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Year-end ritual at Nachi Falls

NACHIKATSUURA, Japan, Dec. 27 Kyodo - Priests from Kumano Nachi Taisha shrine replace a giant sacred "shimenawa" rope with a new one above Nachi Falls during a year-end ritual in Nachikatsuura, Wakayama Prefecture, western Japan, on Dec. 27, 2025. (Kyodo)

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Year-end ritual at Nachi Falls

Priests from Kumano Nachi Taisha shrine replace a giant sacred "shimenawa" rope with a new one above Nachi Falls during a year-end ritual in Nachikatsuura, Wakayama Prefecture, western Japan, on Dec. 27, 2025.

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Sumo: Yokozuna Onosato wears new rope belt

New sumo grand champion Onosato practices a ring-entering ritual at his Nishonoseki stable in Ami in Ibaraki Prefecture, eastern Japan, on May 29, 2025, as he wears a new rope belt following his promotion to sumo's highest rank of yokozuna the previous day.

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Sumo: Yokozuna Onosato wears new rope belt

New sumo grand champion Onosato practices a ring-entering ritual at his Nishonoseki stable in Ami in Ibaraki Prefecture, eastern Japan, on May 29, 2025, as he wears a new rope belt following his promotion to sumo's highest rank of yokozuna the previous day.

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Sumo: Yokozuna Onosato wears new rope belt

New sumo grand champion Onosato practices a ring-entering ritual at his Nishonoseki stable in Ami in Ibaraki Prefecture, eastern Japan, on May 29, 2025, as he wears a new rope belt following his promotion to sumo's highest rank of yokozuna the previous day.

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Sumo: Yokozuna Onosato wears new rope belt

New sumo grand champion Onosato practices a ring-entering ritual at his Nishonoseki stable in Ami in Ibaraki Prefecture, eastern Japan, on May 29, 2025, as he wears a new rope belt following his promotion to sumo's highest rank of yokozuna the previous day.

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Sumo: Yokozuna Onosato wears new rope belt

New sumo grand champion Onosato practices a ring-entering ritual at his Nishonoseki stable in Ami in Ibaraki Prefecture, eastern Japan, on May 29, 2025, as he wears a new rope belt following his promotion to sumo's highest rank of yokozuna the previous day.

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Sumo: Yokozuna Onosato wears new rope belt

New sumo grand champion Onosato practices a ring-entering ritual at his Nishonoseki stable in Ami in Ibaraki Prefecture, eastern Japan, on May 29, 2025, as he wears a new rope belt following his promotion to sumo's highest rank of yokozuna the previous day.

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Sumo: New grand champion Hoshoryu

New sumo grand champion Hoshoryu (facing camera) wears a new white rope belt before practicing a ring-entering ritual at his stable in Tokyo on Jan. 30, 2025, following his promotion to sumo's highest rank of yokozuna the previous day. (Pool photo)

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Rope ritual at Japan shrine

KUMANO, Japan, Oct. 4 Kyodo - People carry a 170-meter-long sacred rope that hangs from a giant rock during the Otsunakake Shinji ritual at Hananoiwaya shrine in Kumano, Mie Prefecture, central Japan, on Oct. 2, 2023. (Kyodo)

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Charak Puja Festival - Bangladesh

April 13, 2024 - Dhaka, Bangladesh - A Bangladeshi Hindu devotee hangs in a rope with hooks pierced in his back as part of a ritual during the Charak Puja festival in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Photo by Suvra Kanti Das/ABACAPRESS.COM

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Charak Puja Festival - Bangladesh

April 13, 2024 - Dhaka, Bangladesh - A Bangladeshi Hindu devotee hangs in a rope with hooks pierced in his back as part of a ritual during the Charak Puja festival in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Photo by Suvra Kanti Das/ABACAPRESS.COM

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Charak Puja Festival - Bangladesh

April 13, 2024 - Dhaka, Bangladesh - A Bangladeshi Hindu devotee hangs in a rope with hooks pierced in his back as part of a ritual during the Charak Puja festival in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Photo by Suvra Kanti Das/ABACAPRESS.COM

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Charak Puja Festival - Bangladesh

