就臺灣文學史而言，西川滿在日治時期的日文作家中，佔有舉足輕重的地位。而眾多評論除推詠他寫作風格充滿浪漫、華麗及幻想之外，另一對他推崇極至的便是對於臺灣歷史、民俗及風俗等的重視，更有甚者認為臺灣是他「心靈的故鄉」，尤以淡水為最（林慧姃，1999：301）。因此本文以人文主義地理學（humanistic geography）為出發，詮釋探究西川滿筆下之淡水作品，並嘗試探究文學中其地理景觀所承載之空間意義和其價值所在。同時，亦嘗試深究及背後所可能隱含之地方之精神意象。如此藉由文學作品中對於地方的描述，或可喚起地理學中所存在空間之美感問題，而本文希冀藉由如此的探路，是以人文主義地理學及文學地理學（literature geography）為養分（詮釋進路），再輔以審美經驗之探究，來補足或開拓以空間之美感來詮釋地方或空間意象的可能，如此亦希冀可為地方探究帶來新的可能性。

Nishikawa Mitsuzu was a very important Japanese writer in Taiwanese Literature during the time when Taiwan was under Japanese occupation. He was recommended for his romantic, gorgeous, and fantastic writing style and applauded by his valuing Taiwan history, folks and customs. Accordingly, some researchers even think that Taiwan, especially Tamsui, could be the hometown in his mind. (Lin, Huei-chun, 1999: 301)This article will interpret Nishikawa Mitsuzu's literary series on Tamsui in terms of humanistic geography and try to explore the spatial meaning and values of the landscapes depicted therein. Moreover, we will try to probe into possible mental image of place underlying his works. Based on this discussion, we hope that we may direct our attention towards the issues of the aesthetic experience of existential space in geography. Further, we would look forward to a new approach to interpret the mental images of place or space from the perspectives of humanistic geography and literary geography, with an auxiliary analysis on aesthetic experience, which may provide a new possibility for research on place.