Ise, Japan
They say of Japan that if you come here for a week, you want to write a novel about Japan. After a year, maybe a few essays. After a decade, a page. It is one of those countries which seems to get simultaneously more fascinating and opaque.
Possessing an ancient monarchy is like having a Gothic cathedral in your back garden
So it is for me, on this, my first trip to Japan in 30 years (I lived in Kyoto in the mid-1990s). This time around I have been doing prep by reading the early history of Shinto, the ‘state religion’ of Japan, an animist creed which sees the divine in everything – trees, rocks, lakes, rugby balls (really) – all in the form of kami – which can be spirits of place, mood or idea. And what I have learned has, surprisingly, taught me something about modern Britain.
But first, to Japan and its peculiar national ‘faith’.
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