shimenawa
E28727
Shimenawa are sacred Shinto ropes made of rice straw or hemp, used to mark purified or holy spaces and objects in Japan.
All labels observed (2)
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T224323 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: shimenawa Context triple: [Shinto, associatedWithSymbol, shimenawa]
-
A.
Ikuta Shrine
Ikuta Shrine is an ancient Shinto shrine in Kobe, Japan, revered as one of the city's oldest religious sites and a symbol of local cultural heritage.
-
B.
Tamada
Tamada is the traditional Georgian toastmaster who leads feasts and orchestrates toasts during the supra, Georgia’s ceremonial banquet.
-
C.
Hyakutake
Hyakutake is a Japanese surname borne by several notable individuals, including military figures and other public personalities.
-
D.
Hirakata
Hirakata is a city in Japan located between Osaka and Kyoto, known for its residential suburbs, historical sites, and the popular Hirakata Park amusement park.
-
E.
Matsubara
Matsubara is a suburban city in Japan’s Kansai region, located within Osaka Prefecture and forming part of the Osaka metropolitan area.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: shimenawa Target entity description: Shimenawa are sacred Shinto ropes made of rice straw or hemp, used to mark purified or holy spaces and objects in Japan.
-
A.
Ikuta Shrine
Ikuta Shrine is an ancient Shinto shrine in Kobe, Japan, revered as one of the city's oldest religious sites and a symbol of local cultural heritage.
-
B.
Tamada
Tamada is the traditional Georgian toastmaster who leads feasts and orchestrates toasts during the supra, Georgia’s ceremonial banquet.
-
C.
Hyakutake
Hyakutake is a Japanese surname borne by several notable individuals, including military figures and other public personalities.
-
D.
Hirakata
Hirakata is a city in Japan located between Osaka and Kyoto, known for its residential suburbs, historical sites, and the popular Hirakata Park amusement park.
-
E.
Matsubara
Matsubara is a suburban city in Japan’s Kansai region, located within Osaka Prefecture and forming part of the Osaka metropolitan area.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (45)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Shinto ritual object
ⓘ
religious symbol ⓘ |
| associatedWith |
Shinto altar
ⓘ
kami ⓘ torii ⓘ |
| category |
Japanese religious objects
ⓘ
Shinto objects ⓘ |
| color | straw-colored ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | Japan ⓘ |
| culture | Japanese culture ⓘ |
| etymologyLanguage | Japanese ⓘ |
| function |
mark purified space
ⓘ
mark sacred space ⓘ ward off evil spirits ⓘ |
| hasComponent |
shide
ⓘ
twisted rope ⓘ |
| hasRitual | installation ceremony ⓘ |
| hasVariant |
household shimenawa
ⓘ
large shrine shimenawa ⓘ |
| installedAt | entrance of sacred areas ⓘ |
| madeFrom |
hemp
ⓘ
rice straw ⓘ |
| maintenance | periodic replacement ⓘ |
| materialType | natural fiber ⓘ |
| placedAround | sumo wrestling ring ⓘ |
| placedOn |
Shinto shrine building
ⓘ
sacred rock ⓘ sacred tree ⓘ torii gate ⓘ |
| reasonForReplacement | maintain ritual purity ⓘ |
| relatedConcept | yorishiro ⓘ |
| religion | Shinto ⓘ |
| religiousTradition | Japanese folk religion ⓘ |
| shape | twisted rope ⓘ |
| symbolizes |
boundary between sacred and profane
ⓘ
presence of kami ⓘ purity ⓘ |
| usedBy |
Shinto priests
ⓘ
linked to:
Shinto
Shinto worshippers ⓘ |
| usedDuring | New Year celebrations in Japan ⓘ |
| usedFor |
consecration of objects
ⓘ
ritual purification ⓘ |
| usedIn |
Shinto ritual
ⓘ
Shinto shrine ⓘ |
| writingSystem | Japanese script ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: shimenawa Description of subject: Shimenawa are sacred Shinto ropes made of rice straw or hemp, used to mark purified or holy spaces and objects in Japan.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: shimenawa