Conclusions - Geography of Religion in Japan: Religious Space, Landscape, and Behavior - page 191

Conclusions
This topic discussed certain geographical aspects of Japanese religion. Let us
consider the conclusions.
Geography of religion aims to clarify the relationships between the environment
and religious phenomena. I discussed some characteristics of the four major fi elds
of this research in Sect. 1.1 .
The fi rst fi eld concerns the relationship between the natural environment and
religion. The emphasis in this fi eld, however, is on the infl uence of the environment
on religion. While many scholars study how climate and topography affect the for-
mation of religious beliefs, the infl uence of religion on the natural environment has
hardly been studied. To fi ll this lack, it is necessary, for example, to clarify the role
of religion in environmental protection.
The second fi eld of study concerns how religion infl uences social structures,
organizations, and landscapes in local areas. Scholars mainly examine the urban
structure and its transformation within religious cities with regard to the dominant
religion. There are also some studies concerning the signifi cance of religion in the
formation of new cities. The relationship between religious orientation and the local
structure of cities and villages, however, has yet to be thoroughly studied.
The third major fi eld of research in the geography of religion concerns pilgrim-
age. Most studies so far, however, remain preliminary, showing pilgrimage routes
without reconstructing the networks of sacred places and their surroundings.
Moreover, the contemporary meaning of pilgrimage lacks suffi cient study, though
people today still fervently carry out pilgrimages.
Lastly, geographers of religion try to clarify the structures of spaces created by
the sacred through examining the distribution and propagation of religion. One of
the major research subjects in this fi eld concerns the catchment areas of religion.
Geography of religion as the study of the relationship between the environment
and religion has two indispensable approaches since the space created by this rela-
tionship has two aspects: empirical and symbolic. On the one hand, religion has the
power to organize local communities, and this power generates the structure of
space, which is grasped empirically. On the other hand, religion supports human