Twice a year, the priests of Kumano Nachi Taisha Grand Shrine replace a sacred rope that hangs above a 133-meter-high waterfall. Just before the new year, five priests dressed in white climbed the ...

although the Amano-Iwatojinja is believed to be the birthplace of the Shinto practice of using the white rope, usually made of straw or hemp, to demarcate a sacred place. “I’m proud of the ...

The rope tied around a shrine space, or across its entrance, to mark its sacred nature is called the shimenawa.Traditionally woven from hemp, but nowadays more frequently rice or wheat straw, this ...