### 2. Traditional Wooden Buildings Supported by Forest Resources

As another type of ecosystem service, we will discuss provision service from the perspective of how forest resources provide traditional wooden buildings in Japan. Japan is one of the countries which has oldest wooden buildings. There are more than 4,000 buildings that are national treasures or important cultural properties and 85% of them are made of wood and nearly half of their roofs are thatched with materials made from plants, so regular maintenance is necessary. Japan recognizes the significant value of wooden buildings as cultural properties, and forest resources have been preserved for a long time. At present, more than 300 traditional wooden buildings are annually repaired using well-managed forest resources.

Maintenance of traditional wooden buildings requires large amount of timbers made from large-diameter trees; approximately one third of the timbers were the ones of large diameter and length. In order to supply these materials it is necessary to maintain forests so that they are continuously more than 100 years old. Here we will take a look at the example of a traditional way for maintaining and rebuilding wooden building that the Isejingu Shrine carried out once every 20 years.

The regular rebuilding of Isejingu Shrine, which has long and distinguished history in Japan, began more than 1300 years ago in 690 A.D., as is called ‘Shikinen-Sengu’. The 62nd rebuilding is scheduled in 2013. The rebuilding requires each time a volume of approximately $ 8,500 \, m^{3} $ of round Cypress timber, the main of which are long and have a large diameter. For example, when the $ 58^{th} $ regular rebuilding was carried out, more than 11,000 round timbers were ordered; approximately 3,000 trees were required to be mid-size with 30 centimeters of diameter, and more than 600 timbers were required to be large-size with 70 centimeters (Figure 2-1-4).

The forest has been supplying large-diameter trees for a long time under the traditional way of management. After World War II, most part of the forest was put under the management of the Forestry Agency, the way of managing the forest were established under the Forestry Agency's plans, and planned and continuous management has been conducted over a long period, with approximately 50 year cycle.

In addition, the Isejingu Shrine has its own forest for supplying the trees, which contains a sanctuary where cutting is prohibited (267ha), Number 1 Precinct Forest comprising natural forest (1,094ha), and Number 2 Precinct Forest where forest operations such as production of timber for building the shrine are conducted. In this Number 2 precinct forest, the Jingu Administration Office has the plan for long-term forest management, with a target of producing approximately 100 large-diameter trees per unit area (ha) every 200 years.

Further, the wood wastes generated after the regular rebuilding of Isejingu Shrine are not disposed of, but instead are thoroughly reused as materials for other shrines across the nation. It can be thought that Japan has traditional knowledge of taking care of its forests and of how to fully use materials without any waste (Figure 2-1-5).

### 3. Traditional Cuisine Which Reflects the Geographical and Climate Background

Tetsuro Watsuji (1889-1960), who was a Japanese philosopher and argues that there is essential relationship between climate and other environmental factors and human culture, wrote the following in his book “Climate and Culture: A Philosophical Study.” “Climate is the most deeply related to production of food. Our appetites

Figure 2-1-4 Number of Cypress Trees Necessary for Rebuilding Isejingu, by Diameter Level

Source: Research on Securing Materials for Repairing Wooden Building Cultural Properties, by Hirokazu Yamamoto and others (March 2005)