WNAM REPORT: An advisory panel to UNESCO has told the Japanese government that Hikone Castle in Shiga Prefecture may possibly meet a criterion for inscription on the World Cultural Heritage list, the Cultural Affairs Agency said Wednesday.
Notifying the agency of the outcome of its preliminary assessment on Oct. 2, the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) indicated the possibility of the castle from the Edo Period (1603-1868) being assessed as a property bearing a unique testimony to a disappeared cultural tradition or civilization and satisfying an inscription condition.
But at the same time, the panel advised that serial nominations be considered because Hikone Castle alone may not be able to completely explain how systematically the Tokugawa shogunate had governed daimyo feudal lords. That advice runs counter to Shiga’s desire to have the castle nominated independently.
