The Study of Landscape Structure of a Historical Valley, Engakuji in Old Capital, Kamakura

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to bring to light the landscape structure of the Yato in Kamakura. It is a fortress city surrounded by hills on the three sides. The hills have various Yato which form and characterize the original landscape of Kamakura. I first of all prepared a map of the Yato in Kamakura, and I did classify the Yato into three different types. Of the Yato identified on the map, I selected Engakuji Yato for the object area as the case study of characteristic religious Yato. Following a study on the relation between the historical transition of Engakuji and Yato, I attempted to analyze the landscape structure of the Engakuji Yato from the standpoint of plane-level landscape and sequence landscape along the axis of Yato. To clarify the plane-level landscape, I made an inclination classification figure map. To clarify the sequence of landscape, I clarified the landscape structure by taking photos of the landscape and find out the area ratio of each landscape element. The above analysis led me to conclude that there are six characteristics with respect to the landscape structure of Engakuji Yato.