Center for Cultural Resource Studies, Kanazawa University was established in February, 2011, as an institution affiliated with Institute of Human and Social Sciences. In its second mid-term objectives Kanazawa University set the goal of  “promoting world-class, advanced academic researches, aspiring to an advanced academic base where promising researches are conducted and distinguished results produced, and forming research centers with distinctive characters.” In order to achieve the goals, the university decided in its second mid-term plan to set up a research centers temporarily as cores of advanced research activities. This Center materializes the mid-term plan.
This Center aims to redefine tangible and intangible cultural heritages in danger of extinction around the world caused by economic development and advancing globalization as “cultural resources” to create a new value, conduct comprehensive researches and diverse investigations on them, and develop methods to protect and utilize them. It also assumes the important role in the enhancement of the university’s international cooperation and contribution, because its projects, basically, are carried out jointly with overseas universities and institutions.
Our group has already conducted various projects before the establishment of this Center；The Restoration Project of Mural Paintings in Florence (donated funds), Japan-China Intangible Cultural Heritage Project (special budget), Cultural Resource Studies Asian Linkage Building Seminar at Kanazawa (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science), Cultural Resource Studies Field Manager Training Program (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science), Cultural Resource Studies International Consortium Building (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science). From now on, by making the most of the experiences, know-how, and international networks acquired through these projects, we’ll aim for global-scale development.
We don’t think that we should conduct activities of this center separately from education of students and training of young researchers like post-docs, and that we can do them this way. In the 2012 fiscal year, “Cultural Resource Studies Course” is to be established in Master’s Level Section in Graduate School of Human and Socio-Environmental Studies. Research achievements, contributing to human resources development, produce young researchers constantly, and this has a pump-priming effect on further research activities. Creation of such a positive spiral should bring a smooth growth to this center.
We are hoping that, in near future, students and young researchers who aim to study cultural resources will come together from all over the world to Kanazawa University.

Masahide Mori, Director of the Center