Decay as code in Japanese heritage and art practices
Wednesday, 15 April 2026
14:00
STIAS, Room 1
Abstract
This paper examines how decay functions as a visual and cultural code within Japanese heritage discourse, linking aesthetic traditions of impermanence to contemporary practices of heritage preservation. In modern heritage management, decay is deliberately curated: authenticity is assessed through the presence of age-related wear that signals an object’s genuine history, while excessive deterioration threatens designation. The analysis foregrounds the UNESCO-listed “Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution” as a case study, illustrating how the institutional heritage practices based on authorised heritage discourse arrest decay to preserve a narrowly defined pre-1910 narrative, thereby marginalising later historical layers such as Korean forced labour. Interviews with officials and field observations reveal tensions between official heritage codes and the “unruly” agency of decay, which can surface suppressed memories for local communities, especially elder residents who reinterpret deteriorated structures as repositories of lived experience. At the same time, the aesthetic evaluation of decay present in classical court culture and Buddhist arts is not applicable in post-mining landscapes, where the inhabitants see decay as a sign of mourning rather than a noble, aesthetic trace of the past.
Biography
Kati Lindstrom is a scholar in the environmental humanities whose work explores how personal experience and cultural narratives shape perceptions and management of natural and cultural heritage. Trained at the University of Kyoto and the University of Tartu, Kati Lindstrom holds a docent degree (2021) in the History of Science, Technology and Environment from KTH Royal Institute of Technology, where they serve as Director of Doctoral Studies in the Division of History of Science, Technology and Environment and are a member of the division’s steering group. Their interdisciplinary research—drawing on semiotics, anthropology, environmental history, and geography examines processes of meaning-making, identity formation, and value attribution in landscapes, with case studies in Japan, Antarctica, and Estonia. They are currently involved in projects on heritage and decay in the Anthropocene, including research on Japanese aesthetics of impermanence and the accelerated deterioration of Antarctic heritage under climate change, as well as work within the ERC project NUCLEARWATERS on water and nuclear energy history. Kati Lindstrom also contributes extensively to international scholarly and policy networks related to environmental history and polar heritage, serving in roles with organizations such as the Estonian Academy of Sciences, SCAR, ICOMOS, and the European Society for Environmental History.