Paper thunderbolts attached to rope are used to purify a sacred tree

A City to Worship Nature

What Japan’s Holy City, Ise, can tell us about how to create environmentally sustainable cities

It was when the city’s Mayor Kenichi Suzuki began his speech by opening the window and asking if we “can hear the crickets?” that I realised this wasn’t a “normal” city. Here, in Japan’s City of Shinto, I experienced a form of environmental culture, over 1,000…