered around Edo Period mausoleums, GOKAYAMA Gifu Prefecture, Toyama Prefecture encompassed by Futarasan-jinja shrine, HIMEJI-JO Hyogo Prefecture 1993 1995 Toshogu shrine and Rinno-ji Temple, all The castle keep compound consists of a primary Built in a heavy snow belt without the use of nails, located in the historic region of Mount Nikko. tower and three smaller towers linked by roofed gassho-style houses are marked by steeply pitched passageways, forming Japan’s only remaining thatched roofs designed to withstand deep snow example of castle towers in the renritsu accumulations. The interiors are divided into 11 (unified) style. multiple levels for the rearing of silkworms.
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GUSUKU SITES AND RELATED PROPERTIES OF THE KINGDOM OF YAKUSHIMA Kagoshima Prefecture 1993 HIROSHIMA PEACE MEMORIAL [GENBAKU RYUKYU Okinawa Prefecture 2000 A mountainous island blessed with heavy DOME] Hiroshima Prefecture 1996 This group of sites and monuments rains and lofty peaks, Yakushima is home The ruin of the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial represents the unique distinctions of the to an abundance of exceedingly rare forest Promotion Hall is preserved in the same destroyed state Ryukyu region and culture, which prospered vegetation, with a wealth of native plants and it had after the first atomic bomb detonated over the from the latter half of the fourteenth century animals. city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. to the end of the eighteenth century.
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SACRED SITES AND PILGRIMAGE ROUTES IN THE KII MOUNTAIN RANGE Mie Prefecture, SITES OF JAPAN’S MEIJI INDUSTRIAL Nara Prefecture, Wakayama Prefecture 2004 REVOLUTION: IRON AND STEEL, SHIPBUILDING Various schools of religion have long shaped the AND COAL MINING holy sites of Koyasan, Kumano Sanzan, Yoshino HIRAIZUMI TEMPLES, GARDENS AND Iwate Prefecture, Shizuoka Prefecture, and Omine in the Kii Mountain Range. Along with ARCHEOLOGICAL SITES REPRESENTING Yamaguchi Prefecture, Fukuoka Prefecture, Saga their associated pilgrim roads, these sites have THE BUDDHIST PURE LAND Iwate Prefecture, Nagasaki Prefecture, Kumamoto
been carefully preserved. Prefecture 2011 Prefecture, Kagoshima Prefecture 2015 Hiraizumi’s temples, gardens and remaining These sites bear testimony to the successful ruins were created with the aim of realizing transfer of Western industrialization to a non- 13 the Buddhaksetra (Pure Land) in the real Western nation. world, a concept based on the principles of Pure Land Buddhism, a school of thought INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE that gained prominence among the Japanese schools of Buddhist belief. 2008 Nogaku Theatre 17 Ningyo Johruri Bunraku Puppet Theatre Kabuki Theatre SHIRETOKO Hokkaido Prefecture 2005 Located on the Sea of Okhotsk, the sea’s 2009 topographical and geographical conditions make Gagaku it the most southerly point in the world to see Ojiya-chijimi, Echigo-jofu: techniques of the seasonal formation of sea ice, making the making ramie fabric in Uonuma region, Niigata Shiretoko Peninsula an outstanding example Prefecture of an integrated ecosystem displaying the Hitachi furyumono (Ibaraki Prefecture) interrelationship between a terrestrial ecosystem Yamahoko, the float ceremony of the Kyoto Gion and a contiguous marine ecosystem. festival (Kyoto Prefecture) Koshikijima no toshidon (Kagoshima Prefecture) 14 FUJISAN, SACRED PLACE AND SOURCE Oku-noto no aenokoto (Ishikawa Prefecture) OF ARTISTIC INSPIRATION Yamanashi Hayachine kagura (Iwate Prefecture) Prefecture, Shizuoka Prefecture 2013 Akiu no taue odori (Miyagi Prefecture) A sacred and solemn figure that is itself a Chakkirako (Kanagawa Prefecture) subject of worship, Mount Fuji has been Dainichido bugaku (Akita Prefecture) depicted in many works of art such as ukiyo-e Daimokutate (Nara Prefecture) paintings, its profound effect felt both Traditional Ainu dance (Hokkaido) domestically and abroad.
THE IWAMI GINZAN SILVER MINE AND ITS 2010 CULTURAL LANDSCAPE Shimane Prefecture 18 Kumiodori, traditional Okinawan musical theatre 2007 Yuki-tsumugi, silk fabric production technique The mine produced a vast amount of silver in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, triggering 2011 the mass production of gold and silver in Japan, Mibu no hana taue, ritual of transplanting rice strongly influencing the communications and in Mibu, Hiroshima exchange of goods between East and West. Sada Shin Noh, sacred dancing at Sada Shrine, Shimane 15 2012 Nachi no dengaku, a traditional dance TOMIOKA SILK MILL AND RELATED SITES performed in the town of Nachi-Katsuura, Gunma Prefecture 2014 Wakayama Prefecture This complex consists of four sites corresponding to the different stages in the 2013 production of raw silk: the first-ever silk mill © MINISTRY OF THE ENVIRONMENT GOVERNMENT OF JAPAN Washoku, traditional dietary cultures of the in Japan (Tomioka Silk Mill), the prototype of Japanese, notably for the celebration of New Year OGASAWARA ISLANDS Tokyo Metropolis 2011 modern sericulture farmhouses (Tajima Yahei Despite their small size, these islands are home Sericulture Farm), a sericulture educational 2014 to a large number of endemic species, providing facility (Takayama-sha Sericulture School), Washi, craftsmanship of traditional Japanese precious evidence of evolutionary adaptive and a cold storage facility for silk-worm eggs handmade paper radiation, particularly in snails and vascular plants. (Arafune Cold Storage). SEPTEMBER 2015 | 9