April 13, 2024 - Dhaka, Bangladesh - A Bangladeshi Hindu devotee hangs in a rope with hooks pierced in his back as part of a ritual during the Charak Puja festival in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Photo by Suvra Kanti Das/ABACAPRESS.COM

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Charak Puja Festival - Bangladesh

A Hindu monk swings from a rope tied to a wooden pole and attached hooks pierced into the skin of his back for a ritual performed during the Charak Puja festival on the last day of the Bengali calendar in Old Dhaka, Bangladesh, 13 April 2024. Charak Puja is a festival of penance that is dedicated to the Hindu God Shiva. The Bangalee nation celebrates the traditional Chaitra Sankranti festival, marking the last day of the Bangla year. Charak puja is one of the major events of the festival, and it is performed during the day-long celebration of Chaitra Sankranti in rural Bangladesh. Chaitra is the last month of the spring season in the Bangla calendar. Photo by Suvra Kanti Das/ABACAPRESS.COM

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Charak Puja Festival - Bangladesh

April 13, 2024- Dhaka, Bangladesh - A Bangladeshi Hindu devotee prepares to hang on a rope with hooks pierced in his back as part of a ritual during the Charak Puja festival in old Dhaka, Bangladesh. Photo by Suvra Kanti Das/ABACAPRESS.COM

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Charak Puja Festival - Bangladesh

April 13, 2024 - Dhaka, Bangladesh - A Bangladeshi Hindu devotee hangs in a rope with hooks pierced in his back as part of a ritual during the Charak Puja festival in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Photo by Suvra Kanti Das/ABACAPRESS.COM

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Charak Puja Festival - Bangladesh

April 13, 2024 - Dhaka, Bangladesh - A Bangladeshi Hindu devotee prepares to hang on a rope with hooks pierced in his back as part of a ritual during the Charak Puja festival in old Dhaka, Bangladesh. Photo by Suvra Kanti Das/ABACAPRESS.COM

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Charak Puja Festival - Bangladesh

April 13, 2024 - Dhaka, Bangladesh - A Bangladeshi Hindu devotee prepares to hang on a rope with hooks pierced in his back as part of a ritual during the Charak Puja festival in old Dhaka, Bangladesh. Photo by Suvra Kanti Das/ABACAPRESS.COM

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Charak Puja Festival - Bangladesh

April 13, 2024 - Dhaka, Bangladesh - A Bangladeshi Hindu devotee prepares to hang on a rope with hooks pierced in his back as part of a ritual during the Charak Puja festival in old Dhaka, Bangladesh. Photo by Suvra Kanti Das/ABACAPRESS.COM

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Charak Puja Festival - Bangladesh

April 13, 2024 - Dhaka, Bangladesh - A Bangladeshi Hindu devotee prepares to hang on a rope with hooks pierced in his back as part of a ritual during the Charak Puja festival in old Dhaka, Bangladesh. Photo by Suvra Kanti Das/ABACAPRESS.COM

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Charak Puja Festival - Bangladesh

April 13, 2024 - Dhaka, Bangladesh - A Bangladeshi Hindu devotee prepares to hang on a rope with hooks pierced in his back as part of a ritual during the Charak Puja festival in old Dhaka, Bangladesh. Photo by Suvra Kanti Das/ABACAPRESS.COM

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Charak Puja Festival - Bangladesh

A Hindu monk swings from a rope tied to a wooden pole and attached hooks pierced into the skin of his back for a ritual performed during the Charak Puja festival on the last day of the Bengali calendar in Old Dhaka, Bangladesh, 13 April 2024. Charak Puja is a festival of penance that is dedicated to the Hindu God Shiva. The Bangalee nation celebrates the traditional Chaitra Sankranti festival, marking the last day of the Bangla year. Charak puja is one of the major events of the festival, and it is performed during the day-long celebration of Chaitra Sankranti in rural Bangladesh. Chaitra is the last month of the spring season in the Bangla calendar. Photo by Suvra Kanti Das/ABACAPRESS.COM

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Charak Puja Festival - Bangladesh

April 13, 2024 - Dhaka, Bangladesh - A Bangladeshi Hindu devotee hangs in a rope with hooks pierced in his back as part of a ritual during the Charak Puja festival in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Photo by Suvra Kanti Das/ABACAPRESS.COM

