Gohei

Gohei in the Hata Shrine in Uji .

A girl chases away a virgin-eating giant snake with a gohei. Color woodcut by Kuniyoshi , around 1842.

Gohei ( Japanese 御 幣 , also read Onbei or Onbe ) or Heisoku ( 幣 束 ) are wooden sticks to which strips of paper are attached. They are used in various Shinto rituals (especially for cleaning , harai ) and make up a type of heihaku ( 幣帛 ). Other names are Nusa ( 幣 , i.e. 御 幣 without honorific prefix and in Kun reading ) and Mitegura , which can also be used to denote heihaku in general.

The sticks themselves (usually made of bamboo ) are called heigushi ( 幣 串 ), the zigzag paper strips ( 垂 , shide ) are attached to them and are usually white. These have historically emerged as symbols for clothing that were originally attached to the heigushi as sacrifices for the kami .

See also

• Inaw , prayer stick of the northern Japanese Ainu

Web links

Motosawa Masashi:  "Gohei" . In: Encyclopedia of Shinto. Kokugaku-in , June 2, 2005 (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} 御 幣 . In: Daijirin and Daijisen at kotobank.jp. Retrieved February 11, 2014 (Japanese). 
2. ↑ 幣帛 . In: Daijisen at kotobank.jp. Retrieved February 11, 2014 (Japanese).