Art Forgotten · Huang Goodman

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

Every object, image and description comes from the museum's own catalogue record, and every object links to its original. Japanese records are machine-translated into English; the museum's Japanese is kept beside the translation because it is the authoritative form. Each law carries its official number and links to e-Gov 法令検索, the Japanese government's statute database.

{供物台 · 坂本須賀男氏寄贈 · 19世紀後半～20世紀初頭 / Late 19th - early 20th century · Japan Search · 国立国会図書館}

Offering Table. This object is an "Offering Table." The "Offering Table" is a type of cultural artifact. It was traditionally used in Japan for various religious and ceremonial purposes. The tabletop surface is typically flat and made of wood or other materials. The legs of the table are often ornately carved or decorated. The table is often placed in a prominent location in a shrine or temple. During religious ceremonies, offerings of food, drink, and other items are placed on the table. The offerings are believed to be received by the deities or spirits being honored. The "Offering Table" is an important part of Japanese religious and cultural traditions. · Sabara Nobuyoshi's donation.

Wooden platforms are painted red and decorated with processed shells and pottery shards. The surface pottery suggests a possible likelihood that it is Japanese-made from the Meiji period. Despite being shattered, these fragments were still used for decoration on offering tables. This reveals the value the Parao people placed on pottery.

木のうえに赤土を塗って彩色し、加工した貝殻や陶磁器の破片を表面に埋めて飾っている。表面の陶磁器は、明治期の日本産である可能性が高い。破片になっても供物台の装飾に用いていることから、パラオの人々がいかに陶磁器を珍重していたかがわかる。

View the original at Japan Search →

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 Take the ratio, not the picture. It sets a page better than a grid does.

Description source: museum curator text, translated — not generated