I saw the same thing happen over and over in the 5 odd years I lived in Jingumae 4-chome. At least here in the Kanto it does seem that residential buildings are ephemeral. Enjoy em while they last.

Some of the urban destruction is related to pro-automobile zoning, and inheritance tax laws. In most of Kyoto new houses have to have several meters of "set back" from the road to permit parking and/or eventual widening of all roads. Inheritance taxes work against the preservation of traditional architecture.

There has been a bit of a "machi-ya" boom in Kyoto over the last decade. Both foreign Japanophiles and Japanese Kyoto-philes (quite often from out of town) are involved in the preservation and renovation of old wooden machi-ya for dwellings or businesses.

Still, living in Kyoto one experiences the ongoing, heartbreaking destruction of old neighbourhoods. No matter where you live the high-pitched sounds of construction crews are always audible. Usually what is being constructed is some eyesore, boxy, cheapo danchi.

Most Japanese I know do not like this, but they tend to have the "shoganai" attitude.

Still, I prefer the cluttered morass of the modern Japanese urban environment to the ugly strip-mall sprawl of most North American cities.

But doesn't architectural idealism/preservation have to fall by the wayside when you face the hard financial facts? According to various acquaintances that it's much more expensive to renovate and restore an old Japanese house than to demolish it and build a newer, modern box. While I'm sure my former in-laws would love to preserve/restore the outside of their old house and strip out/replace a lot of the inside, it's extremely cost prohibitive. Unless private foundations or the government starts handing out grants for preservation, I can't see much reason for the average individual to attempt or care.

On the flip side, an artist acquaintance of mine lives in one of those U.N. World Cultural Heritage gassho-zukuri joints in Shirakawa and while he has to maintain it as it was built, he is allowed to install wiring/plumbing etc. to make it livable. Which just makes it uglier inside because you've got all this white cabling tacked to cross-beams and such. Plus it's cold as hell in the winter. No thanks, I'll an ugly, non-descript box with central heating over frostbitten toes any day of the week.

It really depends on many factors. The ballpark figure for constructing an 'average' new house in Japan from scratch is about 30 million yen, not including the cost of the land. After about 15 or 20 years that 30 million will be gone -houses devalue very quickly here. You could rennovate a machiya for significantly less than that, but of course it would depend on the condition. I have friends who have done pretty extensive rennovations for a few million yen.

With regards to freezing your toes off, winter temperatures are usually a few degrees above freezing in Kyoto, even though it has a reputation for being cold. Much more extreme are the hot and humid summers. Traditional architecture takes this into account.

I'd probably want central heating if I were living in Tohoku or Hokkaido, though I'm curious to know what kind of solutions people come up with for keeping warm in those places.

The freezing toes comment was directly regarding the gassho-zukuri house my friend in Shirakawa lives in. That place is ghastly in the winter. I imagine it might be quite nice in the spring/summer though. That house is a clear case where traditional architecture falls flat on it's face when compared to modern methods, at least in the colder months of the year.

From what I could remember of what my former in-laws told me, to restore/renovate their house (which isn't that old...maybe 70 years old?) would cost them something like 20 million yen...that's restoring the exterior while keeping the looks and then basically gutting the insides and replacing it with newer stuff. They could demolish it and build a new (larger) place for about what you mentioned...25 million or so.

From their point of view, why pay 20 for a fixup when they could pay a little more and get something brand new.

This is in Hamamatsu, though, not Tokyo or Kyoto, so your prices may vary.

Still, I prefer the cluttered morass of the modern Japanese urban environment to the ugly strip-mall sprawl of most North American cities.

Strip malls are terrible. Houston is the worst. But there a lot of N. American cities that are very nice and ultimately more livable than Japanese urban clusters. Chicago, NYC, Boston, SanFran are all great. So is Vancouver. I wouldn't discount all of N. America just because of some of the suburbs. Niigata has strip malls too, ya know.

Most Japanese I know do not like this, but they tend to have the "shoganai" attitude.

This is probably true, but doesn't negate my central point: they don't care enough to not knock down the old buildings.

That house is a clear case where traditional architecture falls flat on it's face when compared to modern methods, at least in the colder months of the year

Comfort - the shame of the modernist lifestyle.

Usually what is being constructed is some eyesore, boxy, cheapo danchi.

But I think the compromise that takes aesthetic value of architecture into consideration is building new places with modern comfort that are attractive. No one cares enough to demand new apartment buildings that aren't just functional or recall the old style architecture. Why not build a new apartment complex that looks like traditional homes? (New American homes often echo Georgian or Antebellum architecture.) Because you can fit more people in concrete boxes, and most lower middle-class taste possessing Japanese wouldn't necessarily want to live in "pre-modernist" spaces anyway. Give the people what they want: danchi.

Marxy,

Speaking of the architectural evanescence of Japan...here is an interesting tid bit for you to mull over.

