Zigzag Papers

Really old trees are really amazing! If I get a chance this weekend, I will go hiking somewhere nice with old-growth forest northwest of Tokyo. Could be tricky to find though, as much of what we see today is planted or restored forest areas, and you’ll rarely see magnificent trees with huge trunks and foliage reaching for the clouds.

Near many shrines in Japan however, there are special, sacred trees decorated with hemp ropes and white paper ornaments. David Lister at the British Origami Society has tried to find out more about these Zigag papers in Shinto shrines:

The origins of these zigzags is lost in antiquity. My first impression was that they stood for lightning, but when I was in Kyoto I asked a Buddhist priest about this and the idea had never occurred to him. Although he was a Buddhist and not a Shinto priest. If it had been an idea that was known in Japan, I am sure he would have been familiar with it. The other suggestion I have come across is that the zigzags originated as strips of cloth. Another is that they take the place of fibres of hemp. Or rice, which still decorate the Shimenawa rope. Or the distant origin may have been in offerings of cloth to the deity. Today the material used is almost invariably pure white paper, but coloured papers may sometimes be use. The only ones I have seen have been made of white paper.

The main use of O-shide is to decorate the Shimenawa or sacred rope that encircles any sacred lace in Japan.

I like the rope and the paper ornaments... They quietly remind us that a very old tree or a rock or an object can be sacred in its own right. Also a subtle reminder that while our human existence is a rather brief occurrence, others are carefully living on this planet for hundreds and even thousands of years. Perspective.

How to fold that Zigzag paper ornament? Read more here.