Why Place Matters : A Sociological Study of the Historic Preservation Movement in Otaru, Japan, 1965–2017

This book is based on the author’s 33 years of intensive fieldwork. It chronicles a major movement that shaped the preservation policy in Japan in the 1980s and 1990s, providing “thick descriptions” of preservationists that are not available anywhere else in English. It also provides clear answers to a series of pressing questions about preservationists: are they building-huggers, are they selfish and myopic home-owners, or are they merely obstacles to urban planning and urban renewal? Since 1984, Saburo Horikawa, Professor of Sociology at Hosei University in Tokyo, has continuously studied the movement to preserve the Otaru Canal in Otaru, Japan. This book shows that the preservation movement was neither conservative nor an obstacle. Rather, the movement sought to promote changes in which the residents’ “place” would continue to be theirs. As such, the word “preservation” does not mean the prevention of growth and development, but rather its control . As is shown in this study, preservation allows for and can even promote change. The original Japanese version of this book (published by the University of Tokyo Press) has won 3 major academic awards; most notably, “The Ishikawa Prize”, the highest award bestowed by the City Planning Institute of Japan. It is extremely unusual that a sociology book should receive such important recognition from the city planning discipline. Preface Acknowledgements Introduction Contents About the Author List of Figures List of Tables 1 Why Preserve?: Positioning the Issue and Methods of Analysis 1.1 Why Preserve? Positioning the Issue 1.2 A Case Study of the Otaru Canal Preservation Issue 1.3 Methods, Concepts, and Survey Data 1.3.1 History Theories Through Case Studies 1.3.2 Overcoming the Schema of Binary Opposition and Oppositional Complementarity 1.3.3 The Target of Preservation: A Two-Level Theory 1.3.4 The Analytical Tools of “Space” and “Place” 1.3.5 The Articulation of “Layers” 1.3.6 Survey Methods and Data 1.4 An Overview of Previous Research 1.4.1 Previous Research on Otaru 1.4.2 Research on the Preservation of Historic Environments 1.4.3 Situating the Present Research Within the Literature 1.5 An Overview of the Book References 2 The Historical Environment as Target: The Rise and Significance of Townscape Preservation Movements 2.1 The Landscape as a Target of Inquiry 2.2 Assessing the Depth of the Preservation System: Urban Planning and the Preservation of Cultural Properties 2.3 The Townscape as Culture 2.3.1 Buildings and Sites: The Architecture of Kawagoe 2.3.2 Sites and Blocks: Townhouses (Machiya) as Mutual Environmental Protection Systems 2.3.3 Cities and Blocks: City Design in Otaru 2.4 The Risks of Urban Living and Changes to the Living Environment 2.5 The Rise of the Townscape Preservation Movement and Its Implications 2.5.1 The Development of Townscape Preservation Movements Across Japan 2.5.2 Landscape as a Resource for Tourism Development 2.5.3 Protection Through Ownership: The Creation and Development of National Trust Movements 2.6 Sociology and the Landscape References 3 A City with a Grudge: A History of the Port City of Otaru 3.1 A Resentful Murmur 3.2 An Overview and Periodization of Otaru’s History 3.3 From Port City to Tourist Destination: A History of Otaru City 3.3.1 1868–1885: Otaru as Sapporo’s Outer Port 3.3.2 1886–1898: Development and Expansion 3.3.3 1899–1921: Otaru’s Zenith and the First “Canal War” 3.3.4 1922–1939: Reorganization of the Port 3.3.5 1940–1945: The Wartime Controlled Economy 3.3.6 1946–1966: A City in Decline 3.3.7 1967–1984: The Second “Canal War” 3.3.8 1985–2001: Otaru as a Tourist Destination 3.3.9 2002–Present: The Beginning of the End 3.4 The Beginning of the End—And a Second Chapter References 4 The Case for Change: The “Canal Issue” from the Perspective of the Otaru City Government 4.1 The Forces of Change 4.2 The Canal as Road Construction Site: The First Phase of the Rinkōsen Plan 4.3 From Highway to “Canal Park” 4.4 The Continuity of Discontinuity: The Logic of Change References 5 The Logic of Preservation: The Preservationists’ View of the “Canal Issue” 5.1 The Canal as Cultural Property: The Logic of the Preservation Movement During Its First Phase (1973–1976) 5.2 The Canal as Tourism Resource: The Logic of the Preservation Movement in Its Second Phase (1977–1984) 5.3 Community Development in the “Post-Canal” Period: The Third Phase (1985–2013) 5.4 The Activists: Life Histories and Patterns of Activism 5.4.1 The Aesthetic School 5.4.2 The Pure Preservationists 5.4.3 The Community Development (Machizukuri) Activists 5.4.4 The Traditional Leftists 5.5 The Logic of Preservation and the Structure of Activism References 6 What Was Won? What Was Lost?: The Transformation of the Otaru Townscape in the Post “Canal War” Period 6.1 The Logic of Change and the Logic of Preservation 6.1.1 The Logic of Change 6.1.2 The Logic of Preservation 6.2 The Structure of the “Canal War” Conflict: What Did Otaru Gain? 6.2.1 “Space” Versus “Place:” Two Opposing Perspectives on the Otaru Canal 6.2.2 “To Preserve Is to Change:” A New Understanding of Preservation 6.2.3 Understanding the Multilayered “Canal Issue” 6.2.4 From Port City to Tourist Destination: What Did Otaru Gain? 6.3 A Framework for Making Sense of Urban Landscape Change 6.3.1 The Unintended Consequences of Tourism Development 6.3.2 Grasping Change: From Architecture to Sociology 6.4 The Impact of Tourism Development: What Did Otaru Lose? 6.4.1 Distinctions Between Districts Revealed by Land Use 6.4.2 What Has Changed? an Analysis of the Changes to the Rate of Use and the Rate of Landscape Change 6.4.3 A History of the Land: Transitions in Tourism Development and Land Ownership 6.4.4 The Paradox of Tourism Development: The Logic of Landscape Change 6.5 The Beginning of the End: The “Publicness” of the Lost Landscape References 7 To Preserve Is to Change 7.1 The Gaze from Otaru/on Otaru 7.2 Community Theory: The Implications and Limitations for Urban Sociology 7.3 The Implications and Limitations of Environmental Sociology 7.4 The Function of the Townscape: Toward a Sociology of Townscape Preservation References Timeline of Events: The “Otaru Canal Issue” and Subsequent Community Development Initiatives, 1959–2017 Maps List of Buildings Surveyed Index