By Paul Caputo
Nikko National Park in Japan plays host to striking natural beauty and fascinating cultural heritage, including the 17th-century Toshogu Shrine. I took a day trip to Nikko in 2008, and stood in awe of the ornate, magnificent buildings like the five-story pagoda pictured here.
“This” pagoda was built in 1650. I put the word “this” in quotes because I’m not sure that there’s another grammatical construct that encapsulates the way the history of this building was explained on site. The actual, physical pagoda in this image is an 1818 reconstruction built after the 1650 original was destroyed by fire. In fact, many of the historic buildings we saw in Japan were either partially restored or completely reconstructed, but interpretive materials made little distinction between the originals and newer, restored versions. I frequently had to dig to learn that some “historic” buildings we visited were actually replicas from as recently as the 1970s.
I learned through conversations with park staff that this was not an attempt at deception, but a reflection of a cultural belief that the essence of a building is in its original purpose—that this reconstruction and the original 1650 building are in fact one and the same. I couldn’t help but wonder whether the current iteration featured slight (or not-so-slight) “improvements” over the original, and I felt a mild sense of disappointment knowing that the construction in front of me was not actually built in the 17th century, but I was aware that these thoughts were born of cultural differences. Ultimately, I was glad to have the opportunity to witness a significant cultural artifact first-hand.
This issue of Legacy explores the sometimes-sticky issue of restoration—natural and cultural—at interpretive sites. What are the challenges of restoring resources and of interpreting those restored resources? Where do you draw the line between restoration and maintenance? What is the difference between restoration and conservation? And can the authors in this issue discuss the topic without using as many quotation marks as I did?
Jeff Gill
July 1, 2010 at 8:47 am
Also makes me think of Japan’s Shinto “Grand Shrine of Ise,” which was built in the 600′s.
And has been rebuilt every 20 years . . . on one of two adjoining sites. So the current building could be said to be a dozen years old, or over a dozen centuries. Is it the same building? By intention, the answer is yes.