On the "Kataribe" -Story Tellers- in the World Heritage Area of Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range

In the World Heritage Area of "Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range", there are some unique guides and their organizations which are called Kataribe. They are originally organized as voluntary guides of local residents in order to increase visitors to this area. But after the area was registered as a World Heritage in 2004, they and their organizations have been encountering new stages of their history. We have high expectation of the guides to take part in "sustainable tourism" of this area. There are two reasons for this. After the registration, visitors to this area have been increasing dramatically and the guides can have been earning more money than before. It means they might become professional guides, which would play very important role in this less industrialized area. But there is also the fact that they are the voluntary-based guides, so that they can be leading themselves to another more important role to preserve the Heritage. If they play these two roles, they will take very essential position to part in "sustainable tourism" of this area. This paper is researching their present situation and their possibility to go on this way.