, or are wooden wand

Wand

A wand is a thin, straight, hand-held stick of wood, stone, ivory, or metal. Generally, in modern language, wands are ceremonial and/or have associations with magic but there have been other uses, all stemming from the original meaning as a synonym of rod and virge, both of which had a similar...

s, decorated with two shide

Shide (shinto)

is a zigzag-shaped paper streamer, often seen attached to shimenawa or tamagushi, and used in Shinto rituals. A popular ritual is using a haraegushi, or "lightning wand", named for the zig-zag shide paper that adorns the wand. A similar wand, used by miko for purification and blessing, is the gohei...

 (zigzag paper streamers) used in Shinto

Shinto

or Shintoism, also kami-no-michi, is the indigenous spirituality of Japan and the Japanese people. It is a set of practices, to be carried out diligently, to establish a connection between present day Japan and its ancient past. Shinto practices were first recorded and codified in the written...

 rituals.

The streamers are usually white, although they can also be gold, silver, or a mixture of several colors. The zigzag paper streamers themselves (referred to as "'shide'") are often attached to straw ropes (shimenawa

Shimenawa

Shimenawa are lengths of braided rice straw rope used for ritual purification in the Shinto religion. They can vary in diameter from a few centimetres to several metres, and are often seen festooned with shide...

) used to mark sacred precincts.

The shrine priest

Kannushi

A , also called , is the person responsible for the maintenance of a Shinto shrine as well as for leading worship of a given kami. The characters for kannushi are sometimes also read jinshu with the same meaning....

 or maiden attendants (miko

Miko

is a Japanese term that anciently meant a "female shaman, spirit medium" who conveyed oracles from kami , and currently means a "shrine maiden; virgin consecrated to a deity" who serves at Shinto shrines.-Word:...

) use the gohei to bless or sanctify in various Shinto rituals. gohei is used for some ceremonial practices, but its usual purpose is to cleanse the sacred place in temples and to cleanse, bless, or exorcise any object that is thought to have negative energy. In addition to their use in purification ritual

Ritual purification

Ritual purification is a feature of many religions. The aim of these rituals is to remove specifically defined uncleanliness prior to a particular type of activity, and especially prior to the worship of a deity...

s like Ōnusa

Onusa

An or simply is a wooden wand used in Shinto rituals. It is decorated with many shide . When the shide are attached to an hexagonal or octagonal staff, it can be also called...

(wooden wand with many shide), they can also be used as an object of worship of Shinto shrine

Jinja (Shinto)

A Shinto shrine is a structure whose main purpose is to house one or more Shinto kami....

s.

See also

• The Glossary of Shinto
  Glossary of Shinto
  This is the glossary of Shinto, including major terms the casual reader might find useful in understanding articles on the subject. Words followed by an asterisk are illustrated by an image in one of the photo galleries...
  
  for an explanation of terms concerning Japanese Shinto, Shinto art, and Shinto shrine architecture.