The World Service’s Heart and Soul slot is a contemplative one, rich with beautiful sound and considered thought on faith and place. In this standout Whistledown produced edition, the American poet Jordan Smith travels to a unique shrine in Ise, Japan.
A symbol of constant renewal, the shrine is destroyed and rebuilt on a relentless schedule, every twenty years, for more than a millennium. And its a site of pilgrimage, for shinto believers, artists and poets who want to immerse themselves in the shrine’s beauty and its permanent transience.
As Jordan stays at the shrine and meets those who know it best, the programme becomes a meditation on time and faith.
