UIA 2021 RIO: 27th World Congress of Architects

Foreigners’ Roles in Preserving Historical Houses: A Case
Study in a Rural Town in Japan
Arno Suzuki
Kyoto UniversityAbstract
Historical houses in Japan are endangered,mainly because of financial reasons. Someforeigners take this situation more
seriously than locals and play active rolesin their preservation and utilization. The
longevity of buildings in Japan tends to be
short due to social and cultural reasons.
The primary cause of this is the scrap-andbuild practice in the construction industry
that contributes to the country's economicgrowth. The real estate market in Japanfinds little value in old houses, partly
because of this commercial motivation andpartly because Japanese culture has ahigher appreciation for brand-new things.
Unlike local people, foreigners find culturalvalue in historic or vernacular houses inJapan, and they are more used to selfmaintaining their homes. Additionally,foreigners, especially those with a different
ethnic appearance, draw public attention,and gain funding more than local people.
This article reveals such a case that
occurred in a small rural town called Hino,in Shiga Prefecture. An American, whoappreciated the traditional Japanese
lifestyle, bought a 120-year-old abandonedhouse. He restored it using traditional
construction methods and later moved into
Hino, where he has lived for the last 15years. He soon became the secretariat of
the Hino Historical Preservation Society.
His activities ignited his neighbors andcreated a movement of restoration, which
made the environment better and drew inmore new residents, especially young
people. The number of abandoned houses
in his neighborhood decreased remarkably,
and community events and local businesses
are revitalized with respect to the traditionof Hino.

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Background
Endangered Historic Properties in Japan
A typical reason why historic homes in urban
areas are demolished is that the land is morevaluable than the existing erected houses.
Subsequently, it makes more financial sense tobuild high-volume apartments or offices. There
are developers who knock on the landowners’
doors and solicit such conversions. Anotherreason is that the inheritance tax is so high thatthe heir cannot pay without selling the land. Insuch cases, the house needs to be demolished,because otherwise, the land value depreciates.
In Japan, old or second-hand houses are valued
much less than brand-new ones regardless ifthey are historic or not. In the case where theland value is so small that the property has noheirs, buildings become abandoned. They
eventually decay and fall apart, causing trouble
for the neighborhood. In 2018, there were about
8.5 million "unoccupied houses," which wasapproximately 13.6% of all houses in Japan atthat time. Currently, this is one of the mostsignificant social issues in Japan. Despite thisnationwide trend, there is a rural town where thenumber of unoccupied houses is decreasing.
The whole town is being slowly but steadily
revitalized by its volunteer residents without any
national government initiatives or grants.
Methods
Interviews and Observation
This report is based on in-depth interviews withkey people from the Hino Historical TownscapePreservation Society. The first was for one houron the 14 May 2019 with Mr. Yoshiyuki
Uchiyama; and then on the 19 May 2019, Mr.
Austin Moore was interviewed for approximately
five hours, which included follow-up via emails.
The author also briefly spoke with four town
officials and four active residents, who have been
contributing to the revitalization of Hino, to findout how it worked. All other data are from publicannouncements by the Town of Hino or are
personal communication with town officials.
Chapter 4, the History of Hino, primarily relied on
the research by Yuga Kariya in 19931.

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Overview of Hino Town
Location and Demography
Hino is a town in Shiga Prefecture, Japan, about
50 km away from Kyoto. The area is officiallyabout 12,000 square kilometers, but most areas
are forest and farmland. People live on about
5.7% of the land area, which mainly extends fora couple of kilometers along the historic mainstreet that leads to the lost castle.
Despite its inconvenient location with little
public transportation, the town has kept a
population of around 22,000 since the 1990s.
Although, the residents are aging, like in otherrural areas of Japan. There are less than 900
students and pupils, half of which go to schooloutside the town. The younger generation has
moved out and gone to the big cities seeking job
opportunities, even though Hino was known forthe success of its merchants. Only about half of
the working people are doing so in the town, andthe other half commute to other places.
For a rural town, there is a relatively large groupof foreigners living in Hino. As of January
2019, 527 non-Japanese residents were onrecord. More than 40% of the inhabitants are
Brazilians (217), which is by far the majority,
followed by Vietnamese (115), Filipinos (47),
Koreans (45), and Chinese (39). Those biggroups may have come to Hino to work in the
manufacturing industry in nearby cities, but theforeigners discussed in this article moved into
Hino for different reasons.
Hino has a culture of independence from
authorities, which probably derived from its
history. When many other towns became
merged into cities through so-called Heisei
Municipal Mergers that were led by the national
government in 2000-2010, it stayed as a town.
Hino has also had an entrepreneurial spirit. An
example of this is their pioneering actions inhosting groups of pupils from big cities forfarming experiences, which have become
popular in many other areas of Japan.

