Current Status and Issues of Local Cultural Heritage Preservation in Tono, Japan

This study examines the four categories of Tono’s cultural heritage, namely tangible cultural heritage, intangible cultural heritage, natural heritage, and complex heritage, with the use of specific lists.In this study, we first establish the relationship between the existing cultural assets of Tono and Tono’s heritage. Some of Tono s heritages include those that are designated as cultural assets at the national level and at the prefecture/ city level. In other words, there is an overlap between Tono’s heritage and its cultural assets.Second, we confirm that the traditional arts occupy a significant portion of Tono’s intangible cultural heritage. However, the influence of Tono Heritage did not include oral narratives. In this paper, we emphasize the fact that the city of Tono became popular because of the book Todomonogatari, a collection of oral narratives of Tono. The book raised the need for the inclusion of oral tales in Tono’s heritage.Third, we attempt to highlight that although the complex heritage of Tono has already been categorized under intangible cultural heritage, tangible cultural heritage, or natural heritage, there are a few cases that can be explicitly designated as constituting complex heritage.