The magazine (Bulletin) of “Seikou” was made by conservation engineers to exchange information about the survey and repair work of historic buildings in Japan before World War II. This magazine has 26 volumes in total, and was published periodically four times a year from April 1937 to December 1943. Publisher is Nindokai that is supposed to the forerunner of Bunkenkyo (the Japanese Association for Conservation of Architectural Monuments). Only 3 or 4 organizations except personal possession have it now. And it has a limit to use the contents of the article as a general historical material. So, it was rare that experts and researcher used to the “Seikou”. However, this study focuses on the articles of the Korean historic building, which is sometimes appeared in it, although there are few. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the fact-finding of the conservation for the Korean historic building in Japanese colonial period by analyzing the articles in historical records of “Seikou”.

Historic buildings are history of human kind and a crystal of culture. Therefore, we have a responsibility and obligation to succeed to descendants. Once such heritage is damaged, it is hard to restore its original form. Thus, various attempts to preserve its value and authenticity have been made internationally. Among these, the international preservation tendency of historic building in terms of materials has been given to the preservation of materials as well as the preservation of appearance. In accordance with such trend, Korea also presented an equivalent general principle, and has managed historic buildings with the separate related instruction. The most general method to preserve historic buildings in Korea is a repair work. Since the foundation of Korea, the repair work tendency has been carried out in the principle of phenomenon change and original form maintenance. But, such tendency focuses on the appearance such as style, structure and trimming method, and there is insufficient consideration on the authentic preservation of materials. Accordingly, this study attempts to examine preservation principle and methods in the repair works, and also to investigate the afforestation condition for the restoration work. And, by suggesting preservation method of authentic materials, it aims to prepare the reference for the future repair work.

How have they preserved the regional historic buildings in Korea? Do they preserve the original value as a historic building. Are there any artificial deformations deteriorating the quality of the buildings? Is the regional system for preservation effective agalnst the artificial deformations of the buildings? These questions are involved in the purposes of this paper. I investigated the historic buildings designated by Kyong-Nam provincial government. As the resuit, variouse patterns of artificial deformation were found. I found that the deformations may deteriorate the original quality of historic building, and it is related somehow to the limitations of regional system for preservation. So I suggest some alternative ideas for preserving the quality of historic buildings against artificial deformation : a. Present system for preservation is not effective for preserving various architectural value such as urban context and landscape, site planning techniques, function of a space, etc. Regional system should be revised for preserving their architectural value or meaning. b. Historic buildings should be classified and should have proper protecting area according to each architectural values or meanings, respectibly: Historic buildings with Urban context and landscape Historic buildings as a part of a complex Historic buildings as a behavorial setting. c. Historic buildings should be graded based on their quality. And standard and criteria for acceptable deformations should be established. d. Periodical inspections by experts should be carried out to check out the deformation.