ABSTRACT
The Shikoku pilgrimage has yet to secure United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization World Heritage status, but there is evidence suggesting that the practice and associated tourist activities have already played a role in safeguarding strategies for the socio-economic development of the Shikoku region. The Japanese government is shifting its agenda from mere protection to a combination of preserving and utilising heritage beyond such famed sites as, for example, Nikko and Kyoto. Heritage preservation programmes constitute an area where the boundaries between religion and contiguous semantic fields such as “culture,” “tradition,” and “customs” are blurred. The temple, with its vanishing community and its burden of responsibility for the preservation of local cultural and natural heritage, offers few economic prospects. Heritage is often said to obscure or beautify the less presentable parts of history.
