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The Japan News/Yomiuri

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Birds don't lie

(Credit: The Yomiuri Shimbun)

Rows of newly carved wooden uso birds are prepared ahead of the annual usokae ritual at Kameido Tenjin shrine in Koto Ward, Tokyo, on Thursday and Friday. The bird's name, uso, is a homonym for lie or falsehood in Japanese. The ritual is believed to bring good fortune for the year by regarding the bad things that happened in the previous year as falsehoods and turning them into good things. The approximately 30,000 bird figures made by shrine priests and others come in 11 different sizes, including 10 variations made of hinoki Japanese cypress that range from five to 21 centimeters in height, and a four-centimeter-high figurine made of willow.

Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/

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