Abstract
This study focuses on the birth anddevelopment of "keikan" terminology and elucidates the process through which this terminology and other keikan-related concepts are formed. Keikan terminology was first used in Manabu Miyoshi's documents of 1902, referring specifically to the keikan of vegetation. These terms later entered the vernacular of trades such as landscape architecture. In the 1920s, Japanese geographers adopted the German Landschaft theory, and Taro Tsujimura used the term "keikan" as the Japanese translation for "Landschaft". It was theorized that "keikan" was a visual concept similar to "fukei", an interpretation that eventually became generally accepted by the public. The primary meaning of Landschaft, however, concerns the concept of regionality. As such, the fact that neither the English word "landscape" nor the Japanese word "fukei" carry connotations of regionality to the same degree has been much debated.
