YUKIGATA is a pattern formed by remaining snow and black mountain surface that appears from spring to summer. In Japan, YUKIGATA is not only a natural landscape, but has also been used as a crop calendar in the past. However, because of progress in agriculture, YUKIGATA has lost its value as a crop calendar, and it has become extremely difficult to transmit YUKIGATA's culture. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the cultural value of YUKIGATA from a new perspective for the inheritance and conservation. As a result, in this study, we clarified the relationship between YUKIGATA and the Chinese zodiac culture and revealed its new cultural value. Specifically, we have examined the following aspects. Firstly, we extracted YUKIGATA in the shape of the Chinese zodiac from literature that surveyed YUKIGATA from all over Japan. Secondly, we investigated the depiction of the characteristics of YUKIGATA in the shape of the Chinese zodiac in the literature and clarified the relationship between the meaning of these shapes and the Chinese zodiac culture. Thirdly, we clarified the relationship between the use of YUKIGATA as a crop calendar and the Chinese zodiac culture. Finally, we clarified the similarities and differences in the meanings of Japanese and Chinese zodiac cultures through the relationship between YUKIGATA and Chinese zodiac culture.

Yirui Han. A study on the relationship between the Japanese cultural landscape YUKIGATA and the Chinese zodiac culture. Academic Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences (2023) Vol. 6, Issue 1: 24-30. https://doi.org/10.25236/AJHSS.2023.060104.

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