sacred sakaki branch with paper/cotton strips (Shinto offering)
Archaic poetic name for a 玉串 (tamagushi), a branch of the sacred sakaki tree decorated with paper or cotton streamers and offered in Shinto rituals.
See also: 玉串
In old Shinto prayers, the phrase 'offering a futotamagushi' can be found.
Compound of 太 (futo, 'thick, grand') + 玉串 (tamagushi, 'sacred sakaki branch offering'). The exact historical derivation is uncertain, but it likely served as an honorific or poetic elaboration of 玉串.