Religion:Shimenawa

Short description: Lengths of laid rice straw or hemp rope used for ritual purification in Shinto

しめ縄
Material	Hemp fiber/Straw
Present location	Japan
Culture	Shinto

are lengths of laid rice straw or hemp rope used for ritual purification in the Shinto religion.

vary in diameter from a few centimetres to several metres, and are often seen festooned with —traditional paper streamers. A space bound by typically indicates a sacred or ritually pure space, such as that of a Shinto shrine. are believed to act as a ward against evil spirits, and are often set up at a ground-breaking ceremony before construction begins on a new building. They are often found at Shinto shrines, gates, and sacred landmarks.

are also placed on , objects considered to attract spirits or be inhabited by them. These notably include being placed on certain trees, the spirits considered to inhabit them being known as . Cutting down these trees is thought to bring misfortune. In the case of stones considered to be inhabited by spirits, the stones are known as iwakura (磐座/岩座).

A variation of the are worn in sumo wrestling by (grand champions), during the entrance ceremony to debut as grand champion rank. In this instance, used by are seen as being living (a vessel capable of housing a spirit, known as when inhabited by a spirit), and are therefore visually distinguished as "sacred".

Shinto

Origin of

Amaterasu emerges from the Heavenly Rock Cave (Shunsai Toshimasa, 1889)

The prototype of in Shinto is a rope of Amaterasu, Japan's "Heaven-shining great ". According to "A popular dictionary of Shinto", Amaterasu hid in a cave called Amano-Iwato after an argument with her brother Susanoo. Therefore, the entire universe lost its luster. Other deities tried numerous ways to attract Amaterasu out of the cave. At the moment that Amaterasu left the cave, the Futo-tama used a magical rope that drew a line of demarcation between her and the cave, to avoid her returning to the cave. The rope became known as a . Because of the , the universe returned to its previous state.

Shinto shrines

Meoto Iwa, two rocks in Ise Bay connected by

and nature have been a hallmark of Shinto shrines since in early times. The shrine in Shinto is a place for . Local people held rituals in shrines. Early shrines were not composed of classical buildings, with rocks, plants and  instead marking their boundaries, as part of the Shinto respect for nature. In Shinto, all the sacred objects and nature were personified. Even a sword from a deceased Japanese warrior could be seen as the god because of its internal spirit and sense of awe. In modern-day society, there are still some sites that use to demarcate boundaries, such as the Nachi Falls in Kumano. A rock in Ise Bay is still connected by as well.

Types

Daidai in Japan

usually appear in a shape similar to a twisted narrow rope with various decorations on it. Zig-zag paper and colorful streamers called commonly decorate . The size of differs from simple to complicated. In shrines, they are usually tapered and thick with a diameter of 6 ft (1.8 m).

Decorations

are decorated differently depending on the intended blessing and meaning.

• : a kind of bitter orange used to decorate . This combination is seen to bring good fortune and prosperity.
• or : folded white paper which stands for lightning, a symbol of fertility.
• Pine twigs: using pine twigs to decorate has a meaning of healthy growth for the next generation, as well as longevity of the elderly.

Biggest in Japan

Japan's largest at Izumo Taisha.

The biggest in Japan is located at Izumo Taisha Grand Shrine, which occupies over 27,000 m² (290,000 sq ft) of land in Japan. The is 13.5 m (44 ft) in length and 8 m (26 ft) in width and was made by more than 800 indigenous people in Japan.

Use

In Mountain Opening Ceremony

Sacred straw rope at New Year's (), Katori City, Japan

are used in Japan's Mountain Opening Ceremony, which is held every May 1. There are over 100 Shinto believers who participate in this ceremony. It is a 2-hour journey that they climb from Akakura Mountain Shrine to Fudō Waterfall. The overall purpose is to carry the and fix it between two towering trees. When the ceremony is finished, people get together and celebrate.

In New Year's Celebration

In Japan's New Year celebration, ornaments such as decorate every household. During this time period, local residents usually hang it on the door in order to drive away evils.

are used in , Japan's Naked Festival. This festival has been held during the New Year period for more than 500 years. The festival's participants, who are all young men, wear nothing but a fundoshi in cold weather in order to show their strength and manliness. It also includes various activities such as 'jostling, climbing fighting with a wooden ball' as well as being sprayed with water. Sometimes these festivals are held in Shinto shrines. The participants put on the roof to wish them good luck for the upcoming year. are presented to the as a sacrifice in the shrine on New Year's day.

In sumo

Sumo in 1861

Sumo, Japan's traditional national sport, still involves some elements of Shinto. Sumo matches are held in Shinto shrines, where the arena is demarcated by . Moreover, the champion of the sumo has to wear around his waist in order to attend a victorious ceremony called .

