Contents Tourism in Japan: Pilgrimages to Sacred Sites of Popular Culture

325 Pages·2017·7.226 MB·English

by  Philip A Seaton, Takayoshi Yamamura, Akiko Sugawa, Kyungjae Jang

Contents Tourism
in Japan

Contents Tourism
in Japan
Pilgrimages to “Sacred Sites” of Popular Culture
Philip Seaton, Takayoshi Yamamura,
Akiko Sugawa-Shimada,
and Kyungjae Jang
Copyright Cambria Press 2017.
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
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[email protected], or mailed to:
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Front cover photo credit ©KOITABI~True Tours Nanto
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available.
ISBN 9781604979732 (alk. paper)
Table of Contents
List of Figures............................................................... vii
Acknowledgements......................................................... xv
Introduction................................................................... 1
Chapter 1: The Players and Patterns of Contents Tourism............ 17
Chapter 2: Canonized Texts and Heritage: Pre-1945
Contents......................................................... 67
Chapter 3: Community-Building Through Contents: 1945–
2000............................................................. 137
Chapter 4: Digital Age Contents Tourism: 2000–2015................ 205
Conclusion.................................................................. 263
References................................................................... 269
Index......................................................................... 287
About the Authors........................................................ 305

List of Figures
Figure 1: The forty-seven prefectures of Japan ......................... 13
Figure 2: Engyōji Temple, Himeji ........................................ 14
Figure 3: Sites of contents tourism in Chapter 1 ....................... 38
Figure 4: The players of contents tourism .............................. 39
Figure 5: Contents tourism as cultural tourism .........................40
Figure 6: Contents transport .............................................. 41
Figure 7: Itasha ..............................................................42
Figure 8: Devotional fan behavior ........................................43
Figure 9: Saigō Takamori commemorative sites ........................44
Figure 10: Shinsengumi memorial at Mibudera Temple ............... 45
Figure 11: Fan messages on ema ..........................................46
Figure 12: Fan message in a visitor notebook ...........................47
Figure 13: Power spot at Sarume Shrine .................................48
Figure 14: Ise Shrine ........................................................49
viii Contents Tourism in Japan
Figure 15: Tora-san statue, Shibamata ................................... 50
Figure 16: Sanrio Puroland ................................................ 51
Figure 17: The Satta Pass at Yui .......................................... 52
Figure 18: Mount Fuji from the Satta Pass .............................. 53
Figure 19: The opening of Lucky Star ....................................54
Figure 20: Recreating the Lucky Star opening .......................... 55
Figure 21: Scene reenactment and cosplay .............................. 56
Figure 22: Using the Koitabi Camera .................................... 57
Figure 23: Canonized contents tourism ..................................58
Figure 24: Boom and bust contents tourism .............................59
Figure 25: Canadian World, Hokkaido ...................................60
Figure 26: World Cosplay Summit ....................................... 61
Figure 27: Branding using contents in Chōfu city ......................62
Figure 28: Mythical Takachiho Gorge ................................... 63
Figure 29: Airport name as local brand in Tottori ......................64
Figure 30: Sites of contents tourism in Chapter 2 .....................100
Figure 31a: Overview of tourism in Japan to 1945 .................... 101
List of Figures ix
Figure 31b: Overview of tourism in Japan to 1945
(continued) .................................................... 102
Figure 32: Namahage ......................................................103
Figure 33: Mizuki Shigeru Road, Sakaiminato ......................... 104
Figure 34: Godzilla in Shinjuku ..........................................105
Figure 35: Iga Ueno Castle ............................................... 106
Figure 36: Statue of Matsuo Bashō ......................................107
Figure 37: Basho’s Birth House ..........................................108
Figure 38: Basho Museum, Tokyo .......................................109
Figure 39: Statue of Murasaki Shikibu ..................................110
Figure 40: Visitor numbers at the Tale of Genji Museum ............ 111
Figure 41: Byōdōin ........................................................ 112
Figure 42: Statue of Yaji and Kita ....................................... 113
Figure 43: Graves of the forty-seven ronin ............................ 114
Figure 44: Official poster of the Masamune-kou Matsuri ............ 115
Figure 45: Statue of Date Masamune ................................... 116
Figure 46: Fan messages to Date Masamune ...........................117
Figure 47: Battle reenactment at Shiroishi Castle ..................... 118