The Relations between Deer and People in Miyajima after the Early Modern Period

―From the Perspective of Wildlife Tourism―

Abstract

This study attempted to organize the background of the relationship between deer and people as wildlife tourism, based on the understanding that wildlife tourism as a sustainable form of tourism that contributes to the conserva-tion of the species. To this end, this study clarified the relationship between wild deer and people such as resi-dents and visitors in Miyajima since the Early Modern Period, and to compare it with the situation of deer in Nara, where wildlife tourism has been established. It was confirmed that the relationship between wild deer and people in Miyajima had not been established as wildlife tourism from the early modern period to the postwar period. The authors concluded that the reason for this was that the establishment of wildlife tourism requires the will of the local community to share the same space and maintain a close relationship between wild deer and people and that while there was a religious background in Nara, there was no such background in Miyajima.