Sacred rope exchange event held at World Heritage waterfall

An event to exchange a "shimenawa" sacred rope hanging over the top of a World Heritage waterfall was held Monday to prepare for an upcoming festival at Kumano Nachi Taisha shrine in Wakayama Prefecture, western Japan.The event, which takes place twice a year, was initially scheduled for last Thursday but postponed due to heavy rain.Shinto priests, who were dressed in traditional costumes with safety ropes attached, replaced an old shimenawa with a new one at about 50 meters upstream from the top of the 133-meter-high Nachi waterfall in Nachikatsuura as it was safer for them because the wat…READ FULL ARTICLE