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Hello Gents:
I have a question about the 1000 Stitch Belts(Senin-Bari) worn by Japanese soldiers (both US and from Imperial Japan). It was tradition for a Japanese warrior to receive 1000 red stitches in their white belt before going into battle, one stitch from 1000 different women as I understood it. But I recently read an account where a US Nisei soldier received one stitch per woman, but young ladies born in the Year of the Tiger could add as many stitches as their age in years. Do ladies born in the year of the Tiger always have this right?? If so, what is the significance of the Year of the Tiger?? Are there other years of birth with similar privileges?? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank You.

John,

That was the first I knew about "tiger-women" being able to stitch as many knots as their age. Wiki has a good article, stating the custom began in the first Sino-Japanese war:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senninbari

By the way, 千 [sen] 人 [nin] 針 [hari] really translates to "1000 person(s) needle". Hari [needle] morphs into "bari" when it follows a word ending in a consonant. The word for "sew" is 縫う [nuu]. Hari/needle implies sewing or stitching. Also, a popular stitching design using visible stitches is called Edosashiyu: 江戸刺しゅう (Edo-style embroidery).

About the year of the tiger (my wife is one!!): people born in this year are strong, fierce, and warlike; ergo, (I suppose) they were offered the privilege of adding 12 stitches (one for each of the 12 years in the Chinese/Japanese zodiac cycle), or the number of stitches equivalent to their age.
Years of the Tiger: 2010, 1998, 1986, 1974, 1962, 1950, 1938, 1926, 1914.

Interesting!

--Guy

Hi Guy:
Thanks for the link and the Japanese lesson!! I am a Tiger too. I guess the tiger has great spiritual qualities in Oriental cultures and like to hunt far and wide and always come home, so they get to make extra stitches. That was something I did not know, nor did I know that other colors were acceptable for the belt and stitches besides white and red. Fascinating information. Thanks again and take good care of your Tiger