Construction

Material and preparation process

Hemp fiber to make

Hemp fiber is the basic material used in the production of , and has been used since ancient times. In Shinto, hemp is regarded as a sacred food with a meaning of purity and fertility. After the Cannabis Control Act of 1948, when the growing of hemp was banned, straw began to be used instead as the raw material of . During the process of production, the straw stems are harvested between 70 and 80 days of growth, as beyond this, the quality of the fibre decreases as the plant starts to produce its seeds. After the straw is collected by machine, it is heated for more than 10 hours, to avoid the stems being dried by the sun. The best stems are then chosen by hand in order to create .

Related objects

(also called or ), a vertical wooden stick decorated with , cloth or metal called , usually in red or white, which is used priests in Shinto. People put in front of doors. In a procession called shinkō-shiki , are seen as a sacrifice for the gods or a symbol of the existence of the gods. In ancient times, people offered cloth to the Shinto shrines, similarly to today's processions. are also sometimes used in the way are. The stripes can also hang on the .

in Japan

are the sacred spaces delimited by , which sometimes feature a cherry blossom tree surrounded by green plants appears, symbolising the seat of the gods.

Like , are also a New Year's decoration in Japan, consisting of a decorated with items related to rice like rice-cakes. The purpose of the is to bring good fortune to people.

are a reduced version of used in daily life, and are thought to control rice, salt, and water which could bring people good luck. Therefore, it always appears in the business area such as restaurants as well as conventional industries. Places like the police stations and board ships will also feature .

Raijin

Raijin

Raijin is the of thunder who also has power over drought. According to "A popular dictionary of Shinto", there is a custom in Japan which talks about and Raijin. Local residents in Japan's Kantō area put a between green bamboo after a bolt of lightning appears on the planted rice field out of gratitude to Raijin.

A is a sacred tree located in a Shinto shrine sometimes indicated by . It also be seen as a god's . These trees surrounding the shrine are seen as part of the shrine itself.

Features of

are an archway composed of two round posts and two upper cross-beams. The ends of the cross-beams are typically curved, which is a symbol of a style called . There is an under-cross-beam just below the top individually.

first appeared in Japan at the time Chinese culture and Buddhism were introduced, though their exact origin, including the origin of their shape and name, is unknown; some researchers believe the name to have originally come from Sanskrit.

With the exception of the cross-beams, people also use to decorate . The type of using only as cross-beams is known as , which consist of only two posts and a ; these are intended to be temporary instead of permanent.

In Japan, there are more than 20 different kinds of , varying from simple wood constructions to those made of concrete gates, typically used as gates to Shinto shrines. The style of is not strictly based on the style of shrine, and there could be more than one style of in one shrine.

Similar to , also have meaning in Shinto, representing a gate to the world, people, or any relationship. The purpose of and is the same, in bringing lost people to the -filled world.

of Temple Itsukushima

In art

During the 2017 Yokohama Triennale, Indonesian artist Joko Avianto's artwork, "The border between good and evil is terribly frizzy", was displayed in the center of the hall in the Yokohama Museum of Art. The name, taken from the quote "The border between good and evil is terribly fuzzy" by Czech novelist Milan Kundera, changed 'fuzzy' to 'frizzy' because of the twisted, -inspired shape of his artwork. Avianto took the meaning of to separate 'the sacred and the profane', or 'the ideal and the secular', as inspiration in his work, using it to symbolise the boundary between 'the earth and heaven'.

production in Taiwan

Miaoli Country in Taiwan

Taiwan's Miaoli County began to produce for export to Japan in 1998. In the late 1990s, Japanese manufacturers visited Taiwan and found the high quality of straw as well as the relatively low cost of producing it. However, as there were no local residents who knew how to make , the Japanese started to provide free classes for them to study the skills for producing . The industry in Taiwan developed rapidly, with many large factories appeared in Taiwan in the late 1990s. However, due to industrial disruption, most factories were forced to shut down a few years later, and only one factory was left to continue production. Other remaining factories chose to hand over the work to other Southeast Asian countries, particularly Vietnam, for a lower cost production. Later in 2005, a large number of orders were transferred back to Taiwan because buyers in Japan found that the quality of produced in Vietnam was poorer compared to those produced in Taiwan.

The craftsmen in Taiwan harvest the straw to make , while Japanese manufacturers provide samples or finished products to the customers according to their orders.

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See also

• , household Shinto shrines
• – a custom utilizing
• , traditional Japanese braided cord

Further reading

• Kasulis, Thomas P. (2004). Shinto: The Way Home. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN:0-8248-2794-5.

External links

• "Shimenawa" in Encyclopedia of Shinto