If you haven't already checked it out already please read Kappa No He's Blog this week on the Japanese myth of tsukumo-gami, which basically are inanimate objects that have reached their 100th birthday and then become animated living spirits. Apparently you can tick them off during there inanimate stage and when they become animate lookout. "...they do have the capacity for anger and will band together to take revenge on those who are wasteful or throw them away thoughtlessly," says wikkipedia. So I will be spending this weekend with my durable goods atoning and apologizing for the abuse I have shown them. If only I had known.
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Thanks! I was going to go on about the festivals they have to appease various old/aged items. It is all pretty surreal.
Like needles. In my old neighborhood someone would come by with a block of tofu and ask if we had any needles we wanted to get rid of (broken or bent). I don't sew but I watched other ladies carefully placing their old needles one by one into the block of tofu.
After everyone has contributed, they're then taken to the Shrine and prayed for, thanked, and disposed of properly (which in Japan means burned).
Also, aahhhh, Sting.
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