Challenges in Fire Protection for Cultural Property Buildings Based on the Lessons from the Shurijo Castle Fire

More than 90% of Japan's national treasures and important cultural property buildings such as shrines and temples are built entirely or partially with wood. In addition, many works of historical value such as arts, Buddhist statues, and/or decorations housed in these cultural property buildings are also made of wood and other combustible materials. As a matter of course, these cultural heritage buildings are very vulnerable to fire. Therefore, when a fire breaks out in such a cultural property building, it is not enough to prevent the building from burning down or spreading to other buildings. It is extremely important to be suppressed at the very early stage of a fire to protect the cultural properties inside. In the Shurijo Castle fire that occurred on October 31, 2019 in Japan, the security guard headed for the origin of the fire shortly after the heat detector was activated, but he was unable to engage in the initial fire extinguishing due to already diffused smoke. The fire protection equipment installed in the main hall at Shurijo Castle is by no means inferior to other national treasures and important cultural properties. Rather, it was equipped with almost all the fire protection equipment required for cultural property buildings. In this sense, it is very important to examine the initial response and the resulting damage in the Shurijo Castle fire in relation to the initial fire development, and to propose measures to prevent recurrence of a fire and/or reduce damage in the similar cultural properties in the future. In this paper, after briefly reviewing the history of disaster and fire protection for cultural property buildings in Japan, first, the outline of the Shurijo Castle fire and lessons learned are summarized, and then new direction in the design plan of fire protection system for the restoration of Shurijo Castle is introduced. Second, the current situation and issues of fire protection measures for cultural property buildings are briefly reviewed in overseas and Japan. Finally, the authors would like to introduce a new challenge that can be said to be a shift in fire protection measures for cultural property buildings that the Agency for Cultural Affairs in Japan is promoting based on the lessons learned from the Notre Dame Cathedral fire and the Shurijo Castle fire.