248
BOOK REVIEW
Augustin BERQUE: Le sauvage et L'ar
tifice; Les Japonais devant la nature. Gal
limard, Paris, 1986, 314p.
A glance at the title of this book immediately
brings to mind traditional cultural practicessuch
as bonsai and Japanese-stylelandscape gardens.
When we enquire into the Japanese traditional
sense of beauty which prides itself on this abili
ty to 'create' nature by artificial means and by
paying attention to the minutest detailsnecessary
to maintain the illusion of nature in its wildest
state, it would appear that in this fact itself lies
the answer. But a concern such as this totally
loses meaning upon a perusal of the previously
published Vivrel'espace au Japon by the same
author. The translation into Japanese of this
previous work, which attempts to reach an un
derstanding of the system of the spiritual, social
and physical spatial organization operating in
Japanese culture through the means of a 'lived
experience of space', has found a wide reader
ship in Japan. In this earlier work, the author
displays an unflagging interest in the 'milieu',
that is, in the relation of a society to space and
nature; in this sense, the discussionsin the later
book, whichwe are here reviewing,lend credence
to the presumption that the later book is a de
velopment of the earlier work.
In Part I, 'The Animation of Elements', the
manner in whichthe Japanese perceivethe prin
cipal elements of their natural milieu is singled
out for some special consideration. Chapter 1,
titled 'Meteors', refers to haiku and a compen
dium of seasonal words (saijiki) as comprising
a treasure house of terms attesting to the sensi
tivity of the Japanese to nature. It is impressive
to read that the appreciation of weather condi
tions, in the form of rain, clouds or snow, for
example, and the general sensitivity to the
seasonal changes wrought by spring, summer,
autumn or winter, all of which are evoked by
descriptions of the landscape, 'can reach the
most intense level of aesthetic sensibility and
thought'. No doubt this chapter appeals to the
narcissicism of the Japanese. In paying particu
lar attention to the 'climate' (fudo) of the 'struc
tural occasion of human existence' as developed
by Tetsuro WATSUJI, the author points out that
this term contains within it the logic pertaining
to the 'milieu'.
Under the title 'Mounts and Water', Chapter
2 discusses the correspondence between the
sacred and the solemn and nature and l'ereme,
and also between the profane and the quotidian
and culture and l'ecoumene. This is not an es
pecially new proposition. But the author is in
terested in how Japanese culture organizes
l'ereme or to what extent nature in its seeming
' wild state' is actually 'constructed nature'. He
turns his attention to the mechanism by which
the sacred place, represented by l'ereme, in the
' open sea' and in the 'deep mountains' is trans
ferred to l'ecoumene, or shrines and so on. The
author also claims that the idea of 'resembling'
(mitate) as seen in the so-called 'dry' landscape
(karesansui) is the exact equivalent of construct
ing a metaphor of the relationship between na
ture and man; it is a deliberate transposition of
the mechanism connecting man with nature.
The titles of chapters and sections of this book
generally suggest geographically-related themes
and also often hint at the poetic. As does Chap
ter 3, which is titled 'Plants and Woods'. The
author criticizes many Japanologists who point
out the sensibility of the Japanese with regard
to the beauty of plants as an aspect of Japanese
cultural mores, but who fail to analyze the ori
gins of this sensibility. As an illustration of this
fact, the author refers to the change in prefer
ence on the part of the Heian period nobility
from the Japanese plum to the cherry blossom,
and goes on to state that the sensibility on the
part of the elite members of society with regard
to the beauty of cherry blossoms, pines and
Japanese maples has been transformed into a

