Sacred Places, Pilgrimage, and Tourism - Geography of Religion in Japan: Religious Space, Landscape, and Behavior - page 166

churches, and tour programs of visiting churches) to reveal the charm and value of
the Church Group to the general public. Although most events are held in Nagasaki,
Goto, or Hirado where the churches are the most densely distributed, lecture meet-
ings and photo exhibitions are also held in larger cities, such as Tokyo, Yokohama,
Osaka, Fukuoka. These events have started to spread a special range of activities.
Awareness events for the general public to publicize the special charm of
Nagasaki Church Group are very important. Mr Hiroaki Misawa, an architectural
photographer who has taken photographs of buildings, streets, ruins, and civil struc-
tures in Japan and abroad, published Ooinaru Isan Nagasaki no Kyokai (Important
Assets: Churches in Nagasaki) in 2000. This photograph topic included a thorough
explanation by Mr Hideto Kawakami, a specialist in architecture and a member of
the World Heritage Association, and photos of churches taken by Mr Misawa, and
has been constantly reprinted. Dr Kawakami is a professor at the Kinki University
Faculty of Humanity-Oriented Science and Engineering, and has studied the archi-
tecture of the Nagasaki Church Group for many years. The World Heritage
Association helps protect its treasures and the Church Group's precious buildings,
by the Nagasaki Church Group encouraging study by specialists.
The Association is also active in other events, such as visiting churches in Rome,
Macau and other countries, requesting the cooperation of the Vatican, and promot-
ing coalitions with other organizations including administrative bodies. The asso-
ciation also owes a great deal for the maintenance and operation of the association
to the dedicated efforts of Mr Kakimori.
In this chapter, I examined the role of the association in promoting World
Heritage registration. I emphasize that this registration movement is fundamentally
supported by the authenticity of Nagasaki local history and their collective memo-
ries (Kimura 2001 , 2007b ; Hosoda 2004 ).

4.2.4 Creation of Pilgrimages to Sacred Places

and the Actors Involved

4.2.4.1 Creation of Pilgrimages to Sacred Places

The World Heritage movement has increased the number of pilgrims and tourists to
faith-related facilities in Nagasaki. The movement to make a pilgrimage to the
sacred places has been encouraged by the design of the administrations of prefec-
tures and municipalities and tourist federations in areas with sacred churches and
martyrdom sites (Matsui 2008b , 2009 ).
In Nagasaki, efforts to promote tourism using the history and culture of Nagasaki
are being made through the Project of Discovery and Transmission of History in
Nagasaki. This project began in 2005 and aims to create stories associated with
historic cultural heritage sites in the prefecture to tempt people to visit. The program
is jointly promoted by the education board and tourism department of Nagasaki.
A Promotion Meeting composed of business people and well-informed persons