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Charak Puja Festival - Bangladesh

April 13, 2024 - Dhaka, Bangladesh - A Bangladeshi Hindu devotee hangs in a rope with hooks pierced in his back as part of a ritual during the Charak Puja festival in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Photo by Suvra Kanti Das/ABACAPRESS.COM

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Charak Puja Festival - Bangladesh

April 13, 2024 - Dhaka, Bangladesh - A Bangladeshi Hindu devotee hangs in a rope with hooks pierced in his back as part of a ritual during the Charak Puja festival in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Photo by Suvra Kanti Das/ABACAPRESS.COM

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Charak Puja Festival - Bangladesh

April 13, 2024 - Dhaka, Bangladesh - A Bangladeshi Hindu devotee hangs in a rope with hooks pierced in his back as part of a ritual during the Charak Puja festival in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Photo by Suvra Kanti Das/ABACAPRESS.COM

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Rope ritual at Japan shrine

People carry a 170-meter-long sacred rope that hangs from a giant rock during the Otsunakake Shinji ritual at Hananoiwaya shrine in Kumano, Mie Prefecture, central Japan, on Oct. 2, 2023.

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Rope ritual at Japan shrine

People carry a 170-meter-long sacred rope that hangs from a giant rock during the Otsunakake Shinji ritual at Hananoiwaya shrine in Kumano, Mie Prefecture, central Japan, on Oct. 2, 2023.

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Rope changing ritual at Japan shrine

Otsunakake Shinji, a ritual of changing the sacred straw rope that hangs from the rock, is performed at World Heritage-listed Hananoiwaya Shrine in Kumano, Mie Prefecture, central Japan, on Feb. 2, 2023.

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Newly promoted yokozuna Kakuryu prepares for 'dohyo iri'

OSAKA, Japan - Newly promoted yokozuna Kakuryu (R) watches fellow sumo wrestlers as they wove a heavy, white rope belt to be donned around his waist during the "dohyo iri" ring-entering ritual, at the lodgings of his stable, the Izutsu Beya, in Osaka, western Japan, on March 27, 2014. (Pool photo)

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Fire dance ritual in Akita Pref.

SEMBOKU, Japan - A child swings a sack of burning coals tied to a rope during a traditional agricultural fertility ritual called the ''Hifuri Kamakura'' in Semboku, Akita Prefecture in northeastern Japan, on Feb. 13, 2011. The sacred fire is believed to drive out bad luck from the rice fields while people also wish for the good health and safety of their families at the event.

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Ex-yokozuna Chiyonofuji prepares for 60th-birthday ceremony

Professional sumo stablemaster Kokonoe (C), formerly yokozuna Chiyonofuji, poses with a red decorative rope freshly handwoven by wrestlers at his stable in Tokyo on May 28, 2015, three days ahead of his 60th-birthday "dohyo-iri" ring-entering ritual. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Sumo wrestlers prepare for ex-champ Chiyonofuji's 60th-birthday rite

Professional sumo stablemaster Kokonoe, formerly yokozuna Chiyonofuji, watches at his stable in Tokyo on May 28, 2015, as wrestlers weave a red decorative rope to be worn by him at his 60th-birthday "dohyo-iri" ring-entering ritual three days later. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Ex-yokozuna Chiyonofuji prepares for 60th-birthday ceremony

Professional sumo stablemaster Kokonoe (C), formerly yokozuna Chiyonofuji, tries on a red decorative rope freshly handwoven by wrestlers at his stable in Tokyo on May 28, 2015, three days ahead of his 60th-birthday "dohyo-iri" ring-entering ritual. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Sumo wrestlers prepare for ex-champ Chiyonofuji's 60th-birthday rite

Professional sumo wrestlers weave a red decorative rope at the Kokonoe stable in Tokyo on May 28, 2015, to be worn by stablemaster Kokonoe, formerly yokozuna Chiyonofuji, at his 60th-birthday "dohyo-iri" ring-entering ritual three days later. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Sumo wrestlers prepare for ex-champ Chiyonofuji's 60th-birthday rite

Professional sumo wrestlers weave a red decorative rope at the Kokonoe stable in Tokyo on May 28, 2015, to be worn by stablemaster Kokonoe, formerly yokozuna Chiyonofuji, at his 60th-birthday "dohyo-iri" ring-entering ritual three days later. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Hakuho wears new rope for yokozuna

Yokozuna Hakuho wears a newly made rope for him at Miyagino Stable in Tokyo on April 21, 2015, after a customary rope-making ritual ahead of the Summer Grand Sumo Tournament opening at Tokyo's Ryogoku Kokugikan on May 10. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Fire dance ritual in Akita Pref.

