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Rice Photo Gallery III Kazuko Tomiyama's 'Rice in Japan' Calendar (2003)
Nijo Mountain as seen from Mt. Miwa
(Sakurai City, Nara Prefecture)
In New Year celebrations, rice straw has always played a leading role. To
welcome a year in a 21st century calendar, what better way than with rice-straw
festoons of shimenawa? The New Year is the time that most intensely evokes the deep relationship
between rice and the people of Japan. These shimenawa are hung at Omiwa
Shrine. They say that the forerunners of the grand shrines of Ise were built in
the precincts here. Parishioners in Kishiwada City make shimenawa from straw gathered from
about 50 acres of designated paddy field. Every year they provide four huge
ropes of straw. This view of the twin peaks of Nijosan is seen from the shrine
of Miwasan. | |
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