Characteristics of Mountain Representation Reflected in the Travel Accounts, in the Edo Era

Abstract

The paper considers characteristics of mountain representation that people captured in the gaze upon mountains, through analyses of the descriptions of the travel accounts and so on, in the Edo Era. It surveys first characteristics of mountain representation from ancient times to medieval times, in order to point out characteristics of the Edo Era more clearly. The analyses are done to the next by extracting the descriptions of 5 mountains, Mt. Tateyama, Mt. Daisen, Mt. Unzendake, Mt. Asozan, and Mt. Kirishimayama, from 6 travel accounts and so on, in the Edo Era, and by judging the descriptions from 4 standards of religious representation, historical representation, literary representation, and landscape representation. In consequence of these analyses, the paper shows, as characteristics of mountain representation of the travel accounts and so on in the Edo Era, that sense representation which consisted of religious and historical representation became more than a half, that landscape representation of the Edo Era increased considerably as compared with ancient and medieval times, and that literary representation of the mountains decreased extremely as compared with plain parts and seashore parts.