RITUAL. Repeated gestures, words and actions formalise over centuries to become rituals that shape our personal, national and religious identity. Nowhere is this more evident than in Japan, where time-honoured customs and traditions are woven into the fabric of daily life and are palpable to even the most unobservant visitor: bamboo ladles at the entrance to Shinto shrines, statues of deities protecting the traveller on his or her way, shoes left at the entrance of a shrine in an act of humility, torii gates marking the transition from the profane to the sacred, and hanami, the centuries-old, annual ritual of cherry blossom viewing, a reminder of the transience of life.