Ishida from the University of Hiroshima (ed.), The Region: Its Cultural and Physical Aspects, pp. In: Committee for the commemoration of the retirement of Professor H. Senda, M.: Kodai Nihon Ni Okeru Tochi Bunrui (A study of land classification in ancient Japan). Princeton University Press and Tokyo University Press, Princeton and Tokyo 1969. Columbia University Press, New York 1965. Nippon Gakujutsu Shinkokai (trans.): The Mayoshu. Nakamura, I.: Kami To Hito No Seishinshi (Mental History in Man and God). Herbertson, R.: The major natural regions: An essay in systematic geography. A Cultural Property (, bunkazai) is administered by the Japanese government 's Agency for Cultural Affairs ( Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology ), and includes tangible properties (structures and works of art or craft) intangible properties (performing arts and craft techniques) folk properties both tangible and. (New edition 1972)Ĭhristaller, W.: Die Zentralen Orte in Süddeutschaland. (trans.): Nihongi: Chronicle of Japan from the Earliest Time to A.D. This idea of nature's superiority to culture can explain the Japanese geographical concept of landscape.Īston, W.G. In this context, culture is in the hands of nature. However, people provided shrines for Kami to placate their reckless domination. In ancient Japan people believed that natural landscapes were created and inhabited by these Kami, and that the will of these Kami controlled the cultural domain. Some examples of the Kami's names and their English explanations are as follows: Amaterasuomikami (godess of sun), Oyamatsumi-no-kami (god of the mountain's spirit), Nozuchi-no-kami (god of the field's spirit). Kami who represent elements of nature belonged to a Pantheon in ancient Japan. The time has come to consider the traditional Japanese idea of nature as Kami (gods) in comparison with the binary opposition of nature/culture which derives from modern rationalism.

From an economic view point, in fact, the European concept of nature which is opposed to culture has contributed to land exploitation that caused the destruction of Japan's natural landscape. As modern geography in Japan was formed by the influence of European geography, most academic geographers in Japan have followed the occidental view that proposed an opposition between cultural and natural landscapes and that, due to the belief in man's power, sees the former as superior to the latter. Recently a few Japanese geographers became aware that the concept of nature in modern geography differs from that of traditional Japanese thought.

Japan cultural landscape