Japanese culture is known for his sensitivity to nature. But no other society has destroyed all its architectural and natural heritage in such a short time, in an unrestrained development. The delicate Japanese city, where each space left vacant was turned into nature and garden, is still in flux.However, could such a sensitivity to nature, such a capacity to civilize it be forgotten, be abolished without any trace or remorse ? It is to an observation of legible traces along a path in three streets of Kyôto, the ancient capital, we would like to invite the reader here : a description-deciphering, where the body itself of the observer is even more at stake than his fragile knowledge of this city.