01833nas a2200229   4500000000100000000000100001008004100002653001900043653002900062653002300091653003500114653001500149653004800164653004100212653001800253100001200271245013100283300001200414490000700426520115600433022001401589                                       d10aAustralia (AU)10aEnvironment (THE\_65229)10aEthics (THE\_2143)10aIndigenous peoples (THE\_1844)10aJapan (JP)10aJustice and Strong Institutions (ICH\_1394)10aSDG 14: Life below water (ICH\_1393)10aSDG 16: Peace1 aK. Kato00aPrayers for the Whales: Spirituality and Ethics of a Former Whaling Community. Intangible Cultural Heritage for Sustainability  a283-3130 v143 aKayoiura, located at the most easterly point of Omijima Island, Nagato City, Japan, is a small fishing village where community-based coastal whaling took place from late 1600 to early 1900. Today, more than 100 years since the end of whaling, the community maintains a number of cultural properties, both tangible and intangible, dedicated to the spirits of whales, including prayers for the whales given daily by two elderly Buddhist nuns. This article suggests that these cultural properties convey the former whaling community’s ethics and spirituality with a strong sense of reciprocity that acknowledges the undeniable human dependency on other lives. It is argued that such spirituality has an important implication for our understanding of sustainability. Whaling is no doubt one of the most contentious issues in today’s environmental debates, where divisive arguments collide over a wide range of issues. Although any study on whaling would play a role in the debate, this article’s intention is elsewhere: to acknowledge the importance of ethics and spirituality as intangible cultural heritage and their role in sustainability debate.  a1465-7317