Hachimaki for a fertilizer collection?

[Staldion]

Hi everybody,

A fellow french collector would like to sell this on another forum.
Do not worry, I am not gonna ask what would be a fair price for his item, because, like I told him, I doubt it is WWII or even military connected.

There are lots of hachimaki, still being made in Japan, I suppose this one is more judo connected or something like this. I know that even students wear them.
That kind of printed motif is not what I would expect from a wartime exemple.


But lets the picture speak:




So what do you think of it? Taka, Guy, please let me know if you read the sentence on it. It is okay if I am wrong, the owner will be glad, and somebody could buy a good japanese wwII hachimaki. If I am right, well, the seller could not act like it is a wartime one!

I know there are more interesting items, I feel almost ashame to post this one, but some assistance would be really helpful here, so many thanks to you if you decide to comment.

[Nick Komiya]

That is a fairly obscure post war hardcore Shinto item. That is a towell given out during a Shinto cleansing ritual held on June 30 and Dec 31 to wash away the sins we accumulate. On a piece of paper cut out in a human silouette, one writes his name and blows on it thrice to transfer the sins. And see here what the priests do with these paper people http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0sqrNIKAYs

[Staldion]

Wow, thanks you so much Nick! I would never have figured out myself. So I was wrong this is not a hachimaki, but a Shinto towel. I never heard about this practice (but I am not an expert in Shinto religion at all) quite interesting anyway.

Many thanks for the video I will share it with the owner.

Oh and I recognize some kanjis from the towel in the title of the video: 形代流し神事
It is the name of the ceremony I believe. (Well I believe nothing, but google trad give me: Shinji sink Katashiro to work on). I think I will be able to guess the two final kanjis by myself with theese clues.

Thanks again and best regards.
Mathieu.


Edit: 形代流し神事 = Mid year Great Purification.
(Better thank google trad ...)

[Nick Komiya]

　I was not aware that you also wanted the Kanji. It is 大祓形代流し連合会 It is read おおはらえかたしろながしれんごうかい
The item is a towell, but for this ceremony they obviously use it as a Hachimaki、so you were right.
Here you find people wearing exactly what you posted http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Xm1s297iVc　There's a bus tour that takes you to this ceremony in Ashinoko Lake in Hakone and all participants in the tour get these towells. It costs 8500 Yen per person including lunch, bus ride and participation fee.

[Nick Komiya]

Tell your friend that it's missing the Paper Sigrauts that you stick on the head. In the video you can hear a participant joking "We must look like a bunch of religious weirdos wearing these Hachimakis. Must be upsetting for an American to see us like this. Hopefully we're not getting into another war over this"

[Staldion]

Thanks again, and don't worry about the kanjis, I know it must be boring for you to read such thing. So I was very glad with your first answer, showing to me the real purpose of this towel.

The second video is cool too, they are wearing the very same towel in hachimaki, so I could tell the owner it is not very old too.

I love the joke, hopefuly the ceremony is not taking place in US, even if they look very peaceful, the numerous hachimakis, without your explanations, could awake bad memories indeed!

Well, I have to say that you make me kind of love this item for what it is. Unfortunatly the owner buy it thinking it was wwII and military... Must have been overpriced of course. Sadly this is a good exemple about how bad the wwII japanese market is in France. At least, I hope that with your help, nobody else will be abuse with this item, wich is still interesting for itself and enlightening about the hardcore Shinto practices (as you well said) of some japanese believers!