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In-Depth Information
Fig. 5.
Browsing Ukiyoe landscapes in Virtual Kyoto
digitalized art contents, scanned images of traditional Japanese Ukiyoe woodblock
prints (Fig. 5). The sets of Ukiyoe landscapes that date back to the Edo Era (ca. 17
th
-
19
th
centuries) provides a way to see lost landscapes. The views from the Ukiyoe
paintings are geolocated in the diorama and are also linked to the Ukiyoe Database
System maintained by the Ritsumeikan Art Research Center, which provides detailed
information of each items and enable a search for other Ukiyoe contents by using
keywords such as theme, painter and year.
As seen in Fig. 5, we often find mountains in the background of Ukiyoe prints,
contrasting with the subject of the urban scene. Since many of the well-known places
in Kyoto are situated near mountains, the main theme of the Ukiyoe stands out when
it is set against those backgrounds which are used as a 'borrowing landscape' - a
concept of traditional landscape design applied in many Japanese gardens. It
exemplifies that the vistas on surrounding mountains from specific viewing points in
the city have been appreciated as landscapes with the cultural values of Kyoto.
4 Landscape Simulator Using Editable Diorama of Kyoto
As seen in the previous section, historical Kyoto vistas of mountains often have a
cultural meaning. We are particularly conscious of this when bonfires are lit to send
off the dead during the All Souls (Obon) festival on August 16
th
, which marks the
peak of Kyoto's hot late summer. Publicized to tourists under the name of 'Daimonji
Gozan Okuribi', (the Five Mountain Great Character Sending Off of the Dead), a
bonfire formed as a great character is lit for each of the five mountains at night. This
broadly popular annual event was well established in the Muromachi (ca. 14
th
-16
th
centuries) and Edo (ca. 17
th
-19
th
centuries) eras.
