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The Significance of Japan’s World Heritage Sites

A Journey of Discovery

In 2012, I set off to tour all of Japan’s World Heritage sites, which numbered seventeen at the time. It involved traveling the length of the country from the north of Hokkaido down to Okinawa. It was an auspicious year to do so, for it was the the fortieth anniversary of the UNESCO convention. By way of celebration, the organisation put on a conference in Kyoto, where I’m fortunate to live, and I was able to attend what the Director General of UNESCO called ‘a unique gathering of the best minds in terms of World Heritage’—560 people from 60 countries.

Discussions at the conference concerned problems arising from the organisation’s success in terms of registration, for there are now over 1000 World Heritage sites. Japan was a late-comer, only joining in 1992, but in recent years it has proved an eager participant. In the seven years since my initial journey another five sites have been added, namely the Tomioka Silk Mill; Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution; Le Corbusier’s National Museum of Western Art; Munakata and Associated Sites; and Nagasaki’s Hidden Christian Sites. For this revised edition I have therefore had to make further trips, the highlights of which have both been in Kyushu, namely a glimpse of the forbidden island of Okinoshima and a visit to the extraordinary ‘battleship island’ of Gunkanjima.

But what of my initial journey? Japan is a surprisingly long country and the trip took over four months as I moved steadily southwards from the subarctic in Shiretoko down towards the subtropical in Okinawa and Ogasawara. Contrary to the popular notion of Japan as a place of overcrowded cities, the journey began and ended in remote areas of unspoilt nature. Few countries can be as pleasant to travel around as Japan, for its people are unfailingly polite and the transport system efficient and timely. Though public transport was my preferred option, car rental sometimes proved the only practical option.

During the time of the Ryukyu Kingdom, important state ceremonies were held in the inner compound of Okinawa’s Shuri Castle, including the reception of foreign dignitaries.

Along the way there were plenty of adventures. In the mountainous Shirakami area of northern Honshu, my driver fell asleep at the wheel one afternoon, not only wrecking the car but managing to strand us in one of the few spots in Japan with no mobile access and no passing traffic. As midnight approached and we sat vainly trying to sleep in the wrecked vehicle, a flashing light split the darkness and a small police car arrived to tell us that we were camping illegally!

Massive pillars support the viewing platform of Kiyomizu Temple more than 40 feet (13 meters) above ground. In the Edo Period, devotees of Kannon would throw themselves off in the hope of winning spiritual merit.

There were other close encounters. At Shiretoko, the hiking group I was with almost came across two brown bears, a mother and her cub, said to be the most dangerous combination for humans. We thought we had steered well clear of them but had to think again when we came to a clearing with uprooted plants and a pungent smell. A few minutes earlier and we would have inadvertently stumbled upon them. Two days later, in Shirakami Sanchi, I did stumble upon a bear at the aptly named Black Bear Falls. It was coming round a bend in the path, and although the advice in such cases is not to panic, I was just about to run for my life when fortunately the bear beat me to it.

Sadly, it was not possible to do all the sites full justice, for hiking every single nature trail and pilgrimage route could take years. Moreover, there were times when it seemed that fate was determined to thwart me, for everywhere I went there was something under repair. This was sometimes due to the natural disasters that plague Japan. For instance, the pond garden at Hiraizumi had been damaged by an earthquake and the surrounds of the Nachi waterfall by a typhoon. But there was a greater factor at play: of the 3,600 buildings in Japan designated as important cultural properties, 3,300 are wooden. When these ancient buildings need renewing, the repairs can be costly and time-consuming.

Picturesque views of Mt Fuji have long proved a source of artistic and spiritual inspiration, prompting recognition of the volcano as a Cultural (rather than Natural) World Heritage.

The bronze bell at Buddhist temples, such as this one at Kyoto’s Enryaku-ji, can be heard for distances of up to 20 miles (32 km) and require great craftsmanship in casting, with a failure rate of nearly 50 percent.

So which were my favorite sites? The biggest ‘wow’ came amidst the fabulous gnarled cedar trees of Yakushima even though I’d been to the island before and knew what to expect. Walking in the woods one early morning, I stood riveted to the spot as the sun came up over a hillside and a whole swathe of forest was slowly brought to life by its spreading rays. It was as if a black-and-white painting was being transformed before my very eyes into full color. Sheer magic!

The site that most took my fancy, however, was my final destination. It was quite literally ‘a voyage of discovery’, for the only way to Ogasawara is 25 hours by ship. It means that relatively few travel to the thinly populated islands despite the beauty of subtropical hillsides set amongst Pacific blues. They were registered with UNESCO because of the unusual life forms that have developed over the millennia, but for myself the history of the islands was no less alluring.

