Planted Forest and Diverse Cultures in Ecological Village Planning: A Case Study in Tarama Island, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan
Chen, Bixia, Nakama, Yuei and Urayama, Takakazu, (2013). Planted Forest and Diverse Cultures in Ecological Village Planning: A Case Study in Tarama Island, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. Small-scale Forestry, 13(3), 333-347
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Sub-type Journal article Author Chen, Bixia
Nakama, Yuei
Urayama, TakakazuTitle Planted Forest and Diverse Cultures in Ecological Village Planning: A Case Study in Tarama Island, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan Appearing in Small-scale Forestry Check publisher's open access policy Volume 13 Issue No. 3 Publication Date 2013-12 Place of Publication Berlin and Heidelberg Publisher Springer Start page 333 End page 347 Language eng Abstract Traditional village landscapes that were planned with a combination of local traditional beliefs and the Feng Shui concepts of ‘ho:go’, featured in remaining patches of flourishing planted forest on Ryukyu Islands, were estimated to have been built about 300 years ago. This study sought to clarify the actual landscape composition and map the layout and distribution of landscape elements, with a focus on understanding the dimension of the widespread Feng Shui woods. The cultural landscape combines shapes of patches of greening, corridors of planted forest belts and intersecting roads, scattered areas of water and clustered human settlements. On the relatively flat islands, a forest belt about 15 m wide was planted to curve in front of the village and be connected with the preserved natural forest on the low hills behind the settlements to shape a green protective circle with a radius of about 400 m. The grounds of each house were surrounded by one row of trees. Thousands of big Fukugi trees were found surrounding the settlements and sacred sites. These forest belts are almost completely connected and shape green corridors providing habitat for flora and fauna. Inside the village, roads have been designed to meander, and thus function to mitigate damage from strong winds. In Okinawa, utaki (sacred places dedicated to a guardian deity of hamlets) and the remains of old springs also consist of important landscape units. Such a traditional aesthetic village landscape embodies the harmony of man and nature, or ‘people living in the forests’. A cultural landscape with ecological context needs to be reevaluated as a rural planning style in island topography, and promoted as a tourist attraction in order to better conserve it. UNBIS Thesaurus LANDSCAPE PROTECTION
JAPAN
FORESTS
ISLANDS
CULTURAL HERITAGE
VILLAGES
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURECopyright Holder The Editors Copyright Year 2013 Copyright type All rights reserved ISSN 1873-7617 DOI 10.1007/s11842-013-9257-z -
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