Museum Closure Blog: Our outreach activities are roaring even during a period of closure! (About Shimenawa, a sacred festoon-making experience)

We visited schools for our outreach activities even during the period of closure. (We call it Demae Gakushu, or class delivery.)

In December, we received a lot of requests for Shimenawa (the sacred festoon)-making class from elementary schools.

We usually start the class by introducing the beginning of rice cultivation in Japan and some items made from straw.

Then, we teach the students how to make the straw items themselves.

Straw ring made by a student.

It seemed like students realized how integral rice culture was interwoven into the Japanese lifestyle by learning the history of rice cultivation and various other means to utilize rice plants aside from food. For example, straw can be used as fuel and its ash as fertilizer. Our ancestors made full use of these rice plants and we strive to convey our ancestors' wisdom to the students.

Two gorgeous straw rings decorated with artificial flowers

Students showed us their cute smiles after making a lot of discoveries through the festoon-making experience.

We feel energized to see them smiling and gained a lot of motivation to do the next class delivery.