The distinctive ‘prayer-hand roofs’ of Gokoyama village houses were designed to protect them from snow in winter and to provide space for cottage industries.

Until the 1840s Ogasawara was uninhabited. The archipelago was first settled by a group of Westerners and Pacific Islanders, some of whose descendants remain to this day. At one point, Britain and the United States were arguing over ownership, and only after the Meiji Restoration of 1868 did the islands become officially part of Japan. There is something of the charm of the southern seas about them. Perhaps it was the enchantment of distance, or perhaps it was simply because my journey was drawing to an end. Whatever the reason, Japan’s most remote World Heritage Site turned out to be the nearest to my heart. You could say it was the one site that truly ‘registered’.

Postscript

With the registration of Mount Fuji as a World Heritage site in the spring of 2013, I found myself adding an important postscript to my travels. Although I’d climbed the mountain in my younger days, I was unfamiliar with the many listed properties included by UNESCO as part of the site (25 in all). These concern the cultural and spiritual heritage of the mountain, involving some out-of-the-way places. So I rented a car and embarked on a two-day drive around the base of Fuji, which took me deep into rural Yamanashi with a side trip to the Shizuoka seaside for a celebrated view of the volcano. It was just a month after the official acceptance by UNESCO and there was a celebratory feel, with flags happily proclaiming the new status at all the key spots, indicative of a well-run campaign.

June and July are said to be the worst times of the year for Fuji-viewing because of the cloud cover, but I was lucky to see the sacred mountain basking in sunshine from several different angles. The inspiration Fuji provided for artists is one of the two pillars on which registration rested, the other being its religious aspect. Among the listed properties are shrines, springs, pathways and lodging houses for pilgrims. Religious rites were also carried out in lava caves formed around tree trunks which subsequently rotted away. The variety of Fuji’s listed properties typify the wide-ranging appeal of Japan’s World Heritage Sites as a whole, for while some are popular tourist sights, others involve exploration of little-known and rarely visited places. It was with a desire to communicate the wealth and diversity of such sites that I had set out on my journey in the first place. Japan has long had a reputation as the treasure house of Asia. My hope is that this book will not only help further awareness of its exceptional cultural heritage but also of the need for conservation of its remarkable natural heritage.

Shinkyo Bridge at Nikko has mythological origins but took its present form in 1636. Once reserved for imperial messengers, it is now a popular place for wedding photos.

Nara’s Kasuga Shrine has some 2,000 stone lanterns as well as a further 1,000 hanging lanterns. Twice a year, at Setsubun (February) and Obon (August), the lanterns are lit in a spectacular display.

The UNESCO World Heritage Sites Program

In 1972, UNESCO ratified a convention to further preservation of places of ‘outstanding universal value’ by awarding them the status of World Heritage. At the time of writing, there are 1092 such sites, a number that is growing year by year. They are located in 160 countries and include some of the most famous places on earth, such as the Taj Mahal, the Statue of Liberty, the Tower of London, the Great Wall of China and the Galapagos Islands.

Nominations are put forward by signatory countries to the convention, and the sites are expected to meet a set of demanding criteria. There are two main categories: Cultural and Natural (some sites fall into both types and others are considered ‘cultural landscapes’). A vetting process takes into consideration such matters as authenticity, management, accessibility and protection measures. Registration brings rewards in terms of pride, prestige and publicity, resulting in an increase in visitors.

The vermilion color of Japan’s shrines, here seen at Kyoto’s Shimogamo Jinja, originated in China and was transmitted via Buddhism to Japan.

Hiking on Yakushima Island takes one deep into pristine forests with ancient cedar trees, some of which are thousands of years old.

Interest in World Heritage Sites is enormous in Japan, with specialist tours and television programs: TBS has shown a weekly documentary since 1996 and NHK has a partnership arrangement to co-produce videos for UNESCO’s archives. It’s surprising, then, that Japan has relatively few sites compared with its peers. As of 2019, it has a total of 23 compared to 19 for Australia, 23 for the USA, 31 for the UK, 44 for Germany and France, 47 for Spain and 53 for China.

The numbers are misleading, however, for what defines a site can vary from a single building to a whole region. Several of Japan’s sites boast multiple ‘properties’, some of which could easily stand as World Heritage Sites in their own right. Take Kyoto, for instance, which lists world-famous temples, gardens and even a castle amongst its 17 properties.