Progress in Japanese historical geography

In Japan a historical approach to geography has been followed for over a thousand years. In the eighth century, Fudoki, whose descriptive style was introduced from China, provide a primary source for understanding ancient landscapes. In late feudal times, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, methods were developed for reconstructing the geographies of ancient times. A tradition of historical-geographical scholarship was well established in Japan before scientific methods were received from Europe in the late nineteenth century. In the 1930s historical geographers concentrated on drawing cross-sections of past geographies, but in the post-war years the study of geographical change assumed greater importance. Most specialized studies still focus upon distinctive features of particular periods in the past and themes in recent work are reviewed period by period. At present, a cosmological interpretation of past geographies has become an important theme and in this context Japanese historical geographers have begun to reinterpret their traditional landscapes in terms of signs and symbols.