OFUNATO, Iwate Prefecture--In a normal year, "shimenawa" craftsman Tetsuo Suzuki would be making his New Year's good luck charms of thick cords of rope fashioned from dried rice husks from an acquaintance's rice fields.
OFUNATO, Iwate Prefecture--In a normal year, "shimenawa" craftsman Tetsuo Suzuki would be making his New Year's good luck charms of thick cords of rope fashioned from dried rice husks from an acquaintance's rice fields.
However, since the friend's rice paddies were damaged by the tsunami following the Great East Japan Earthquake, Suzuki obtained his supply from a different field this year.
With many of his regular customers being forced to move to remote places because of the quake and tsunami, Suzuki plans to create about 700 ropes, 30 percent fewer than an average year.
It's an important tradition that the tragedies of March 11 could not derail for shimenawa craftsmen like Suzuki in Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture, who are making a final push as the New Year is just around the corner.
The rope is used to demarcate sacred places, such as household altars.
Shimenawa ropes used to decorate homes in Ofunato and Rikzentakata, also in Iwate Prefecture, are characterized by their thin ends and thick centers.
Suzuki, a 70-year-old "wakame" seaweed fisherman in Ofunato, has been making shimenawa ropes by himself for about 40 years.
The rope consists of three bundles of rice husks tied with carex weed before they are twisted together. According to Shinto beliefs, they are used to ward off evil and "lock in" fortune.