Shimenawa
The shimenawa is the sacred rope twisted from rice straw that marks off the dwelling-place of the kami in Shinto practice, hung across the entrance of shrines, over torii gates, and around sacred trees, rocks, and rice paddies. Its origin is tied to the founding myth of the sun goddess Amaterasu, who sealed herself in the Heavenly Rock Cave and left the world in darkness until the other gods lured her out and strung a rope across the mouth of the cave to keep her from retreating again. The shimenawa draws a boundary between the purified ground of the kami and the defiling world outside, and it