世界遺産シリーズ　The World Heritage Series

① 姫路城　　　左：姫路城天守閣　　右：高橋正身筆「姫路城図」

【姫路城の歴史】
　姫山と鷺山、二つの小高い山にまたがる広大な城地、白鷺城（はくろじょう）の別名をもつ優美な姿の城郭、姫路城が現在のこの美しい姿になるまでには、何代もの城主の交代がありました。
　はじまりは鎌倉時代末期、播磨の豪族、赤松則村が姫山に砦を築き、その次男貞範が城を構えました。それからおよそ二百年後の安土桃山時代には、羽柴秀吉が西国攻略の根拠地として入城。鷺山まで城地を拡張して三重の天守閣を築きました。この城を姫路城と命名したのは秀吉で、それまでは姫山城と呼ばれていたといわれています。
　そして、現在の姿になるのは江戸時代のはじめ（1609年）。徳川家康の女婿（むすめむこ）池田輝政が、秀吉時代の建物を取り払って配置を新たにし、五層七階の天守を築くなど、8年もの歳月をかけた大拡張工事を行って、ほぼ完成させたのです。この時代は、日本の城郭建築の最盛期であり、姫路城はその代表的な存在です。戦に使われることも戦禍に遭うこともなく、現存する城の中で、日本独特の城の構造が最もよく残されているといわれています。

1. Himeji-jo Castle　　　Left: Himeji Castle Tower　　Right: View of Himeji-jo Castle by Masami TAKAHASHI

<History of Himeji-jo Castle>
Spanning the small Himeyama and Sagiyama mountains, the grand Himeji-jo Castle is graceful and elegant; it is otherwise called "The white heron castle", because of its birdlike resemblance. In the course of its construction the castle served many feudal lords.
The castle originates from the closing years of the Kamakura Period (1185-1333) when Norimura Akamatsu, a powerful clan of the Village of Harima in western Japan, built a fortress on Mt. Himeyama. His second son, Sadanori Akamatsu, fortified the fortress into a castle. In the Azuchi-Momoyama Period (1568-1600), Hideyoshi Hashiba captured the castle and used it as a fort when he invaded his opponents in the western region. He scaled the castle site to control Mt. Sagiyama where he built a three-storied donjon, and renamed Himeyama-jo Castle as Himeji-jo Castle, as it is now known. In 1609, Terumasa Ikeda, an influential feudal lord and a son-in-law of Ieyasu Tokugawa, the head of the Tokugawa feudal government, scrapped all the castle buildings and rebuilt an imposing seven-storied donjon, taking eight years for construction.
In Japan, the early 17th century were prime years for castle construction and saw the building of numerous castles by feudal lords throughout the country, including Himeji-jo Castle as one of the largest. Fortunately the castle escaped the ravages of civil war and the World War II air raids. Of the extant medieval castles in Japan, Himeji-jo Castle retains more vestiges of its original construction than any other castle.

② 法隆寺　　　左：法隆寺・金堂壁画　　右：法隆寺・金堂

【悠久の時を刻む、斑鳩（いかるが）の里】
　法隆寺は、推古天皇と聖徳太子によって、607年（推古15年）、この斑鳩の里に建立されました。しかし、その建物は、「日本書紀」によると670年（天智9年）に全焼したとあり、現在の伽藍（がらん）は7世紀末に再建されたものと考えられています。広さ約19万m²の寺域には、世界最古の木造建築物である金堂や五重塔を中心とする西院伽藍と、夢殿を中心とした東院伽藍に分かれ、その建築や彫刻、絵画などにシルクロード文化の影響が見られます。シルクロードの終着点と形容される正倉院よりも、一時代古い飛鳥白鳳期の遺物が多いところも法隆寺の特徴で、このことから法隆寺は、日本の国宝というだけでなく、古代東アジア先進文化圏が生みだした、共通の文化遺産といえるでしょう。
　斑鳩の里には、聖徳太子の生母穴穂部間人（あなほべのはしひと）皇后の菩提（ぼだい）を弔う中宮寺や、日本最古の三重塔のある法起寺、法輪寺など、太子ゆかりの古刹（こさつ）が伝統を守り、古代飛鳥の息吹きを今に伝えています。

2. Horyu-ji Temple　　　Left: Horyu-ji Kondo Wall Paintings　　Right: Horyu-ji Kondo

<Eternal time ticks away at this historic site in Ikaruga-no-sato.>
Horyu-ji Temple was built by Emperor Suiko and Prince Shotoku in AD 607 in the old village of Ikaruga. According to the Nihon-shoki (oldest history book written in Japan), this temple's buildings were completely burned in AD 670. The present temple buildings of Horyuji are assumed to have been built at the end of the 7th century. In the temple gounds, covering about 190,000 m², the buildings are divided into two sections. The first is the Sai-in garan (buildings in the west precinct), which include the Kondo (main temple building, also called the "Golden Hall") and the Goju-no-to (five-story pagoda), which is the world's oldest wooden structure. The second section is the Toh-in garan (buildings in the east precinct) including the Yumedono. The influence of Silk Road culture can be seen in these structure, statues, carvings, and paintings. A distinctive feature of Horyu-ji Temple is its many relics of the Asuka and Hakuho periods (AD 552-710) that are older by a decade or more than those kept in the Shoso-in (Todaiji temple's storage building for sacred objects), considered the terminus of the Silk Road. Thus, not only is Horyu-ji Temple one of Japan's national treasures, it is also part of the common cultural heritage created in the ancient East Asian zone of advanced culture.
Many old temples are connected with Prince Shotoku. Among these are (a) Chugu-ji Temple that was built to ensure eternal bliss after the death of Prince Shotoku's mother, the Empress Hashihito; (b) Hoki-ji Temple that has the oldest three-story pagoda in Japan; and (c) Horin-ji Temple. All of these are located in Ikaruga-no-sato, and have maintained their traditions and conveyed to today's generations the emanations of the old Asuka period.

