The work of drying straw to be used for New Year's shimenawa has begun in Nantan City, Kyoto Prefecture. Workers sweated and arranged the straw in greenhouses in the scorching heat of over 40 degrees Celsius.
Every December, the Sonobe Town Agricultural Corporation sells shimenawa at the roadside station "Kyoto Shinkoetsu Village" (Sonobe Town, Nantan City). In recent years, they have also been selling the straw before it is made into shimenawa, and they receive orders from people who make their own shimenawa and from shrines outside the city.
Straw grown in a five-are glutinous rice field is harvested with agricultural machinery in August and tied into one-meter-long bundles to dry. The green straw is dried for a week before being stored in a warehouse away from the sun until December.
