Thursday, February 4, 2010

The biggest shimenawa in the world

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The biggest shimenawa in Japan, and therefore the world, is located up in Izumo at the great shrine of Izumo Taisha.

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It adorns the Kagura den, located next door to the shrine proper.

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It's more than 13 meters in length and weighs somewhere between 5 and 8 tons.

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A new one is constructed every 3 years.

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6 comments:

  1. Long time I didn' enjoy a post from you.
    I had never heard of it, and that really is impressive !

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  2. I was there in 2008, and had a strange incident .A lady next to me threw a coin into it/at it which rebounded and hit me on top of the head.She was extremely apologetic,I wasn't hurt (just my pride).Later a friend told me that this was an old tradition,that if the coin stuck then you would have good luck.

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  3. Lovely pictures of the shimenawa.

    Both making it then raising it to its present position are amazing feats.

    You say they renew the shimenawa each 3 years. I wonder how old the present one is.

    I've heard about the tradition llewellyn above mentioned of throwing money. Certainly would stay clear if a lot of women pulled out their purses:)

    TK

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  4. Izumo Shrine is beautiful. I actually got one of the coins to stick!

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  5. The rope to hold up the rope is a bit funny.

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