Institutional Seams and Cultural Sustainability in the Built Environment: The Case of Miyadaiku in Japan

Abstract

Japan's miyadaiku tradition—temple and shrine carpentry—faces a transmission crisis despite official recognition as Important Intangible Cultural Property. Through practitioner interviews and email exchanges with officials from relevant ministries, this study argues that cultural transmission failure can arise not from insufficient value recognition but from institutional structures themselves. The concept of institutional seams is introduced: governance spaces where multiple authorities claim partial but legitimate jurisdiction while none accepts primary responsibility. Miyadaiku transmission falls into a seam spanning the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT), and the Forestry Agency—each maintaining appropriate boundaries while collectively creating a coordination vacuum. Three defining characteristics—jurisdictional plurality, boundary ambiguity, and jurisdictional mutual delegation—enable identification of institutional seams before cultural transmission failures become irreversible. The study indicates that the erosion of craft-based knowledge systems constitutes not merely a cultural loss but a governance failure with direct consequences for sustainable timber heritage conservation and broader sustainability objectives. These findings have implications for integrating cultural sustainability into environmental assessment frameworks and contribute to SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) and SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals).

Keywords: cultural sustainability; institutional seams; built environment; governance failure; miyadaiku; timber heritage; SDG 11