There are lots of gardens designated as places of scenic beauty in Kyoto. But recently administrators of the gardens are in face with various changes in the surrounding situations (e.g. changes in subsidy system, natural environment, landscape, gardening materials, etc.) . The purpose of this study is to know actual conditions of the garden administrators, and consider their future to achieve good preservation of the gardens. To this end, we investigated actual conditions of administrators of gardens designated as places of scenic beauty in Kyoto by questionnaire survey. As a result, we found some trends in their thought, for example, 66 percent of them required the restoration rather than the evolution of the gardens, and 60 percent desired to tighten landscape conservation regulations. The most important result is that 55 percent approved of compiling some guidelines for preserving the gardens. We suppose the guidelines would conduce a great deal to good and sustainable preservation of the gardens.

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The aim of this study is to reason the viewpoints of mountain painting by Kyumjae Chungsun, a famous artist of the Chosun period, and to clarify the characteristic of those viewpoints by the aspect and the composition of mountains in Seoul. Kyumjae started unique style of painting on real mountains and rivers against the old style of painting on ideal mountains and rivers. His style has been called Jin Kyung scenery (the painting from nature). In Seoul four principal mountains are painted by Kyumjae: Mt. Bukhan, Mt.Pugak, Mt.Nam and Mt. Kwanak, which are very important on Fung Shui. Many of the viewpoints selected by Kyumjae are either in the NbW or the WbN of Mt. Nam, which has been nicknamed ‘a silkworm’ owing to its gentle twin peaks. Both peaks of Mt.Nam are visible like a silkworm on the side of Mt.Kwanak at the viewpoints in the NbW, and both peaks of Mt.Nam and the other three mountains are all visible at the viewpoints in the WbN.

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public landscaping works in this country, landscape contractors have guaranteed the rooting and growth of trees and plants. This system is called KARE-HOSHO, Replanting Damaged Tree Compensation System', and has been operated as a unique system in public landscaping works. Previously, it was a common practice for a landscaping contractor to replant damaged trees autonomously in their works. However, ordering parties have institutionalized this system by contractors. As a consequence, ordering parties give landscaping contractors specifications and instruct the work, which has decreased the autonomy of landscape contractors. Specifications of planting works have been more and more elaborate. The trend towards an autonomous work principle is gaining momentum. The recent public purchase system increasingly depends on a contractors autonomous quality control. Therefore, improving this system is a primary factor to establish new public landscaping constructions.

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A 5,000m2 (approx. 1.2 acres) healing garden were created in Japan at Kansai Rosai Hospital, an acute care general hospital with 20 departments and 670 beds, for patients, their family members and hospital staff members as well as people of nearby communities. This study consisted of two sections: explaining landscape design from design concept in the perspective of healing landscape and use of the concept of universal design to how each detail was determined for use of people who need special care; and investigating how this healing garden were used and evaluated by in-patients, out-patients and visitors using a method of visual physical analysis of the site and asking and recording pre-arranged questionnaires. The study was referred to the case studies conducted in the San Francisco bay area by Marcus and Barns in 1995. As the results of interviews and records, this study revealed roles of a healing garden at a hospital; such as visual cues, healing space, space for rehabilitation, and place which always welcomes people.

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This study focused on the characteristics of the Chinese Private Gardens daily use during the Qing period. The gardens located in Suzhou, China had been chosen for the case study in this paper. These gardens were combined with houses and used in the daily life. A few study focused on how the gardens were used. By dealing with the documents of the annual events of Suzhou, and the description of the utility of the gardens, such as poems, diaries written during Qing period, how the gardens were used during some annual events in seasonal festival was arranged in this paper. Through this kind of literature study, the following points about the characteristics of the gardens can be summarized : (1) Despite being a private space, the gardens were open in public or quasi-public among some annual events. They were not only used by the families of the owner, but also sometimes used by the friends of the owner or residents. (2) Various recreation activities, such as party, reading, and playing out-door were taken place in the gardens during the daily life. (3) During the annual events, some devices were developed in the garden for improving the visual effects or for using the gardens more comfortable efficient.

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Nature restoration activities are important as environmental and agricultural countermeasures in rural regions. In order to gain an overview of how development of agricultural communities is carried through the collaboration of farmers, local residents, NPO's, and other organizations in an environmentally friendly manner, analysis was carried out of the applications to participate in 207 activities comprising the “Nature Restoration Activities in Rural Areas Contest” hosted by, among others, The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries. Results showed that the scope of the activities has broadened rapidly since 1995, generally as a result of burgeoning concern over decline in numbers of wildlife species and deterioration of agricultural land and copses. Also revealed was that the activities now span a diverse range, centered on nature regeneration, and including environmental improvements to the habitat of organisms in irrigation channels and other locations, and environmental education about rice fields and ponds. It was clear from this study that activities including the development of branded agricultural produce and the maintenance and improvement of facilities for contact with nature were being undertaken for the purposes of improving the local economy and society.

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We investigated the changes in chemical and biological characteristics of composting of plant waste from pruning to obtain the fundamental knowlege for planning objective decision of composting stage. The composting was carried out using addition of compost as submaterial and frequently airing. The composting process was devided into three stages. In the first stage, increasing of humus concentration, decreasing of easily decomposable organic matter, increase and decrease of microbial activity and losing inhibition of germination were founded. In the second stage, increasing nitrogen concentration and exchangeable bases and increase and decrease of microbial activity were founded. In the third stage, slight decreasing of exchangeable bases were founded. Therefore, humus concentration were available for the index of end of the first stage. It is possibe that microbial activity was available for the objactive index of composting stage by combining with humus concentration or period of time of compostiong.

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The objective of this paper is to clarify constituents and characteristics of the design theory of Soeki Katsumoto (1810-1889), also called Donketsu, a garden designer of Ohmi region, by researching on his three volumes of treatise. The results are as follows. 1) The theory is compounded of both the design of scenery gardens, mostly of rock compositions, and the design of tea ceremony gardens. 2) The theory is characterized by variations of forms based on manners of such as yin-and-yang and shin-gyo-so, and by strict controls of measurements of details. These results will enable us to deepen our understanding on his theory through analyzing the forms of the existing gardens created by himself and by his pupils.

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