Travelling around Japan's stunning island geography, he examines how the country's two great religions, Shinto and Buddhism, helped shape a creative response to nature often very different to the West. But he also considers modern Japan's changing relationship to the natural world and travels to Naoshima Art Island to see how contemporary artists are finding new ways to engage with nature.

Dr. James Fox explores how the artistic life of three Japanese cities shaped the country's attitudes to past and present, east and west, and helped forge the idea of Japan itself.

In this final episode, Dr. James Fox explores the art of the Japanese home and how its clean minimalism has been exported round the world.