The Setting

What’s your image of the Japanese landscape?

One of these?

Something like these?

Or something like these?

Or maybe

even

something

like this?

Japan is all those landscapes;

A long and varied chain of islands.

Where do the Japanese live?

How many people can this land support?

How has Japan’s: natural environment,natural resources,and isolation influenced the development of its :

Culture, Economy, Politics Balance of group orientation, individual

expression, and universal values Processes of change and continuity

The Land Physical landscape Climate Vegetation and wildlife Natural Hazards The Japanese and Nature

Physical Landscape

Islands: Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku and thousands more

Mountains: 70% Plains: coastal, floodplain,

mountain valleys

Kinki Region: Osaka plain and Kyoto Basin

Chubu Region: Nagoya in the Nobi plain

Climate Sub-arctic to sub-tropical

temperatures Snow on the back, sunshine

on the front Monsoons based

precipitation The typhoons that miss Hong

Kong

Vegetation

Mixed natural forests Monoculture of artificial forests

Natural Hazards

Floods and Landslides Earthquakes and Tsunamis Volcanoes Cold and Snow

The Great Tokyo Earthquake of 1923

The Japanese and Nature

Religious inspiration Aesthetic appreciation Economic and political

consequences Environmental destruction and

rehabilitation

Religious Inspiration

Aesthetic Appreciation

Environmental Destruction

EnvironmentalRehabilitation

Agriculture and Natural Resources

Agriculture Natural Resources Space

Why do people form groups?

Agriculture Rice

A basis of the diet A basis of cooperative organization A symbol of identity and self-understanding

Other traditional crops Diversification

A Basis of the Diet

An Agricultural Product

A Form of Organization

Sharing Land & Cooperating on its Maintenance

Cooperative Organization

Built over Centuries

Soil Preparation Mar-Apr.

Seedling Preparation Mar-Apr.

Edo Period 1700’s 1960’s Now

Planting Apr-May

Irrigation, weed and pest control

May-Sept.

Harvesting

Other Traditional Crops& Diversification

Natural Resources Water and beauty in quantity Enough minerals and fuels for

beginnings of industry Wood and stone in sufficient

supply The new recreational resources

The new recreational resources

Space

Centralized political and administrative control of space

Government controlled transport and communication

Industrial concentration Urban congestion

Government Administered Space

Government controlled transport and communication

Symbols of Continuity and Change Food Villages in the country

and the city

Continuity and Change in Food

Old Villages

And New

Isolation Homogenization: a mix of several

peoples Exclusion

Ainu, Burakumin, Koreans, Okinawans, New Immigrants

Reaching out

Japan’s Geographic Isolation

Summing up Landscape restrictions on where and how the Japanese

could live Development of strong bonds with natural environment Development of cooperative groups to make best out of

environment Concentration in plains increased by transportation,

economic and political factors Isolation led to strong, and somewhat exclusive identity,

but also need to reach out