Sennin bari (Thousand-stitch cloths)

Sennin bari were sashes customarily given to Japanese soldiers to ward off bullets on the battlefield. The sashes were white strips of cloth embroidered with 1,000 red stitches (French knots) made by 1,000 women. They first appeared during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95 and were still being made through World War II.