④ 白神山地　　　左：ブナ原生林　右：クマゲラ

【太古の姿を残す広大なブナ原生林】
　白神山地は、青森県西南部から秋田県北西部にかけ、白神岳、駒ヶ岳など1000～1200m前後の山々が連なる、約13万ヘクタールの広大な一大山域です。世界遺産として登録されたのは、最高峰の向白神岳（むかいしらかみだけ、1243m）を含む、約1万7千ヘクタール。この地域は、深い谷が密に入り組んだ複雑な地形と急峻な傾斜のために人が立ち入ることがほとんどなく、原生の姿をそのまま留めた世界最大級の規模のブナ林が残されています。また調査によって、このブナ林が8千年以上も前からあったことがわかっており、植物史的にも貴重な地域です。
　雪解けの頃に川が真っ白になることからとも、また山を守り住んでいた白髪の老人にその名が由来するともいわれる白神山地。一時は、開発という時代の波に飲みこまれ、自然が失われそうになったこともありましたが、地元住民を中心とした保護運動が実を結んで「自然環境保全地域」に指定され、世界に誇る日本の自然遺産として保護されています。

4. Shirakami-sanchi Heights　　　Left: A virgin forest of Japanese beech　　Right: Black Woodpecker

<Vast Virgin Forests of Japanese Beech with Traces of Ancient Days>
The Shirakami-sanchi Heights cover a vast area of about 130,000 hectares, and encompass a range of mountains (1,000 to 2,000 meters) including Mt. Shirakami and Mt. Koma, extending from southwestern Aomori Prefecture to northwestern Akita Prefecture. Of these, the area registered as the World Heritage site covers about 17,000 hectares, including the highest mountain Mt. Mukai Shirakami (1,243 m). This region has long defied human access with its steep, maze-like topography with interlaced deep valleys, and its beech forest, which is claimed to be among the world's largest, remains intact just as it was in ancient days. A recent survey identified the forest as dating back some 8,000 years. This region thus provides a valuable glimpse of the history of vegetation.
The Shirakami-sanchi Heights are named after the white river waters in early spring when the snow begins to melt, or after the figure of an legendary old man with snow white hair, who lived on the mountain as a guard. Once, the beech forest on the Heights faced environmental destruction when commercial vendors undertook regional development, but the forest was fortunately saved from catastrophe by local environment conservation campaigns, which eventually led the forest to be designated as a "Natural Environment Conservation Area" for the protection of valuable natural assets; indeed, the forests are something that Japan can be proud of worldwide.

　

③ 屋久島　　　左：縄文杉　　右：ヤクシカ

【独特の植生を育む、気候風土】
　九州本土南端から南へ約60kmに位置する屋久島。周囲約130kmという小さな島に、九州最高峰である標高1935mの宮之浦岳をはじめ九州第7位までの高山がそびえていることから、「洋上アルプス」「海上の山塊」とよばれています。また、作家・林芙美子が「月のうち35日雨が降る」と表現したように年間降水量は日本一。この雨が森を潤し、島のいたるところで迸る清流となって島の風景を変化に富んだものにしています。
　約2000m近くの標高差。そして豊かな水。この屋久島の自然環境は、亜寒帯から亜熱帯まで、日本列島すべての気候が凝縮されているといわれ、独特の幅広い植生をつくっています。なかでも樹齢1000年を越す屋久杉の原生林は世界にも類をみない特異なもの。多量の水を含む緑の苔に覆われた地面、その地に這う杉の太い根、倒木、そしてそこに混在するさまざまな広葉樹。屋久島が九州全土から切り離されて以来、1万5千年もの間育まれてきたこの森は、人智の及ばない聖域なのです。

3. Yaku-shima Island　　　Left: Jomon Cedar　　Right: Yaku Deer

<Unique Climate Fosters Luxuriant Vegetation>
Yaku-shima Island, about 60km south of the southern tip of Kyusyu Island, is a tiny island with a circumference of 130 km. The island is called "the Alps on the Sea" or "the Mountain Mass on the Sea" because the island is home to seven of the highest mountains in Kyusyu, including Mt. Miyanoura (1,935 m above sea level). As the writer Fumiko Hayashi put it, "It rains 35 days a month on the island"-the island has the highest annual precipitation in Japan. The plentiful rainfall has produced fertile soil and many streams across the island, enhancing the scenic splendor.
With a large difference in elevation of nearly 2,000 meters from the base to the peak of Mt. Miyanoura and plentiful rainfall, the island packs in its tiny area a wide range of climates, from subfrigid to subtropical zones where a wide range of indigenous vegetation grows.
Of these, the virgin forests of Yaku cedar which are more than 1,000 years old are rare on the planet. Soil covered with juicy green moss, huge cedar roots crawling along the mossy ground, old fallen trees including broadleaved trees-these features characterize the unique Yaku cedar forests.
The 15,000 year-old virgin cedar forest became a sanctuary beyond the reach of humans after the island was geologically severed from mainland Kyusyu.

Four

Three

Two

One