On a Fixation of “A Upper-class Summer Resort” Image in Karuizawa

The image of a place and its symbolization at the social level can be both the cause and the effect of cognition and behavior in a social group. The purpose of this paper is to investigate what kind of place attains such a common image, how a symbolic relationship is formed between the place and it image-i.e., how it is symbolized, and how the symbolized place image alters the place itself and even the place name.<br> In this paper Karuizawa was selected for a case study. Karuizawa, located in the highlands of the Chubu District, is a famous upper-class summer resort in Japan (Fig. 1). The image of Karuizawa it the modern period was. reconstructed by analysis of literary works and magazine articles, and is described along with the history of development of Karuizawa.<br> Karuizawa prospered as a post-town in the Edo period (1608-1868), but after the Meiji Restoration (1868) it declined because a new road and a railway, which bypassed it, were constructed. However, an English missionary built the first summer house in Karuizawa in 1888, and the town came to be known as a summer resort among Westerners living in Japan. In the 1900s, as a result of its popularity among foreigners, the image of Karuizawa as a Western style summer resort began tcspread among upper-class Japanese, who began to visit the town more frequently.<br> In the 1920s and 1930s, the number of villas in Karuizawa multiplied rapidly, and foreign visitors were outnumbered by Japanese (Fig. 2, Table 1). Thus, the image of Karuizawa as a town of missionaries and foreigners faded, but the symbolized version of the image remained. Several writers who visited Karuizawa, added to the mystique by publishing novels set in the town and describing it in Western or romantic terms. As their works gained popularity, Karuizawa's image was still more symbolized. Such symbolized images remained unchanged even during wartime, when Karuizawa declined as a summer resort.<br> After the World War II, Karuizawa became ever better known as a summer resort with the spread of the mass media. In the 1960s, members of the general public who had never visited Karuizawa before came to want to go there, and the image of Karuizawa became symbolic among many Japanese. Thus, the image of Karuizawa expanded the sphere in which the symbolization is effective, first from foreigners to Japanese, then from upper-class to the general public, over the years. In spite of popularization, the image of Karuizawa as an “upper-class summer resort” has hardly changed over the years.<br> The image of Karuizawa has a special economic value, because Karuizawa developed as an upper-class resort. And its name which is identified with the place image, also has economic value. Place names with “Karuizawa” proliferated in the broad area surrounding the original Karuizawa:Kita (north)-karuizawa, Minami (south)-karuizawa, Naka (central)-karuizawa, Nishi (west)-karuiza-wa, etc. The number of facilities named after the town has also increased, and their distribution has expanded (Fig. 3, Table 3).