sensibility with regard to the milieu. Moreover,
the laurel forest and its trees, which in Japan
have both religious and nationalistic connota
tions, represent the matrix of the Japanese iden
tity and, even today, are referred to, at the time
of crisis involving the Japanese identity.
Part II is entitled 'The reason of the Milieu'
and comprises Chapter 4, 'Wild Nature, Con
structed Nature'. The appendix attached to this
chapter presents the outline of a new science per
taining to the milieu, referred to as 'mesology',
by means of which the author proposes to revital
ize geography. To put it more specifically, the
author presents a persuasively-worded discourse
to the end that mesology should not fall into the
blind alley of positivistic dualism or imaginari
ness. The author furthermore proposes the no
tion of 'trajectivity' as a central concept in
delineating the characteristics of the milieu.
trajectivity falls in the halfway stage between the
subjective and the objective, and combines
metaphor and causality. Thus, the milieu may
be redefined as a trajective combination of places
and extent. A number of terms familiar to ge
ographers such as 'milieu' which is a traditional
term utilized by the French school of geography,
appear in the text. As the author himself asserts,
however, these terms as well as the concepts in
troduced do not necessarily correspond to spa
tial dimensions or realistic objects and,
moreover, they are open to highly metaphysical
or philosophical interpretation.
In Part III, 'The Installation of the Real', the
concepts and the theoretical framework as
presented in Part II are developed through the
means of an examination of nature. In Chapter
5, which is found in this part, the traditional con
ceptions of the Japanese with regard to nature
are first analyzed. In Japan, nature is considered
essentially good, and is not separated from the
human self; and, where Japanese culture is con
cerned, it is the supreme referent. Examples of
nature as it is seen at the end of the cultural
trajectory include the Taoistic naturalism of
Norinaga MOTOORIand the ideal life as embod
ied in the travels of Basho. In what he refers to
as the 'reversal of words' (togo), after the dis
cussions by Mitsue FUJITANI,the author finds a
typical example of the point he is trying to make
in the fact that Japanese culture seeks to find
249
metaphors in nature, and that the cultural order
gives way to the natural order. He goes on to say
that FUJITANI's 'theory of the spirit of words'
(Kotodama-ron) gives place to a deeper order,
i.e., nature, by turning over the clear order just
as 'space' (ma) does. As indicated by the title of
Chapter 5, 'The Gaps Where Nature En
croaches', alternate forms of nature/culture are
vividly represented in a concrete milieu in
Japanese landscape technology, which attempts
to have nature trajectively describe the land
scape. Apropos of this, the author refers to
Notes on Gardening (Sakuteiki, Heian Period)
and Oribe FURUTAas sources of further exam
ples. Although he is often regarded as something
of a mannerist, Oribe deserves appreciation as
an artist who truly recreated nature trajectively.
The author refers to a slogan of the Edo period,
' Return to Rikyu', and goes on to discover the
characteristics peculiar to Japanese society
which, apart from the general argument that na
ture is the paradigm for the social order, associ
ates the group with nature and the individual
with the artifact.
Chapter 6 is titled 'To Live in, to Countrify'.
Here, the Japanese term for one's 'native place'
or home town (furusato) is expressed in Japanese
as matrie rather than the French patrie, thus in
dicating the likeness of nature to a mother's
womb. This is close to the notion of the 'nostal
gia for and the wish to return to a mother's
womb' and indicates that the fundamental land
scape of nature is none other than a metaphor
of 'the envelopment and the inclusion of the
matrix' for the Japanese. From the point of view
of mesology, this constitutes a factor that is es
sentially stabilizing, localizing and 'topical'.
Naturally, a pure topicality cannot exist in a real
milieu. On the other hand, the mechanism in
volving 'countrification' is said to comprise a
process to delocalize and abstract what is local
and topical, transfer the elements to what is 'cho
retical' and to 'metaphorize' them. The author's
argument does not necessarily rank what is top
ical above what is 'choretical', but he is critical
of the posture of power, typically represented by
the nation-state, by means of which the milieu
is deprived of topicality, and also of the attempt
to replace the latter with 'choresy'. For instance,
the nationalism found in Japanese Landscape
 250
(Nihon Fukei-ron) by Shigetaka SHIGAcontains
a double intent; along with the expressed desira
bility of 'living in purity', there is also the propo
sition involving the 'countrification' of the entire
Japanese territory. Apropos of these ideas, the
children's song The Skies of Home (Kokyo no
Sora) expresses a uniform view with regard to
nature which, in the long run, was one of the fac
tors leading to the high economic growth of later
years. Inversely, the ecological movement on the
part of the people in the 1970s and thereafter is
considered to indicate positive support in aid of
a 'reappreciation of the milieu'.
Chapter 7 is the last chapter and is titled
' Another Nature, Another Presence'. It places
emphasis on the 'deep' structure of Japanese cul
ture and, as is clearly suggested by the title,
points out the fact that it differs in the extreme
from the culture of Europe. One characteristic
of Japanese culture is the fact that, where its ur
ban planning is concerned, it has traditionally
given priority to topography, or the language
of nature, over the cultural order, or the lan
guage of man. The author argues that in spite
of the fact that a 'choretical' order is constantly
in progress within the bounds of modern socie
ty, a topical order, as observed in local commu
nities (chonaikai), is internalized in Japanese
society. The connecting factor, which is
metaphorical in nature, between this aspect and
Japanese aesthetics pertaining to nature is a cer
tain concept regarding relationship (en), referred
to in the author's previous work. In common
with 'space' (ma) highlighted in the previous
work, the characteristic of 'incompleteness'
which, together with its aesthetic and moral
values, reaches even as far as the sphere of so
cial relationships is here pointed out as the
dominant characteristic of the Japanese cultur
al climate. The author finds a similar incomplete
ness also in social relationships and life in big
cities, in which l'ereme is reduced to unused lots,
trees have an interstitial existence and tradition
al streets are lined with houses that allow a view
of nature, half-visible, through latticed windows.
In aesthetics, the subject sending out a message
gives up the attempt at composing the message
to its satisfaction, and completes the message by
letting another subject of a different dimension
-a 'maternal place' which encompasses its in
dividuality - tell a story. This mechanism as
sumes a high degree of uniformity; it is none
other than a creation born of holism. As ana
lyzed by the author, a maternal place is a collec
tivity or a society which, in its turn, is
indissolvably connected with another larger and
deeper maternal place consisting of nature itself.
Perhaps what the author means is that, besides
being fundamentally different from the culture
of Europe, Japanese nature is an 'ultimate sub
ject'. Pointing out the apparent lack of subject
in aspects of Japanese culture, especially as
evidencd grammatically in the Japanese lan
guage, which appears vague to European reason
ing, and indicating this as a new focus of
discussion, the author moves to a new level of
discussion involving the spiritual climate (medi
ance) in Japan. After defining the operation of
' form' (kata) of martial and fine arts as trajec
tive, the author argues that, from the perspec
tive of mesology, 'scene' (bamen) according to
Motoki TOKIEDAor 'place' (basho) according to
Kitaro NISHIDA, as referred to by philosophers
such as Meguml SAKABEand Yujlro NAKAMURA,
is exactly equivalent to the concept of the 'milieu'
depicted in the book. The author states that these
philosophers have erred in losing sight of their
basic aim of pursuing a search for the 'maternal
place' embedded within Japanese culture and be
coming prisoners of a logos, which in this case
was language. For the milieu is said to be
meaningful only when it combines the two ex
treme antithetical opposites, these opposites con
sisting, respectively, of the landscape which is
concrete experiences of individuals, and the lan
guage which is the universal signification system.
The concepts posed by the author - concepts
of place and space or concepts regarding the top
ical and 'choretical', for instance are quite
familiar to human geographers, who have al
ready written numerous papers on the same
theme. The author appears to be attempting to
establish a geographical theory, in the shape of
studies of the milieu, in order to be able to in
corporate the above concepts in his theoretical
propositions and, subsequently, to apply the lat
ter to the case of Japan. It is true that the author
states that the purpose of his book is to 'under
stand the landscape (of Japan) which is half
forgotten', but it is also true that the 'landscape'

