Historical geography of mythical worldview in landscapes

2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K03262
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Human geography
• Research Institution: Kyoto University of Advanced Science
• Principal Investigator: Sasaki Takahiro 京都先端科学大学, 人文学部, 教授 (20205850)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: 神話的世界観 / 景観 / 言説

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this research, I will try to investigate how landscape mirrors the culture of Japanese ancient worldview. In order to search this theme, I focused on some places where were described in Japanese myths, Kojiki, Nihon-shoki, Fudoki, Engishiki. These myths were narrated with some sort of places like ancient traffic routes, national capital, provincial capitals, stations, temples, shrines and boundaries.
And I paid attention to some places where were described in medieval tales like Otogi-zoushi. About modern times, I treated folktales which were narrated in castle town to know same concern. As a result, it is clear that ancient worldview have succeeded to medieval and modern landscapes.

Free Research Field

人文地理学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究の学術的意義は、景観が私たちの過去を記憶している、つまり単なる物質を超えて、私たちの語りかける生命としての景観という、人間中心主義からの脱出という、新しい視点を提示した点にある。これはアクター・ネットワーク理論の、アクターを人間だけでなく、様々な物質をも含もうとする視点とも似ている。
社会的意義は、このような新しい景観論が、今後の環境思想に影響を与え、そのことが今後の人と環境の関係性を変える可能性がある。このことは地域計画や地域間のネットワークのあり方にも影響を与えるだろう。