Living National Treasures and Lifestyle Culture

"Living National Treasure" is a popular name

The national government designates skills (waza) of high historical or artistic value in fields such as theater, music, and craft techniques as Important Intangible Cultural Properties, and at the same time recognizes the people who embody and have mastered those skills at a high level as "holders," and groups as "holding organizations." A holder recognized as an individual (individual recognition) is what is commonly called a "Living National Treasure." The national government pays individually recognized holders a special grant of 2 million yen a year to cover the cost of refining their skill and training successors.

Besides individual recognition, there is "collective recognition," in which the members of a group are recognized together, and "holding organization recognition," in which the organization itself is recognized. Recognition is made once a year by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, based on the recommendation of the Council for Cultural Affairs.

How the "lifestyle culture" field came about

The criteria for designation and recognition were set by a notice in 1954 (Shōwa 29), and for a long time there were only two fields, performing arts and craft techniques. Lifestyle culture, as defined in Article 12 of the Basic Act on Culture and the Arts, had been covered by the Registered Intangible Cultural Property system created by a 2021 (Reiwa 3) amendment to the law, under which six items had been registered.

On October 24, 2025, the Council for Cultural Affairs recommended adding a lifestyle culture category to these criteria. The three designation criteria are "of especially high artistic value," "occupying an especially important place in the history of lifestyle culture," and "of high artistic value or occupying an important place in the history of lifestyle culture, and also having pronounced regional or school characteristics," the same framework as for performing arts and craft techniques. The notice was published on December 16 of that year, and on December 24 the government decided on a policy of recognizing up to 10 people from lifestyle culture, expanding the ceiling on recognitions from 116 to 126.

The recommendation of October 16, 2026

On October 16, 2026, the Council for Cultural Affairs recommended, for the first time in the lifestyle culture field, that "rikka," "ginjō sake brewing," and "Kyoto cuisine (kaiseki)" be designated Important Intangible Cultural Properties and that their holders be individually recognized. Rikka is a style of ikebana with fixed role branches (yakueda), sometimes called the "seven tools"; it developed from the "tatehana" of the Muromachi period and took shape in the early Edo period, making it the oldest style of ikebana. The holder is Ikenobō Sen'ei (93, Kyoto City).

Kyoto cuisine (kaiseki) is the skill of hosting guests with kaiseki meals that reflect Kyoto's climate, seasons, and festivals, using art and craft objects connected with Kyoto in the table settings and decor. Takahashi Eiichi (87, Kyoto City) has carried on kaiseki cuisine incorporating elements of tea-ceremony cha-kaiseki as the master of Hyōtei. Ginjō brewing is a sake-making skill that pursues flavor and aroma with no sparing of effort or ingredients; Nōguchi Naohiko (93, Noto Town, Ishikawa Prefecture) has more than 60 years' experience as a tōji master brewer. All three become official designations and recognitions once announced in the official gazette.

Hyōtei and Ikenobō

Hyōtei itself describes a history of more than 400 years, going back to a rest-stop tea house that doubled as the gatekeeper's lodge in the grounds of Nanzen-ji; it was founded as a restaurant in 1837 (Tenpō 8). Its specialty since the Edo period is the Hyōtei egg, and its summer morning rice porridge is also well known. Takahashi Eiichi, the son of the 13th master Takahashi Kaichi, joined Hyōtei in 1964 and took over the restaurant in 1967 at age 28. In 2013 he became a holder of the Kyoto Prefecture designated intangible cultural property "kaiseki cuisine," and in 2022 he became chairman of the holding organization for the Registered Intangible Cultural Property "Kyoto cuisine."

North of Rokkaku-dō (Chōhō-ji) lay a pond where, according to tradition, Prince Shōtoku purified himself, and the monks' lodging (bō) beside the pond (ike) came to be called Ikenobō. Serving generation after generation as chief priests of Rokkaku-dō, the Ikenobō refined the offering of flowers before the Buddha, and this led to the establishment of ikebana in the Muromachi period. A Zen monk's diary records that in 1462 Ikenobō Senkei arranged flowers that won wide acclaim. Ikenobō Sen'ei was born in 1933, succeeded as the 45th-generation headmaster in 1945, has served as chief priest of Chōhō-ji since 1953, and introduced the style "rikka shinfūtai" in 1999.

Kyoto City has 11 holders of Important Intangible Cultural Properties

Kyoto City has 11 holders of Important Intangible Cultural Properties, out of 107 nationwide (as of April 2026). In Noh theater, the July 2023 recommendation added Kongō Hisanori, a shite actor of the Kongō school, and the Kyōgen actor Shigeyama Shime (both of Kyoto City) as individually recognized holders. In craft techniques, yūzen, a pictorial dyeing technique perfected in the mid-Edo period, was designated in 1955; it developed in Kyoto, its main center, as well as in Kanazawa and Tokyo. If the recommendation of October 16 is announced in the gazette, the city will gain its first two holders in the lifestyle culture field.

The Ikebana Museum by Rokkaku-dō and Hyōtei's morning porridge

Rokkaku-dō (Dōnomae-chō, Rokkaku-dōri Higashinotōin nishi-iru, Nakagyō Ward) is open 6:00–17:00, with free entry to the grounds. It is a 3-minute walk from Exit 5 of Karasuma Oike subway station and 5 minutes from Hankyu Karasuma Station. It is the 18th temple of the Saigoku 33-temple pilgrimage, and the Ikebana Museum on the 3rd floor of the adjacent Ikenobō headquarters is free with reservation (weekdays 9:00–16:00).

Hyōtei (35 Nanzenji Kusakawa-chō, Sakyō Ward) is a 6-minute walk from Keage Station on the Tōzai subway line. Meals are by reservation for two or more; the main building is open 12:00–15:00 and 17:00–21:30 (closed Wednesdays), and the annex with table seating is open 8:00–11:00 and 12:00–14:00 (closed Thursdays). The morning porridge is served in the annex from March 16 to November 30. The Sanmon gate and Suirokaku aqueduct of Nanzen-ji are a short walk away.