Visual Characteristics of Settings of the Religious Places in Mt. Daisen

Abstract

A case study was conducted to discuss landscape settings of historic religious places as their visual relationships with surrounding environment. Mt. Daisen (Tottori pref., 1729m), where is known as one of “Reizan (sacred mountains)”, has been developed by temples and shrines on its north-west mountainside since ancient ages. Including their access roads from other regions, visual relationships of the religious places and surrounding environment was surveyed using DEM and viewshed analyses. First, visual target areas, where were assessed as significant views from the religious places, were identified. Then, high visibility areas to the target areas were extracted, and the relation with the location of religious places were investigated. As the results, strong correspondence of high visibility areas to the targets and the religious places’ setting was observed. The results show that the settings of historic religious places have visual connection with their surroundings. And they inspire the discussion that the landscape what we can see from there could be not a result of the past development, but a contributing factor of the development. The results also suggest the necessity of rethinking of landscape planning at Reizan, where are nowadays likely to be designated as national park.