Kyoto -Changing Scenery of the City in Recent Years- An Introduction

When the plans of a city's development are being reviewed, it is important that we take account of the background, the characteristics and the mechanisms ofits past development, and ask how it has come to be developed the way it is today: a study of the city's development in recent years is necessary. However, little research has been done in this area, including research into the development. In this essay, I would therefore like to discuss, most importantly, the changing scenery of Kyoto in the context of its architectural development in recent history, and also, the different phases of development in which those significant changes to the city's scenery have been made. This study has been carried out with the aid of, for the pre-war period, old manuscripts and photographs, and for the post-war period, field research, aerial photographs and newspaper articles. To explain the "phases," it has been found evident that the distrinction and expansion of 'main' streets in the city, which occured during in years from 1925-1927, the rapid econiomic growth which began in the early 1960's, and the economic boom-the so-called 'bubble' economy-of the late 1980's have all played important roles in shaping the appearance of the city. With this in mind, I have divided the period since 1868 to today into the folloiwng six phases. Early development phase First street expansion, introduction of city tram War and post-war period High economic growth and the period following Economic boom and the period following Today 1868-1911 (M1-M44*) 1912-1939 (T1-S14) 1940-1960 (S15-S34) 1965-1985 (S35-S60) 1986-1990 (S61-H2) 1991- (H3-) *The letters M, T, Sand H in brackets each refers to Meiji, Taisho, Showa and Heisei era. As for Kyoto's changing scenery seen in the context of its architectural development in recent years, it may be said that the modern history of urban scenery in Kyoto can be summarised as the transformation of scenery from what was at first an archetypal traditional Japanese 'waves of slates!' scenery to a confused, disordant cityscape with the old 'waves' totally severed: the arrival of, first, pseudo-western, then 'true' western architecture, the following overall westernisation of architecture, and the appearance of cheap, mass-produced housing-buildings built as mere receptacles have all greatly contributed to this process. In the city center today, the balance between the traditional and the western has been completely reversed. Whereas in the early Meiji era, western architecture was rare, exotic and something of a landmark in the city, it is now traditional Japanese architecture which plays is role. Nor did suburban residential areas escape from this transformation. Increasingly more and more houses are built in the manner of strange western-style concoctions, and houses with traditional outlook barely remain in just a few designated preservation ares. Kyoto's policy of scenery just based on the preservation of the old 'waves of sates' look, however, is neither practial nor practicable today. This is due partly to the fact the old wooden structures which supported the 'waves' have been reduced to an absolute minority over the years, but the changes in lifestyle, values and the state of economy also mean that it is now necessary to adopt a new approach. The 'defensive' policy of 'preserving the old' is no longer valid faced with today's reality, and it is now urgently necessary to set a positive direction which allows a new, co-ordinated standard to develop