Ōnusa

[2] Ōnusa are decorated with a number of shide (paper streamers).

[3] When the shide are attached to a hexagonal or octagonal staff, the wand is also known as a haraegushi (祓串).

The most common type of Nusa today consists of a sakaki branch or a white wooden stick with a shide or Nusa ramie attached to the end.

[7] In Board of Ceremonies' "Jinja Matsuri Shiki" (1875), a branch of sakaki is used for the Nusa, and in Yatsuka Seinan's "Jinja Yushoku Kijitsu" (1951), Nusa is described as a sakaki branch with only ramie or, in addition, shidare attached, while konusa is made of wooden sticks, thin wood or bamboo.

In the present day, it is shaken noisily as if to purify dust, but in ancient ceremonies such as at Kasuga Taisha, it is stroked.

A wooden pole stood on a square base. It is covered in shaggy paper streamers tied at the top of the pole.
An ōnusa