01654nas a2200145   4500000000100000000000100001000000100002008004100003100001300044245009800057300001000155490000700165520131600172022002001488       2014                            d1 aB. Galli00aIn the service of national culture Japanese preservation and its political context, 1871-1994  a22-380 v103 aJapanese preservation is rightfully credited with the development of the concept of intangible heritage. But it has become cliché to attribute the singular traits of Japanese preservation to its isolation from foreign influences. This essay shows that the development of Japanese preservation policies from the Meiji Period (1868-1926) to the recent past were far more politically driven, and in dialogue with foreign ideas, than is often acknowledged. Early twentieth-century politicians often secured power by stoking popular fears that the country was becoming too Buddhist or too Westernized and promoted preservation policies that produced a sense of cultural uniqueness. During the postwar years, American rule shifted social power dynamics and saw the emergence of bottom-up, citizen-led preservation groups more concerned with preserving their "cultural space," conceived as traditional neighborhoods and lifestyles, against Westernization. As Japan joined the international community, a new generation of preservationists jockeyed for power within UNESCO by emphasizing their unique intellectual contributions, seizing upon the recent concept of cultural space and eventually recasting it according to Zen and Buddhist philosophy into a concept of intangible heritage that defied Western chronologies.  a15499715 (ISSN)