SEMBOKU, Japan - A child swings a sack of burning coals tied to a rope during a traditional agricultural fertility ritual called the ''Hifuri Kamakura'' in Semboku, Akita Prefecture in northeastern Japan, on Feb. 13, 2011. The sacred fire is believed to drive out bad luck from the rice fields while people also wish for the good health and safety of their families at the event. (Kyodo)

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New yokozuna Kisenosato has his new rope tied

The newly promoted yokozuna Kisenosato (C front) has a commemorative photo taken at his Tagonoura stable in Tokyo on Jan. 26, 2017 with sumo wrestlers who jointly hand-made the white rope he is wearing earlier that day. Kisenosato will wear the rope again in his first "dohyo-iri" ring-entering ritual at Meiji Shrine in Tokyo the following day. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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New yokozuna Kisenosato has his new rope tied

The newly promoted yokozuna Kisenosato has his rope, just hand made by fellow sumo wrestlers, tied at his Tagonoura stable in Tokyo on Jan. 26, 2017. Kisenosato will wear the rope again in his first "dohyo-iri" ring-entering ritual at Meiji Shrine in Tokyo the following day. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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New yokozuna Kisenosato has his new rope tied

The newly promoted yokozuna Kisenosato has his rope, just hand made by fellow sumo wrestlers, tied at his Tagonoura stable in Tokyo on Jan. 26, 2017. Kisenosato will wear the rope again in his first "dohyo-iri" ring-entering ritual at Meiji Shrine in Tokyo the following day. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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New yokozuna Kisenosato has his new rope tied

The newly promoted yokozuna Kisenosato has his rope, just hand made by fellow sumo wrestlers, tied at his Tagonoura stable in Tokyo on Jan. 26, 2017. Kisenosato will wear the rope again in his first "dohyo-iri" ring-entering ritual at Meiji Shrine in Tokyo the following day. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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New yokozuna Kisenosato has his new rope tied

The newly promoted yokozuna Kisenosato has his rope, just hand made by fellow sumo wrestlers, tied at his Tagonoura stable in Tokyo on Jan. 26, 2017. Kisenosato will wear the rope again in his first "dohyo-iri" ring-entering ritual at Meiji Shrine in Tokyo the following day. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Sumo wrestlers prepare new rope for new yokozuna Kisenosato

The newly promoted yokozuna Kisenosato (R) watches over sumo wrestlers making a hemp rope for him at his Tagonoura stable in Tokyo on Jan. 26, 2017. The new rope will be worn by the yokozuna in his "dohyo-iri" ring-entering ritual. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Sumo wrestlers prepare new rope for new yokozuna Kisenosato

The newly promoted yokozuna Kisenosato (back R) watches over sumo wrestlers making a hemp rope at his Tagonoura stable in Tokyo on Jan. 26, 2017. The new rope will be worn by the yokozuna in his "dohyo-iri" ring-entering ritual. (Pool photo)(Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Sumo wrestlers prepare new rope for new yokozuna Kisenosato

Sumo wrestlers knead hemp with rice bran at the Tagonoura stable in Tokyo on Jan. 25, 2017, in a process to make a new rope to be worn by the newly promoted yokozuna Kisenosato in his "dohyo-iri" ring-entering ritual. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Sumo wrestlers prepare new rope for new yokozuna Kisenosato

Sumo wrestlers knead hemp with rice bran at the Tagonoura stable in Tokyo on Jan. 25, 2017, in a process to make a new rope to be worn by the newly promoted yokozuna Kisenosato in his "dohyo-iri" ring-entering ritual. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo