In Japan, there seems to be no lost opportunity to wrap things up. From the convenient furoshiki to the very coded origata and the sacred yorishiro. For the foreigner it sometimes is hard to tell the trivial use from the ritual one, which might even increase the appeal of the phenomenon.
I was struck by this small stone in a temple of Kyoto. Is it just here to hold the page in place? Did the monk casually wrapped it in an idle moment? Is there a message written on back of the paper?
Walking that fine line between precious and common made it incredibly captivating.
