NEW YORK — The World Monuments Fund earlier this month announced Kyoto's traditional town houses, called "machiya," were added to 92 other sites that are at risk of disappearing in 47 countries.
Kyoto was one of the few Japanese cities that survived World War II undamaged, with many of its machiya remaining intact. The wooden town houses, however, are fast disappearing as they are replaced by newer, denser construction that is "diminishing the architectural and cultural history of the Kyoto cityscape and traditional way of life," according to a statement released by the WMF.
"Those that survive are being lost to development," said Henry Ng, the WMF's executive vice president in a recent telephone interview. "The machiya is like the 'hutong' of Beijing and are models not only for other cities in Japan, but for preservation in the world," he said.