HERITAGE AND MUSEUM IN JAPAN AND FRANCE

最近，在日本有一种趋势，即文化财产和博物馆的存在具有越来越大的社会意义。本研究项目通过对日本、欧洲（尤其是法国）和美国进行为期三年的调查，旨在从比较的角度探讨这一趋势的意义。在我们的研究结果中，首先应该注意的是，日本和法国对“文化财产”一词的定义完全不同。法语单词“patrimoine”意味着重新评估被遗弃的东西，并将这些东西作为公共财产保存下来的意愿。因此，可以说，在法国，文化财产的制度性保护在维持社会秩序方面发挥着核心作用，因为通过不断重新评估遗产的意义，社会本身（及其历史）也被重新定义。另一方面，在日本，当使用“bunkazai”这个词时，并不意味着要重新评估和公开被抛弃的东西。日本的传统不是通过保存物品来维持，而是通过以某种“形式”再现和实现过去应该存在的东西。（这可以称为“实现逻辑”。）因此，文物本身的保存被认为不太重要。更重要的是，一般来说，博物馆是由西方现代性的自然历史欲望产生的，由于日本没有这种欲望，博物馆作为一种机构在日本完全建立起来需要很长时间。

Recently in Japan, there is a tendency that increasing social significance has given to the existence of cultural properties (Bunkazai) and museums. Based on three-year-survey in Japan, Europe (especially France) and United States, this research project aims to inquire into the meaning of this tendency in a comparative point of view.Among various findings of our study, what should be noted primarily is the fact that the definition of the word "cultural properties" is totally different between Japan and France. The French word "patrimoine" implies a will to re-evaluate what has been abandoned and to conserve these objects as public properties. Therefore, it can be said that in France the institutional conservation of cultural property plays a central role in the sustenance of social order because by constantly re-evaluating the significance of heritages, the society itself (and its history) is also re-defined.In Japan, on the other hand, when the word "bunkazai" is used, it is not implied to re-evaluate and make public what has been abandoned. Tradition in Japan has been maintained not through the conservation of the objects but by re-presenting and realizing in a certain "form" what is supposed to have existed in the past. (This can be called "a logic of actualization" .) Thus the conservation of the objects as itself was not considered to be of much importance. What is more, the museum in general was given birth by the natural historical desire of occidental modernity and as Japan did not share this kind of desire, it took quite sometime before the museum as an institution was fully installed this country.