There were two major purification rituals (oFoFaraFe; modern Japanese ôharae) carried out on the final day of the Sixth and Twelfth months of the year. During them oFonusa (lengthy rods to which were tied streamers of cloth and paper) were used to ceremonially cleanse the captial of impurities. At the conclusion of the formal ritual, people would attempt to grab hold of them and rub them on their bodies to remove any impurities they might have, after which they were thrown into one of the city’s rivers for the water to carry all the pollution away. The reference to cutting hemp leaves in the poem is for use in constructing oFonusa.