Comparative history of capital and capital system in the Eeast Asia various countries

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The remains of ancient capitals that are called castle towns exist in different forms and to varying degrees in several countries in East Asia such as Japan, China, South Korea, North Korea and Vietnam. These countries all adopted castle towns as part of their political systems in the transition from ancient to modern times. At first, a society with common values was formed mainly in China, and then castle towns were adopted as an important element of the societies in the surrounding East Asian countries.Although castle towns have been closely examined separately from the surrounding environment and from various viewpoints, the castle towns were greatly influenced by their surrounding cultural and geographic environments. As a result, each castle town assumed a shape peculiar to its area so that they were different in each area. In our research, we focused upon four factors that formed the outer shape of the castle towns : (i) outside walls surrounding the capitals, (ii) cemeteries, (i … More ii) gardens which only special people were allowed to enter, and (iv) religious facilities for worshipping the heavens and the earth. On the basis of these factors, we examined the differences and similarities of castle towns in various areas by cooperating with overseas researchers. This research led us to conclude that although castle towns were different in each area, they possessed many similarities and were subject to the same kind of laws that governed their development. We shall examine them in terms of other factors as well and then reveal more similarities and differences among castle towns in East Asia.As a part of this research, we formed an international study team with researchers in China, South Korea, and Vietnam. We not only invited them to Japan to hold several workshops but also carried out fieldwork in Vietnam with them. This joint research was very useful for examining various castle towns in East Asia and we have agreed to continue the research for further investigation of these sites with a long-range perspective. Less