Comparative Studies of gardens represented in Literature and Art

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Our research,based mainly on the results of the previous grant-in-aid for co-operative research 1987-1988 entitled "Comparative Studies of Space Representation in Arts and Literature",aimed at going deeper into the problems of various kinds which had then appeared and been expected to be subject to further investigation, by focusing our concern exclusively on the theme of 'garden'. Through examining the images of garden represented in literature and arts such as pictures. photographys and films, we endevoured to grasp the correlation between gardens as they are and what they should be (the ideal of garden). The methods of analysis taken during the research were diachronic as well as synchronic, and the aspects of garden representation in Japan, the East and the West were minutely studied in the historical context and carefully compared. As a result, we may quite well say that the purpose was fully realized by pointing out clearly the mechanism and transition of garden representation th … More roughout the time from Ancient Greek to the modernized Japan from the viewpoint of comparative cultural studies.At the same time, we studied precisely real gardens both in the East and the West, and clarified the structures and functions of each garden and showed how their components are closely related with one another to make a harmonic space, and reflect or represent the cosmology of each culture. Especially in the study of Islamic and Chinese gardens, we confirmed that the notion of 'paradise'. deeply rooted in human mind, was the key to deciphering the meanings of the space composition of gardens. The data accumulated in each field in the course of these practical analyses, were preserved in the form of photographys, videotapes, and computer graphics, for the use of further development of our research, and a part of them were exhibited in the Museum of the College of Arts and Sciences. University of Tokyo, under the name of "Rambling in the gardens". We also got to know that the use of new technology brought about a wider possibility of original ways of analysis.Therefore, we can surely say that our research on the garden achieved indicating a great possibility of comprehensive and correlative study of space representation. Less