here is not limited to its geographical meaning.
As seen in the last chapter, 'The Japanese Medi
ance', reference is made to the relationship be
tween the linguistic structure of the Japanese
language - particularly with regard to the com
monly practiced ellipsis of the subject of a sen
tence - and the special characteristics of the
Japanese culture, in which individuality is bu
ried within collectivity, emotion is emphasized
over reason, and nature and being natural is ex
tolled.
But why does the author build up an argument
on what, in themselves, are not new? Should not
the book be considered a philosophical essay on
Japanese culture, incorporating nature only as
one among a number of points of discussion, by
an author who is also a geographer? Moreover,
should not the author's concept pertaining to the
' milieu' have been developed with 'place' accord
ing to NISHIDA as the starting point? These are
the reviewer's major questions. While it is true
that the concepts proposed by the author are de
fined in a universal language, it is obvious that
they have been developed on the basis of an anal
ysis of the Japanese view of nature. In fact, the
author states elsewhere that the term mediance
is a translation of the Japanese term fudosei
(spiritual climate) utilized by WATSUJI. It is in
teresting, therefore, to speculate how far the mes
251
ology discussed in this work is applicable in other
cultures. The author's choice of models to illus
trate his theme, and his skilful approach to the
development of his thought are clearly based on
a European system of reasoning. Hence his criti
cism of the anti-scientific and anti-reasoning
posture adopted by the Japanese is worthy of
note. Yet the question remains as to whether the
author is able to properly answer the criticism
that could be leveled at the arbitrariness of his
selection of models. Moreover, his propositions
display the danger of an ultra-historical treat
ment of aspects of Japanese culture as if they
comprised the true essence of Japanese culture
when, in fact, they are isolated instances.
Nonetheless, we may say that the deep under
standing of and affection for Japan on the part
of the author is undeniable, if only for the rea
son that his book remains a work on a 'half
forgotten' rather than a 'totally-forgotten'
landscape.
PS: This paper was submitted on the 12th of
May. Therefore, the reviewer could not have the
opportunity to consult the Japanese translation
of this book which appeared in September un
der the title Fudo-no-Nippon (Chikuma-shobo,
Tokyo).
Hitomi HARADA, Hitotsubashi University
 252

