Title: Preservation of the Historic Landscape of a Village
Abstract: Previously, depopulation and dissolution were regarded as the most important problems facing villages. Today, the focus has changed more to how to activate the village community. And recently, interest has also shifted to the preservation of historic landscapes, part of the movement for environmental preservation in villages. Initially, the preservation of historic landscapes was simply, how to preserve traditional buildings in the village. But, recently it has become much more complicated and stems from what I call “the logic of identity formation”. A paradox of this process is that historic landscapes often become tourism attractions, which leads to a conflict between tourism and the village lifestyle. “The logic of identity formation” recognizes that tradition is not restricted to old items, but includes the various things that have been made by people in the village. The most important point of this logic is that people have manufactured these items independently. This approach needs evaluating on this point. Tradition is regarded only as “a way of activate the community” In this paper, I will discuss “the logic of Seikatsu-no-kata”, which approximates in meaning to the local, accumulated knowledge and behavior of people in the village. I think that this is very important aspect of tradition. I will take up the case in Taketomi Island,Okinawa, especially, focusing on the form of buildings in this discussion. For example, Za (room layout in Okinawa) and Engawa (Japanese porch). These rooms are often used for communication (c.f. festivals, ceremonies and regular tea time chats). This is an example of “Seikatsu-no-kata” in Taketomi. It illustrates that keeping the “Seikatsu-no-kata” is important in maintaining the local landscape. However, this paper does not criticize “the logic of identity formation”, but is developed along with it. I suggest that “the logic of Seikatsu-no-kata” is a more effective way to preserve the historic landscape.