Inazumi -

Japanese: 稲積 - にお

A cone-shaped pile of harvested rice bundles. It has many different names, including inamura, inekozumi, nyu, nyo, and suzuki. Today, wara-nio is usually made by piling up bundles of straw after threshing, but in the past, rice was piled with ears still attached and threshed as needed. There is a custom of making a straw hat to cover the top of the nio, and it seems that this was originally a ritual site to celebrate the rice harvest. In Okinawa, nio is called shira, which also means ubuya (birth house). It seems that there was a belief that this nio would ensure the growth of grains the following year.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia About Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia Information

Japanese:

刈取った稲束を円錐形に積上げたもの。異名が多くイナムラ，イネコズミ，ニュウ，ニョウ，スズキなどともいう。今日では脱穀したのちわら束を積上げるワラニオが普通であるが，昔は穂のついたままの穂稲を積み，必要に応じて脱穀したものである。ニオの頂上にはわら帽子をつくっておおう習慣があり，本来ここが稲の収穫を祝う祭場であったらしい。沖縄ではニオをシラといい，それがまた産屋 (うぶや) をも意味している。このニオによって翌年の穀種が生育するという信仰があったらしい。

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