Note 50 — Annals of a Year.
Reading edition
Shime-nawa. A rope with tufts of straw or of cut paper at fixed intervals, hung before shrines in order to sanctify the place within. It is a relic of the straw-rope which Futodama-no-mikoto stretched behind the Sun-goddess to prevent her returning to the cave after Tajikarao-no-mikoto had pulled her out and thus re-illuminated the universe which had been plunged into darkness.