Addis Ababa, ETHIOPIA
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UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Japan |
| Embassy of Japan Addis Ababa, ETHIOPIA |
| THE HIMEJI CASTLE |
| Known as gthe White Heron Castle,h the largest castle complex in Japan stands on a hill of Himeji City. The Castle Himeji was first planned and constructed in 1331 and expanded to its current scale in 1601 by Terumasa IKEDA, a feudal ruler on the side of Ieyasu TOKUGAWA. During the age of civil war, it was the fortress against those who did not follow the Tokugawa Clan, and the most advanced architectural techniques at the time for the defense of a castle were employed, whose refined form and aesthetics were considered as an art. Throughout 250 years of peace under the Tokugawa Shogunate, the castle served as the embodiment of the authority of the samurai government. For 400 years since its construction, the white mortar of the castle had never seen the battle, except for the incendiary bombing during WW II. Fortunately, the damage caused by the war was minimal and the restoration work on the castle began in 1956. The castle was registered with the UNESCO World Heritage in 1993. |
| THE IWAMI GINZAN SILVER MINE |
The Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine was registered with the UNESCO World Heritage in 2007 for its contribution to economic and cultural exchange in the 16th century, its excellent preservation of traditional silver production techniques, and the rare combination of its coexistence with a rich natural environment.The mine, together with more than one thousand workshops around it, was an improtant supplier of high quality silver to Japan and to East Asia in the 16th century. At the beginning of the 17th century, one third of the silver circulated in the world was said to have come from Japan, and the majority was produced at the Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine. The silver trade flourished spectacularly when the Europeans came to East Asia in search of spice, gold and silver, leading to an economic and cultural interaction between East and West. |
| YAKUSHIMA ISLAND |
| Yakushima Island is a range of mountains rising steeply from the ocean. Mount Miyanoura, the highest mountain in the Kyushu Region at 1,935 meters, and other mountains over 1000 meters in height jostle on the island whose coastline stretches only 130 kilometers, giving it the impression of an Alps on the sea. For thousands of years, sharp cliffs of granite covered by ancient forest have nurtured a rich variation of plants in the fog and cloud. The continuous distribution of a variety of plants from the level to almost 2000 meters above the sea is considered the best preserved specimens of plants in East Asia, despite several centuries of human activities on the island. The natural heritage of Yakushima Island was registered with UNESCO World Heritage in 1993 together with the Shirakami Mountains. |
SHIRAKAMI MOUNTAINS |
| Located on the border between Akita Prefecture and Aomori Prefecture over an area of 16,971 hectares, the mountains are covered by primeval beech wood forest. At 1,243 meters, Mukaishirakami is the highest of the mountains followed by the peaks of Shirakami, Futatsumori, and Komagatake ranging from 1,000 meters to 1,200 meters. The beech wood forest is the source of various rivers running across both prefectures. At one point, the Tohoku Region was covered with beech wood forest but with the lumber shortage after World War II, the Government implemented a forest expansion program replacing beech wood forest with fast growing cedar and cypress trees, and much of the virgin beech wood forest disappeared. The Shirakami Mountain Range was registered with UNESCO World Heritage as a natural heritage site in 1993 for its primeval forest and home to a unique ecosystem. |
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