A study of commercial development and conservation of the Kurazukuri buildings in the Ichibangai area, Kawagoe City

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to clarify how and why the conservation of Kurazukuri buildings increased the number of tourists and re-vitalized a shopping street in Kawagoe City, Saitama Prefecture. The local administration took the following steps: 1) providing a subsidy for the restoration of buildings; 2) enforcing landscape regulations; 3) constructing small parks along the street; 4) laying a more attractive pavement; and 5) burying the electric power lines. Inhabitants of Ichibangai Street organized the Kura-No-Kai (Association of Kurazukuri buildings) for the re-vitalization of commerce and conservation of Kurazukuri buildings. One more important action by the inhabitants was to design the Machinami Kihan (Standards for House Conservation) which is applied in the case of house restoration. Today, many tourists visit Ichibangai Street with the number of people visiting Kawagoe amounting to 3.5 million persons per year. Visitors to the Kurazukuri Museum, for example, increased 3.6 times between 1982 and 1997. Tourists make up nearly 100 per cent of the customers at shops in Kashiya Yokocho Street and tourists make up at least half of the customers at almost 40 per cent of the shops in Ichibangai and Kanetsuki streets. Between 1975 and 1997, almost 60 per cent of the shops changed their function, with restaurants and coffee shops for tourists especially increasing in number. A large increase in consumption by tourists has resulted and shops and bustling streets have been re-vitalized. It follows that the inhabitants gained in confidence to conserve the Kurazukuri buildings and to maintain a landscape featuring a row of well-conserved buildings.