CONTENTS
OF
GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW OF JAPAN (Ser. A): Vol. 61, Nos. 1-6, 1988
(Mostly in Japanese with an English summary)

•œ Vol. 1 mental Management in the United States of

ORIGINAL ARTICLES America/N. TASE
The Generalized Lowry Model as an Input CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION
output Model for an Urban System of Toyota Desertification Studies: a Historical Review/H.
City/K. YANO KADOMURA
Geomorphological Features of Valleys "Dissect

ing" the Diluvial Uplands of Sagamino and •œ No. 3

Musashino, Kanto Plain/S. KUBO ORIGINAL ARTICLE
SUBJECT REVIEW ARTICLE Development and Formation of the Broiler In
A Note on Humanistic Geography/Y. OHDAKE dustry Production Area in Iwate Prefecture/
MATERIAL M. NAGASAKA
A Note on the Conditions of Industrial Location SYMPOSIUMS HELD AT THE GENERAL
in Portland Area/H. NISHIOKA MEETING OF THE ASSOC. OF JAPANESE

GEOGR., AUTUMN 1987

•œ Vol. 2 (Special Issue for "Desertification") Some Aspects of Tropical China: with Special
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS Reference to Climate, Geoecology, Land Use
Research Activities on "Desertification" and and Agriculture
their Problems/H. TAKAMURA Geography and Geographical Education
SUBJECT REVIEW ARTICLES Archaeology and Geography: the Growing Rela
Present Situation of Desertification and its tionship
Research in the World/M. ICHIKAWA

Recent Climatic Change and Increased Aridity •œ No. 4

in the Tropical Regions/M. TANAKA OBITUARY
Technical Adaptation of Traditional Agricultural In Memory of the Late Professor Mutsumi
Methods in West Africa/A. GOTO HOYANAGI/H. TOYA
ORIGINAL ARTICLES ORIGINAL ARTICLES
Vegetation-ecological Aspects of "Desertifica The Lag Linkage between Telecommunication
tion" in the Semi-arid Regions of Australia/ Patterns in the 500mb Height Fields during
K. TAKEUCHI and H. OHMORI Northern Hemisphere Winter/T. KANAYA
Rural Development and Changes in Land Use Active Tectonics and Evolutional Processes of
in the Semi-arid Region of South India/K. the Shinjo and Yamagata Basins , Northeast
FUJIWARA and N. SADAKATA Japan/Y. SUZUKI
Water Utilization and Salts Accumulation in Changes within the Surrounding Area of CBD
Arid Land Regions/S. MATSUMOTO as Affected by the Construction of Condomini
A Savannization History of the Humid Tropi ums: a Case Study of Osaka City/T .
cal Highlands of Cameroon/T. TAMURA KAGAWA
MATERIAL •œ No. 5
A Note on Desertification and its Counterplan OBITUARY
in China/M. KONO In Memory of the Late Professor Toshio NOH
The Background of Desertification and Environ /T. YAZAWA
 253

ORIGINAL ARTICLES the Mitoke Fault System in the Southwestern

Climatic Variations in Recent Years from the Part of the Tamba Highland, Southwest Japan
Viewpoint of the Seasonal Transition of /Y. UEMURA
Prevailing Pressure Pattern Types over East The Interaction between Winter Monsoon Ac
Asia/S. YAMAKAWA tivities in East Asia and Sea Surface Temper
Correlation and Chronology of the Late Pleisto ature Variations over the Western Pacific
cene Marine Terraces in Northern Northeast Ocean/R. KAWAMURA
Japan/T. MIYAUCHI SHORT NOTE
A New Model of Population Density Distribu Regional Difference of Year-to-year Changes of
tion for the Twin Cities and its Application/ Winter Precipitation in Japan/I. TASAKA
T. INOUE MATERIAL
A Short Critical Biography of Friedrich RATZEL
•œ No. 6 by A. RUHL/K. YAMAMOTO
ORIGINAL ARTICLES

Fault Topography and Quaternary Faulting of