History of Hino
Research by Yuga Kariya, 1993
Hino was shaped as a castle town for the lord
Gamou in the 16th century. After they lost theirlord at the end of that century, it restarted as amerchants' town and flourished as such until theearly 20th century. Hino merchants traveledaround to do their business nationwide while
keeping their family and luxurious residences inthe town. Their home served as the headquartersof the business, and their stores were locatedoutside Hino all over Japan. Therefore, Hino
had many upscale houses but few workplaces intown. Since there was no need for a storefront,
and only women and children were living there,
their homes had closed architecture probably for
their security. Consequently, Hino architecture
is known for its hidden internal luxury.
Hino's success as a commercial town did not
happen overnight. The town experienced asevere deterioration for about 15 years after theirlord moved out of his territory in 1584. The
General Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who had justunited the country in the late 16th century, gave
special permission to Hino residents to ease thesituation. That permission included the right totravel to other places and an exemption frompublic services, which helped Hino merchants
succeed as itinerant businessmen. They became
wealthy and built the highest quality, elaborate,and durable buildings. Thanks to the wealthy
residents who had plenty of exposure andcontact with the outside world, Hino became ahighly cultured town, despite its rural location.
Nowadays, Hino residents still retain theirculture of respect for their history and use this to
educate their children.
Regrettably, Hino was also unable to resist thenationwide trend of rapid economic growth andmodernization that occurred in the 1960s.
Likewise, with the so-called "bubble economy"
and skyrocketing land prices that happened in
the 1980s, many historic houses were lost.
According to a survey by Kariya, many Hino
merchants' estates had remained in 1972, but
most of them had disappeared by 1993.
Currently, out of approximately 9,000 wooden
houses in the Town of Hino, each with different
ownership records, there are less than 1,800
wooden houses that are made using traditional
construction and built before 1950.

The Entrance of Mr. Austin Moore
Secretariat of HHTPS, the Catalyst
Town officials became concerned with thesituation and established an official group in1999 to discuss the preservation of thetownscape. The group became privatized in2008 under a new name, "The Hino Historical
Townscape Preservation Society (HHTPS)," runby volunteers with independent funding. Thesociety appointed an American resident, Mr.
Austin Moore, to be the first secretariat.

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Mr. Moore grew up in a suburb near Boston,
USA, participating in many preservation
projects with his father, who was the presidentof the local historical society. He became
interested in Japan because there were some
artifacts in his house brought from Japan by Dr.
Edward S. Morse, who was an eminent scientist
and Japanologist. Mr. Moore studied theJapanese language at college and moved to Japanfirst as an English teacher in 1984. Since then, hehas continued to live in Japan, working as anadministrator and instructor for public agencies.
Mr. Moore has always lived in a historical houseand fell in love with and later bought a 120-yearold traditional Japanese house in Hino. This
house had been unoccupied for 13 years, andstill contained all the furniture and commoditiesof the former resident. In Japan, it is customary
to clear all interior finishes and decorations thatthe previous owner left in the house before thenew owner moves in. Few people want to buy
old second-hand items, especially those who canafford to buy a home. Similarly, in this case, thereal estate mediator had already contracted agarbage collector to empty the house. However,

Mr. Moore canceled the collector's appointment,
sorted out the legacies, and kept those that hethought fit with the aesthetic of the building.
Americans are more inclined to opt for antiques,
while Japanese people tend to appreciate brandnew things. (Fig. 1).

