Abstract
Urban tourism can date back several centuries as in Japan. These early visits gave rise to a wide range of defining features of Japanese cities. The analysis of Japanese tourist guidebooks shows that visits are not only related to the varied forms of architectural heritage but are also strongly motived by various intangible and ephemeral aspects of the urban culture. The guidebook issued by the Japan Travel Bureau on Kamakura (170 000 inhabitants) located 40 kilometres from the centre of Tokyo, illustrates this phenomenon. This former capital (between 1185 and 1333) owes its tourist attraction as much to the presence of numerous Buddhist temples and Shinto's shrines as to an atmosphere of elegance and nostalgia, associated with the rich past of the city.
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