Fr. 50.90

Religion and Tourism in Japan - Intersections, Images, Policies and Problems

English · Paperback / Softback

Shipping usually within 3 to 5 weeks

Description

Read more

In this study, Ian Reader presents new insights into the relationship between religion and tourism more generally and into the contemporary religious situation in Japan . He counteracts scholarship that claims tourism increases religious activity, shows that tourism is a factor in increasing secularization in Japan and draws attention to the role of the state in such contexts.Although the Japanese constitution prohibits the state from promoting religion, this book shows how state agencies nonetheless encourage people to visit religious sites, by presenting them as manifestations of a shared heritage, in ways that distance them from ''religion''. Reader examines theoretical understandings of religion and tourism and presents case studies of famed pilgrimage routes and temples. He shows how Zen monasteries are now ''tourist brands'' and pilgrimages are the focus of TV entertainment programmes, portrayed as opportunities to eat sweets.Examining the nationalistic rhetoric of nostalgia and unique heritage that underpins the promotion of religious sites, Reader also considers why priests acquiesce in such matters.>

List of contents










Introduction: Tourist Spots, Holy Ice Creams and Zen Monastic Brands
1. Religion and Tourism: Definitions, Theoretical Perspectives and Contemporary Japanese Dynamics
2. Temples, Shrines and Play: Historical Patterns, Transport Networks and State Policies
3. When Religion is Not Religious: The State, Tourism and Constitutional Acrobatics
4. What Shall We Do on Wednesday? The Shikoku Pilgrimage, Tourism, Heritage and Economic Regeneration
5. Stations, Stamps and the Significance of Sweets in the Saikoku Pilgrimage
6. Mystical Mountains and Ascetic Training as Tourist Attractions: Spiritual Japan for Visitors
Concluding Comments: Religion, Tourism, the State, Decline and Secularisation
Bibliography
Index


About the author










Ian Reader is Professor Emeritus at the University of Manchester, UK. His prime areas of research are on religious dynamics in the contemporary world, with a special focus on Japan, on pilgrimage and on the links between religion and violence. He is the author of numerous books, articles and chapters about such issues, including Pilgrims Until We Die: Unending Pilgrimage in Shikoku, co-authored with John Shultz, (2021) and Dynamism and the Ageing of a Japanese "New" Religion, co-authored with Erica Baffelli (Bloomsbury, 2019).

Product details

Authors Ian Reader, Reader Ian
Publisher Bloomsbury Academic
 
Languages English
Product format Paperback / Softback
Released 29.05.2025
 
EAN 9781350418875
ISBN 978-1-350-41887-5
No. of pages 272
Dimensions 154 mm x 232 mm x 14 mm
Subjects Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Religion: general, reference works

Japan, RELIGION / General, RELIGION / Religion, Politics & State, HISTORY / Asia / Japan, Religion: general, Religion and Politics, Tourism industry

Customer reviews

No reviews have been written for this item yet. Write the first review and be helpful to other users when they decide on a purchase.

Write a review

Thumbs up or thumbs down? Write your own review.

For messages to CeDe.ch please use the contact form.

The input fields marked * are obligatory

By submitting this form you agree to our data privacy statement.