Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Mt. Taihei (Tsutsui 1999 ), and Mt. Chokai (Tsutsui 2001 ). These studies focused on
the distribution of ko, customary visits to sacred places, and described the reasons
for spatial differences among the catchment areas of the religious beliefs.
Although many researchers have studied religious distribution and diffusion,
geographers have paid little attention to the distribution of religions across Japan.
Oda ( 1999b ) described the distribution of Christians, the spatial patterns, and the
difference in the distribution of Catholics and Protestants by counting believers. The
population density of Catholics was highest in Nagasaki, followed by Tokyo, and
many Protestants inhabited Tokyo. Oda ( 2003 , 2006 ) produced maps showing the
distribution of seven Buddhist denominations in Japan. Oda derived these maps
from several kinds of historical statistics from temples, not by the distribution of
believers. He also produced a regional classifi cation for the years of 1888, 1922,
1937, and 1959 to show changes in predominant denomination. Tagami ( 2002 ) used
cluster analysis to classify thirty-two kinds of shrines into six groups and areas: all
of Japan, central Japan, inland Japan, Kanto, Chugoku, and Kyushu. The maps
show the distribution of the shrines by type and illustrate the distribution of reli-
gions in Japan on a macro scale.
1.1.3
Studies of Cultural Landscapes and Social Groups
Religious social groups form important components of communities and create the
cultural landscape of religion. Many researchers have described religious social
groups, such as ko -, danto -, and ujiko -groups (Fujimura 2001 ). Imamoto ( 2000 )
described the functions of the ko -groups in rural communities. Yagi ( 1998 ) examined
research from the 1980s, and described the symbolism of the village borders, the
meaning of a village as a place, and the importance of village cemeteries. Otsuka
( 1997 ) described the hierarchy of the belief of the people living in communities
around Lake Suwa. Imazato ( 1995 ) described the social functions of religious land-
scapes by observing the relationship between religious facilities and the social groups
that manage these facilities. Decoding religious landscapes is an important theme of
study, but articles on this topic are limited to the decoding of religious paintings.
Social change also affects the geography of religion (Sakano 2006 ; Fujimura
2004 ). Sakano considered the acceptance of a religion by analyzing the conversion
of a local community to Catholicism in postwar Japan. The conversion pattern dif-
fered regionally and was infl uenced by blood relationships. Shinto and Buddhist
cultural traditions, such as harvest festivals and ancestor rites, are closely connected
and might have strengthened group ties. Sakano's study confi rmed that religion in
this tradition had two social functions, and could strengthen and weaken social net-
works in a local community.
Fujimura ( 2004 ) comments that Anglophone human geographers have paid more
attention than Japanese geographers to the production and reproduction of religious
places. Fujimura's analysis examined how rural Buddhist buildings, especially New
Buddhism's “ Dojo ” (unoffi cial temples), changed their form and relation with dif-
ferent social groups.
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