Restoration of the Historic Home
Challenges in Traditional Construction
Mr. Moore was adamant about using traditional
Japanese construction skills, but it was difficult
to find artisans who had those skills. Although,he finally found a retired 78-year-old carpenterfor the woodwork, and the carpenter was thrilled
to have an opportunity to use his traditional
craftsmanship again. However, they had to fightagainst younger apprentices and collaborating
technicians who thought that traditional
methods were too complicated and timeconsuming. The traditional plastering was evenmore difficult. Mr. Moore had to go throughtrials and errors with several different plasterers,
and he is still looking for someone who canhandle his earthen walls. For plumbing andelectrical work, he hired professionals andaccepted modern equipment (Fig. 2).

Figure 1. Antiques kept as integral parts of the historical house (19 May 2019 by Arno Suzuki)

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Figure 2. Modern equipment fit into a historical house (19 May 2019 by Arno Suzuki)

Maintenance
Responsibility and Cost
Mr. Moore hired professionals only fortraditional wood-working, plastering, grass-mat
flooring, plumbing, and electrical work, and hedid the rest by himself. He replaced rice paperon 120 sliding doors, painted colcothar on all
exterior walls, and undertook all the gardening,except pruning the tall trees that were higher
than ten feet (Fig. 3).
The maintenance cost often becomes a financial
burden on many historic home owners, because
nowadays the traditional techniques are rare andextremely expensive (Suzuki, 2013)2. The
owner's self-maintenance skills, however,would reduce the problem, and it seemed morenatural for Mr. Moore to spend his time andmoney taking care of his home.
Most
Americans understand responsibility and cost of
maintenance, and Japanese people also
benefitted from learning this habit. Mr. Moore
still spent 1.5 times more money on therestoration than on purchasing the house andland together, and his restoration project is stillon-going (Wallstreet Journal 2013)3.

Mr. Yoshiyuki Uchiyama
The Agent of “San-po-yoshi”
Mr. Uchiyama, a real estate broker from Kyoto
City who mediated this house to Mr. Moore, wasanother key person to the success of townscapepreservation in Hino. Mr. Uchiyama only sells
historic homes to responsible well-manneredcustomers because he would lose his reputation
if his buyer caused any trouble in thecommunity. He becomes especially carefulwhen he deals with rural areas, where theneighborhood relationship is crucial. Mr.
Uchiyama trusted Mr. Moore even though he
was his first foreign customer. Additionally,Mr. Uchiyama spent six months knocking on all
the doors of Mr. Moore's future neighbors, andintroduced him as the new resident. Thanks tothis extraordinary effort of Mr. Uchiyama and to
the patience of Mr. Moore to wait that long, thecommunity welcomed Mr. Moore without any
prejudice. Thus, Mr. Moore became the first"new-comer" in Hino in the real sense, that is,
without any family or business relations there.
Soon after moving in, Mr. Moore began
contributing to the community, hoping to giveback to his neighbors’ warm welcome.

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Figure 3. Room and garden of Moore Residence (19 May 2019 by Arno Suzuki)

Good spirits seemed to influence others. Mr.
Uchiyama became familiar with Hino after his
efforts for Mr. Moore, and he continued tocontribute to the town even though he was anoutsider. He purchased two abandoned houses
next to each other, restored them at his own
expense, and let the HHTPS use them free ofcharge as their headquarters (Fig. 4). He knew
this would not make him any profit, but he also
believes in "returning to society." After
contributing to the town like this, he got further
business opportunities in Hino and saved more
historic houses from demolition. This businessstyle is precisely the goal of merchants in thisarea, namely "san-po-yoshi," which means"three-sided satisfaction; the seller, buyer, andthe society are all happy." Good old-fashioned
Americans also had a similar virtue ofcontributing to the society, which was perhaps
the way Mr. Moore grew up.

