The Japan Hemp International Research Association encourages information exchange and learning concerning diverse aspects of Japanese hemp culture. Many of our resources are gathered on this site, but our knowledge remains limited, and we invite others to explore these traditions together.
What questions do you have?
Non-Japanese foreign language information snippets about Japanese hemp culture come from diverse sources and are often brief and shallow, raising more questions than they answer. Our quest for traditional hemp knowledge continues and we ask our members to join us.
Throughout the Resources postings questions are raised concerning a variety of subjects, and we have grouped these enquiries here for easy reference.
Hemp and Shinto
Print by an unknown artist of a formally dressed lady at a shrine gate.
What is the significance of the ring with paper gohei streamers and fern leaves?
Was the ring braided from hemp bast strips?
Shinto Shrines
Wooden talisman tablets called ofuda (お札) imprinted with a shrine name are often tied with a thin hemp bast strip.
What is the significance of tying hemp bast around a
commemorative shrine tablet?
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