Senninbari - Thousand Needles

A white cotton cloth knotted with a single stitch by a thousand women. This custom arose from the superstition that if one wears this cloth on their skin while going to war, they will be able to avoid the hardships of war and return home safely. This superstition can be seen as a kind of incantation, born out of the motivation to unite the strength of many people to help those who are weak or in danger to escape danger safely. It is said to have started during the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese wars of 1894-95 (Meiji 27-28) and 1904-05 (Meiji 37-38). Red thread is sewn onto cloth wrapped around the skin, and the color red is also thought to have had the meaning of warding off disasters. During the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II, women would line up on street corners and in front of train stations to beg for a stitch, and there was also a popular belief that they would use the same thread to stitch together holed 5-sen and 10-sen coins, which were in circulation at the time, as a curse to "survive the brink of death (4 sen) or avoid hardship (9 sen)." Based on the historical proverb "A tiger travels a thousand miles and returns a thousand miles," it was said that women born in the year of the tiger would be most effective if they had the number of stitches equal to their age.

[Hisako Maruyama]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

千人の女性が一針ずつ縫って結び目をこしらえた白木綿の布。これを肌につけて戦争に赴けば、戦苦を免れ無事に帰還することができるという俗信から発生した風習。このような俗信は、弱い者や危機にある人のために、多人数の力をあわせて、危機を無事に脱却させようとする動機から出た呪願(じゅがん)の一種とみてよい。1894～95年（明治27～28）と1904～05年（明治37～38）の日清(にっしん)・日露戦争のときから始まったという。肌に巻く晒(さらし)などに赤い糸で縫うもので、この赤という色にも災害をよける意味があったとみられる。日中戦争～第二次世界大戦の際には、街角や駅前などに女の人が並んで一針を請うていたが、当時流通していた五銭・十銭の穴あき硬貨を同じ糸でかがりつけて、「死線（四銭）を越える、苦戦（九銭）を免れる」などという呪(まじな)いにする俗信もあわせて行われていた。とくに「虎(とら)は千里を行き千里を帰る」という故事に基づいて、寅(とら)年生まれの女性からはその年齢だけの数を縫ってもらうと効が多いといわれていた。

［丸山久子］

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