Reaction from the Community
Resonance with Hino’s Tradition
Mr. Fujiwara, the owner of an antique shop
named Kakufuku and whose family originatedfrom Hino, is another indispensable 'player' in574

Hino. He bought and saved a historic estate that
also had no heir. The town took it over andturned into a museum and restaurant, which are
now run by the help of volunteer groups ofhomemakers in town. Later, Mr. Fujiwarabought another unoccupied historical house andsold it for a low price, on condition that thebuyer ran it as a soba noodle restaurant while
keeping the authenticity of the traditional
construction. He found a buyer, and now thesoba restaurant and café seems to be one of themost popular establishments in Hino.
HHTPS maintains another historic property
called Nishida Residence and uses it for local
events. They hold a rakugo, or Japanese
comedy show, gathering every year, as well as aseries of lectures to teach the traditional culture.
They make enough revenue to at least cover theexpense of holding these events, without
depending on any financial support from thegovernment. In 2017, HTTPS called forcrowdfunding to restore the wooden wall withsajiki-mado, which is a particular architecturalelement in Hino's townscape (Fig. 5). The
campaign ended successfully, and they received

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over a million Japanese yen, which isapproximately 10,000 US dollars, from 62
donators. The list of donators included many
Westerners, probably thanks to Mr. Moore’sconnection. The effect from the publicity of his
restoration projects also may have worked.

brewing company in 2018, in collaboration withthe traditional Hino Festival. They distribute
their beer nationwide, contributing to thepromotion of Hino. Mr. Vincent moved into
Hino to live in a historic Japanese house, which
was again introduced by Mr. Uchiyama.

Although HTTPS became privatized andfinancially independent, some town officials
continue to cooperate with HTTPS’s activities.
Mr. Yasuda, one of the town officials, said Mr.
Moore taught them the value of their heritage.

In Hino, the American attitude of independence
and self-responsibility fit into Hino's tradition ofautonomy and self-reliance and woke up thetown’s potential. In contrast, Japanese people
have tended to depend on public supports forhistoric preservation, though taxpayers do notunderstand the value of such assets (Suzuki2013). They also tend to believe that they musthire professionals for home maintenance, and as
a result, neglect if they think it too expensive.
However, for Americans, it is common to spend
time and money to maintain their homes, andthey do not mind expending, when they canafford it, for others' historic assets. Hino also
had a culture of preserving its historic assets aswell as supporting their artisans and culturalcreators. May this story of fortunate synergy
inspire those who faced with issues such as theaging society and unoccupied houses.

Continuing Revitalization
More New Comers and Local Businesses
Thanks to those volunteers' hard work, Hino has
become revitalized, which has attracted new
residents. Four uninhabitable houses and two
unoccupied houses were in Mr. Moore's
neighborhood when he came to Hino in 2004,
but they all gained residents now. Moreforeigners have also moved into Hino; Mr. Sean
Chumiecki from Poland moved into Hino in2010, and Mr. Tom Vincent from the U.K.
arrived in 2017. These two Europeans teamed
up with a local liquor seller and started aFigure 4. The meeting room of the HTTPS Headquarter (19 May 2019 by Arno Suzuki)

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Endnotes1.

Yuga Kariya, “Toshikeikan no keisei to hozen ni
kansuru kenkyu (Study on Creation and Preservationof Urban Landscape)”, doctoral dissertation submittedto Graduate School of Engineering (in Japanese),
Kyoto University, Chapter 1, 1993.3, 5-76pp.

2.

Arno Suzuki, “Challenges in Preservation andUtilization of Houses in Japan with Misconceptions ofGeneral Public”, The 60th International Symposium on
Traditional Architecture, full papers, Nanjing, China,
2013.11, 836-845pp.

3.

Yuka Hayashi, “A Home Suitable for a Samurai”, WallStreet Journal, Oct. 31, 2013

•Hino-cho (Hino Town) official website, statisticalinformation page http://www.town.shiga-hino.lg.jp

Figure 5. Restored wall of Nishida Residence (19 May 2019 by Arno Suzuki)

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