Écrire la montagne japonaise: Guimet, Loti et le paysage nippon
Writing the Japanese Mountain: Guimet, Loti, and the Japanese Landscape

Summary/Abstract: This paper examines the representation of the Japanese mountain in nineteenth‑century French discourse through the travel writings of Émile Guimet and Pierre Loti. It argues that the mountain—one of the synecdoches of Japan—does not function as a stable geographical referent, but as an imagotype—a relatively stable cluster of literary or discursive images that constructs a recognizable representation of a national or cultural identity—, produced within the Japoniste sphere through both visual and narrative mediations. Drawing on Stuart Hall’s theory of representation and Yuri Lotman’s concept of the semiosphere, the analysis distinguishes two dominant regimes of perception. On the one hand, Mount Fuji is constructed as an iconic image, shaped by the visual logic of ukiyo‑e, particularly the landscapes of Hokusai, which organize space according to perceptual salience rather than linear perspective. On the other hand, the sacred mountain of Nikkō emerges as a ritualized and immersive space, structured by narrative, myth, and movement, embodied through dense vegetal and architectural environments. Ultimately, writing nature–in this case, the Japanese mountain–reveals how travel writing reactivates prior media logics, transforming the landscape into a culturally encoded field of perception.

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