Huang Goodman · Art Forgotten

Art Forgotten

Art from public museum collections. A mismatched real Japanese law, and some other factoids.

Nothing on these cards is written by a model. Every description is the museum's own catalogue record or curator text, and every object links to its original. Each law carries its official number and links to e-Gov 法令検索, the Japanese government's statute database.

Square Dish with Design of Plovers over Waves
{Square Dish with Design of Plovers over Waves · Ogata Kōrin (Japanese, 1658–1716) · c. 1700 · Cleveland Museum of Art · CC0}

The Ogata brothers Kōrin and Kenzan often collaborated on ceramics. This dish is one of a set used for serving tea cakes. Kenzan shaped the dish, after which Kōrin drew the iron oxide design of plovers, a type of shorebird, flying over waves. Kenzan then covered the object with a clear glaze and fi…

View the original at Cleveland Museum of Art →
The law
古都における歴史的風土の保存に関する特別措置法
Act on Preservation of Historical Landscape in Ancient Capitals
昭和四十一年法律第一号 · Act No. 1 of 1966

It protects not the buildings but the setting that holds them. Article 2 defines historic landscape as land where structures and remains of historical significance form a single whole with the surrounding natural environment, which is the legal way of saying the hills, the approaches and the sightlines. The ancient capitals are Kyoto, Nara and Kamakura, plus any other municipality added by Cabinet Order. The Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism designates a preservation area; city planning then carves a Special Preservation District over its core, and inside that district an owner needs permission from the prefectural governor to build, to fell timber, or to change the shape of the ground.

The cool part. It legislates the view, and then it pays for it. Article 10 requires the prefecture to compensate an owner who suffers loss because permission was refused. Article 12 goes further: where refusal seriously impairs the use of the land, the owner can require the prefecture to buy it, at market value. So the state does not merely tell you what the horizon behind a temple may look like. It agrees to purchase the land rather than let the skyline change. Two more things worth knowing. The prefecture must physically sign the district boundary, and a landowner may not obstruct the sign without just cause. And the ministry holding the pen is Transport, not Culture.

Verify at e-Gov 法令検索 →

Use it The border is the idea. Use it as an edge treatment and leave the centre empty.

Description source: museum curator text — not generated