Sacred Places, Pilgrimage, and Tourism - Geography of Religion in Japan: Religious Space, Landscape, and Behavior - page 172

outsiders as a church that has universal value; at the same time, the church is re-
established as a target that insiders themselves can ultimately control, as Ota ( 1998 )
revealed in Cultures Object Theory.
By a similar process, culture attracts the attention of other people and changes
itself. This may create a problem of the culture being treated as a consumer item.
Registration as a World Heritage site may cause serious problems of commodifi ca-
tion of places (Smith 2003 ). Timothy and Boyd ( 2003 ) suggested that commodifi ca-
tion entailed more than just the simple packaging of culture and heritage for tourist
consumption. Commodifi cation was also blamed for creating extra spectacular
events, and objects, for tourists who have become dissatisfi ed with the ordinary
world. Tanno ( 2008 ) presented several examples of the commodifi cation of World
Heritage sites in Japan. When the value of being a World Heritage site is bestowed
on a cultural landscape such as the Nagasaki Church Group, ever larger waves of
commodifi cation can sweep over the landscape. Usually, an object needs to be
exchangeable, after separation from the context of its production to be commercial-
ized. A church could be separated from the context of life in which it is rooted and
maintain vocational activities, fudo , and history. The place itself becomes a product
that can be consumed as information. The concept and philosophy of being a World
Heritage site may be part of human wisdom, but the more strongly heritage is con-
nected to a region, the more broadly the region will be infl uenced by being regis-
tered as a World Heritage site.

4.2.6 Summary

Eighteen church-related facilities including Oura Cathedral (national treasure),
Kuroshima Church (government-designated important cultural property), Aosagaura
Church and eight Christianity-related heritage items such as the ruins of Hara Castle
were nominated as candidates for World Heritage sites. All sites are historically and
culturally important, but also involve the faith and lives of Christians. A key ingredient
in their nomination is that the sites are religious living spaces as well as historic relics.
In this paper, I described the actions of the three main actors. The World Heritage
Association hopes to register the Nagasaki Church Group, the administration wishes
to create tourism opportunities and conserve cultural properties, and the Catholic
Church wants people to understand Christianity while remaining in harmony with
tourism. The Nagasaki churches, which were originally built to cater to Christian reli-
gious practice, are being redefi ned as a church group to develop a Nagasaki Pilgrimage.
Finally, from the viewpoint of consumption of culture and commodifi cation of rural
spaces, local people, and locality were discussed. The movement to create sacred
places for pilgrimages occurs in various regions and may cause hidden problems.
On the Goto Islands of Nagasaki, where the churches are located, Christians can
no longer maintain the churches because the falling birthrate and aging population
have depopulated the area. The church buildings, which have withstood the wind
and rain for many years, have become seriously damaged, and some facilities may