These photos show what is called "
Shimekazari Wreath" or "
Shimenawa Wreath". These wreaths are used during new year holidays in Japan. At the end of every year, they mount this kind of wreath on the upper side of front door of residential home or office building. The source of the left side photo is oshougatsutsuuhan.com and the right photo is from
www.flower-present.jp
This kind of wreath is a Japanese traditional type of wreath. Although we used to use rice straw ropes in a natural color, we currently use ones in artificial color as shown in the photos. The main material consisting of the base wreath is ropes made of rice straws. And this material is the same one as used for much larger type of ropes (called "
Shimenawa") found at
Shinto shrines in Japan. Meanwhile according to internet, Shimenawa is explained as follows:
literally "enclosing rope") are lengths of laid rice straw rope used for ritual purification in the Shinto religion. They can vary in diameter from a few centimetres to several metres, and are often seen festooned with shide.
If you have ever visited Japan from the end of the year to early January, you must have found Shimenawa Wreath or Shimekazari Wreath. Also regardless of the season, if you go to a shrine, you will find a much larger type of shimenawa (rice straw rope). Getting back to Japanese version of front door wreath (which is sometimes displayed even inside of a home),
California Flower Art Academy once offers a lesson for learning how to make Shimekazari Wreath in California. However we could not gather reasonable number of students seemingly because this type of wreath is not known to local residents in California.