I came across one this other day while reading the footnotes to the Sarashina Nikki. Not to be pedantic but just in case anyone out there isn't up on their anncient Japanese Lit., this is the diary of a very minor figure in the Heian period at that court's zenith. The writing is part of that famous triumvirate of medieval women's writing in Japan which includes The Diary of Murasaki and The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon.

Her real name is unknown, but she was born in 1008 AD in what is now Chiba - more or less open country at that time - and moved to Kyoto (then Kyo). By her own admission, she lived a "feckless life". Her diary is replete with themes of unrequited love, divinations based on dreams, and most of all religious pilgrimages (i.e. not modern design-based ones, sorry Momus).

Shying away from the cut-throat court life (see The Pillow Book) she went on numerous religious excursions, especially during her later years in order to escape the wan vicissitudes of her daily life and accumulate Karmic 'merit'. The image of the female denizens of the Heian court being interpersonally viscous is counterbalanced by thier tremulous, highly aesthetic natures. The author of Sarashina Nikki seems to have lacked the 'killer instinct' but her heart was always in the right place.

Here is a typical episode excerpted from her book:

At about the same time I hear that the daughter of His Excellency, the Chamberlain Major Counsellor, had died. Plunged as I was in my sorrow, I could easily sympathize with her husband, the Middle Captain. on my arrival in the Capital someone had given me a book of this lady's calligraphy as a model for my own writing practice. I remembered how she wrote the line, 'Had I not lain awake last night,' and after this came the poem,

When smoke arises from the Field of Toribe,
See the lalst vestiges of one whose life was no less frail!

The sight of these verses, whichh she had copied in a hand of remarkable beauty, brought on a fresh fit of weeping.

In a footnote to this poem, the translator Ivan Morris, writing in the early 1970s, states withh palbable irony that: Toribe No was the famous place of cremation east of the Capital. This evocative site, the supreme symbol of transience in Heian Japan, has now almost completely disappeared owning to the construction of the new superhighway to Nagoya.

I think that a comparative discussion on the ancient Japanese concepts of 'mujyokan', 'mono no aware' or even 'lacrimae rerum' (if you prefer Latin) and their modern counterparts might be stimulating at this point.

Does anyone out there concur?

Brad wrote: From their point of view, why pay 20 for a fixup when they could pay a little more and get something brand new.

Yes, though your numbers for the rennovation sound high to me, but, agreed, it depends on what kind of rennovations you do.

There are other factors favouring construction or purchase of a new house. For example, there are significant income tax rebates, which are not available if you purchase an older house.

Toribe No was the famous place of cremation east of the Capital. This evocative site, the supreme symbol of transience in Heian Japan, has now almost completely disappeared owning to the construction of the new superhighway to Nagoya.

That would probably be down somewhere around Kujo or so - a not very nice part of town. Generally speaking old cremation or execution grounds are still bad parts of town (buraku). Kyoto-ites usually know where they are. There's supposed to be a big one in Tokyo as well, across a bridge called the "namidabashi" or somethign like that. Anyone been there?

But there a lot of N. American cities that are very nice and ultimately more livable than Japanese urban clusters. Chicago, NYC, Boston, SanFran are all great.

Agreed that these places have nice urban centers (don't know about Chicago as I've only been in the airport). Japan used to have cities with nice urban centers too. What happened? They were firebombed.

Japan used to have cities with nice urban centers too. What happened? They were firebombed.

They were firebombed because Japanese was waging a ruthless Imperialist war in Asia and had surprise attacked the United States. And what did Japan do after its entire urban base had been razed to the ground and defeat was imminent? Continued to fight the war for six more months! Start sharpening those sticks, boys!

Also, this is a ridiculous argument seeing that they could have used the firebombing as an opportunity to rebuild Tokyo in a more planned fashion, but no, they just let it grow up organically like weeds again.

just a quick comment on the danchi: most of them are just as unlivable as what they have replaced. They are not well suited for the "modern" lifestyle in that they lack electrical outlets and typically the wattage on the breakers is not enough to power all the gadgets or appliances people accumulate. As in you cant use the microwave at the same time as the aircon/hairdryer/etc. The really cheap ones often dont even have propper futon closets.

To add a conspiracy angle, the government encouraging people to buy/rent shoeboxes in the sky is another way to keep the peasants down since residents of these human hives are not in any way invested into the area in the way that land owners are. There is going to be a 14 story, 70 single unit hive going up in my neighborhood soon. Its being built at the top of a hill overlooking an entirely residential area. When it is done, it will block sunlight at various times of the day for over 130 residences. At the "setstumei kai" held by the construction company, evey one of the residents who turned up were from family owned properties. No one who rented in the area cared how this ill thought out blight on the landscape would affect them.

Also, this is a ridiculous argument seeing that they could have used the firebombing as an opportunity to rebuild Tokyo in a more planned fashion, but no, they just let it grow up organically like weeds again.

