SPATIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TOPOGRAPHIC ENCLOSURE IN THE VILLAS OF THE HEIAN PERIOD

Abstract

There are many places of scenic beauty and Japanese gardens that were originally villas of the Heian period at the base of mountains in Kyoto. In this paper, we discussed spatial characteristics of the villas, especially focusing on the functions of the topographic formation around them. As a result, it is clarified that 1) Most of the villas were surrounded by mountain, 2) the surrounding landform makes enclosed spaces around villas, 3) villas acquired both a prospect and an enclosure. And we categorized spatial characteristics of this topographic enclosure into 4 types according to their topographic conditions and spatial scales, and characteristics of the enclosure. These enclosed spaces around villas clustered in the outskirts of Heian-kyo.