Seasonal colors of soul mountains : domestication of natural-vegetation landscape

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Main focus of this project is the human intervention to the natural vegetation of soul mountain called reizan in Japanese language. We examine the regional changes with the passage of the time. Takaoka analyzed the relationship of the position and altitude of the mountain peak, the position of the shrine and temples in Kanto around Tokyo area, by using CIS (Geographical Information System). He described the differences between the actual and potential vegetation. Oka clarified the landscape of subalpine vegetation in Mt. Zaou, Mt. Fuji, and Mt. Ishizuchi. Subalpine vegetation played an important role for the color composition of the soul mountains in relation with not only climatic condition, but also Japanese preference to the colors of some tree species- such as cherry (Prunus nipponica, P. incisa, P. pendula. P. jamasakura and so on), plum (P. mume), maple trees (Acer palmatum), Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica), pine trees (Pinus parviflora) and so forth. Oyama collected the hi … More storical data of Cycas revoluta in Ryukyu Islands and main islands. In Ryukyu Islands, especially Okinawa and Amami-Oshima, the C. revoluta was planted for food production before 1940s although wild plants grow in the seaside without human intervention. In mainlands, C. revoluta was planted in the temples and shrines before 400 to 500 years before. They have records and myths about C. Revoluta. He described the mode of belief to C. revoluta. Yasutaka Matsuo (Senshu Univ. Faculty of Literature. Prof.) compared the style of drawing the trees in hollic area on old pictures. He interpreted the meaning of these drawing in the belief of old Japanese people. Hori conducted research on the relationship between historical belief, natural environment and site-selection of planting the Japanese cedar (C. japonica) in Yakushima Island. The people in Yakushima consider the mountain colors in spring and autumn, and enjoy the drastic change in the four seasons. We obtain conclusions on the present conditions that the tree composition in the soul mountain was greatly influenced by the preference of colors in Japanese people, typically new leaf color and cherry flower in spring and red leaf in autumn. The results of human intervention to soul mountain could be called domestication of landscape. Less