Making Shimenawa (注連縄) - Traditional Japanese New Year Decorations - Japan Culture Series #4

Last week, in preparation for New Year, the locals taught us how to make Shimenawa. These are rice straw ropes commonly used in Shinto religion. They may vary from a few centimeters in diameter to a few meters. Traditionally, Japanese people will make shimenawa to hang in front of their house in order to ward off evil spirits and bring in good fortune. There many types of shimenawa, with designs varying from town to town, from prefecture to prefecture. For this video, I asked the locals to show us how it's properly made as the ones I made were substandard to say the least. Here, we are making shimenawa that uses a type of orange as decoration (called Daidai). This is said to bring good fortune and prosperity for the people. The second and last song of the video is called Oshogatsu and is a traditional japanese song for the New Year. On that note, Happy New Year everyone, enjoy the video! P.S. Please excuse the occasional unfocused/blurry shots ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Filmed and Edited by Luan Tran - Hinase, Japan 2020 Music: Hot Springs - Derek Fiechter, Brandon Fiechter Oshogatsu (お正月) Filmed with Nikon D5600 Edited with Adobe Premiere Pro ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------