Sorry again. This was not meant as an argument but simply a reminder of the fact that nearly all major Japanese cities were "bombed back to the stone age" at the end of WWII.

I recommend the film "The Fogs of War" if you have not yet seen it. It's an extended interview with Robert MacNamara. His first major command in the military was to oversee the firebombing of Tokyo. His opinion is that the USA would have been up for war crimes if they had lost the war.

I suspect that the Japanese may have lost some of their former love for elegant wooden architecture after experiencing the massive fires in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya etc...

they just let it grow up organically like weeds again.

It's the organic, local, flavour of Tokyo that I like.

I'm suspicious of any global planning scheme, though I would prefer to see zoning laws in Kyoto (and elsewhere) which strongly discourage rather than promote the use of automobiles and which support rather than discourage people who wish to preserve traditional architecture. Also, better support for pedestrians and cyclists would be nice.

It's a very unrealistic wish-list.

It's the organic, local, flavour of Tokyo that I like.

I don't mind it too much, but I was just in New York and I wish Tokyo had some parts or regions that weren't so chaotic. Well, Tokyo has a Central Park... we're just not allowed to go in.

His first major command in the military was to oversee the firebombing of Tokyo. His opinion is that the USA would have been up for war crimes if they had lost the war.

Dresden had no industrial capacity, but I'm sure Tokyo did. John K. Gailbraith was part of a panel to gauge the effects of bombing campaigns during the war, and they found that the bombings of Japan essentially shut down Japan's war-making ability. In Germany, they would just move the machinery to homes and hospitals and start production again. Gailbraith thinks we didn't need to use the atomic bomb, seeing that a surrender plan was slowly making its way through the Japanese bureaucracy. This is speculative though, and in February of 1945, when all was clearly lost, the emperor and his crew decided to keep carrying on until the death. The firebombing were a tragic loss of life (moreso than the atomic bombs), but also part of a campaign to stop Japan's war-production. Dresden was pure revenge. Tokyo was also revenge for Pearl Harbor, but wasn't such a purely cultural target. They didn't bomb Kyoto, if you notice.

I'd probably want central heating if I were living in Tohoku or Hokkaido, though I'm curious to know what kind of solutions people come up with for keeping warm in those places.

Well, I live in Takayma, in Gifu prefecture, close to Shirakawa in an obstensibly modern house. The heating solution is to burn through kerosene and electricity at an obscene rate and wear several layers of clothing in and out of bed. Woo hoo.

Josh wrote:
Well, I live in Takayma, in Gifu prefecture, close to Shirakawa in an obstensibly modern house. The heating solution is to burn through kerosene and electricity at an obscene rate and wear several layers of clothing in and out of bed. Woo hoo.

Mental note to self: avoid moving to any truly cold region of Japan.

Marxy wrote:

The firebombing were a tragic loss of life (moreso than the atomic bombs), but also part of a campaign to stop Japan's war-production.

I'm not sure I like the use of the adjective "tragic". It seems to imply an moral high ground. Wouldn't it be better to just face up to it that it was a use of ruthless, though as you correctly argue, effective methods? It was also probably a violation of international law. But as MacNamara observed, the winners of a war get to decide who goes on trial.

Unfortunately the firebombing of Japan and Germany seems to have been the beginning of what would become a habitual activity of the US. The bottom line: only American lives count, foreign civilian casualities don't matter a wince.

even when they've got it, they don't get it.

this one is a bit tangential, but i just noticed that some mo-ron put a gaudy vending machine up right in front of the plate-glass window of IDEE SERVICE STATION in shimouma (it is right around the corner from my studio), slightly obstructing the view into what was before a very cool interior, one of the best in tokyo, actually (floor in kichijoji is still my fav, though). the irony here is that that building placed very highly a few years back in an architectural ranking of tokyo's best modern designs, since it is a 'covering' or 'wrapping' of a shell over an old gas-station, with very little structural alterations. hey, it looks like they got it back then...but now they just don't get it. what gives? you aren't too far from that eatery, marxy. do you have any opinion on this one? is the vending machine there because the kids who are working inside can't afford to actually buy drinks at their own place of business? who knows...

Josh said:
Well, I live in Takayma, in Gifu prefecture, close to Shirakawa in an obstensibly modern house. The heating solution is to burn through kerosene and electricity at an obscene rate and wear several layers of clothing in and out of bed. Woo hoo.

Yes, that's basically what my friend does. I remember sleeping in one room of his house when there was several feet of snow on the ground and there was nothing between me and the outside except for some oak floorboards with rather large cracks in them and about 3 futons. I wore a sweatshirt (with a hood!), sweatpants, and wool socks and then covered myself with multiple layers of futon. I remember thanking God that I lived in 2001 and not 1601 and then cursing him for making my friend live in a drafty old heap.