Pilgrimage in the Marketplace

'In his inimitable style, Ian Reader, the most prominent and highly respected scholar of contemporary Japanese religion writing today, draws upon Japan's vibrant traditions of pilgrimage to provide an important corrective to much scholarship on pilgrimage throughout the world that, until now, has focused primarily on the spirituality or sacredness of religious travel. Pilgrimage in the Marketplace is sure to shift the terms of discussion, helping readers understand the complex position of pilgrimage in our contemporary, consumer-oriented world.' - Sarah Thal, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA

'This is a boldly written book which challenges assumptions about why pilgrimage seems so popular in the contemporary world.' - Simon Coleman, University of Toronto, Canada

"[Reader] embeds [his] detailed knowledge...within a wider experience and study of pilgrimages the world over...Summing up: Recommended" -P.S. Spalding, Illinois College, USA in CHOICE

"Reader's attempts to deconstruct the binary opposition between the sacred and the profane are exemplary. The examples he provides throughout the book urge us to think beyond the sacred/profane divide, and to analyze in details the intricate relationships between religion, economy, media, and tourism... Reader's insights and rich ethnographical data are major contributions to our understanding of the fields of pilgrimage studies and religious studies as a whole." - Francois Thibeault, Universite du Quebec a Montreal, Canada

"In sum, this is a key work not only to learn something about contemporary pilgrimage, but also for pondering the larger theoretical issue of religion and secularization. It also highlights the importance theoretically of taking a comparative perspective, something that is rarely done as well as this volume in today's scholarship." - Mark MacWilliams, Religious Studies Review

"Reader has an easy-going, intelligible way of writing. Furthermore, he illustrates his explanations and descriptions with numerous pictures. Even for those readers not particularly familiar with Japan, he is able to make his general argument comprehensible and, at the same time, introduce a piece of Japanese culture to the reader. Due to its multilayered structure, Pilgrimage in the Marketplace is an insightful and entertaining monograph for scholars and students of anthropology, religion, economy, and Japanese studies. Owing to the author's pleasant style, his work could easily find its way to your nightstand." - Cora Gaebel,Zeitschrift fuer Religionswissenschaft, 2017, Issue 1

"Ian Reader is a well-known specialist of religion in modern Japan and of pilgrimage in particular. His latest opus is a significant contribution not only to the study of pilgrimage, but also to contemporary religion in general." - Francois Gauthier, Universite de Fribourg