For over 1,000 years, the Kokusekiji temple in Oshu, Iwate Prefecture, has been holding their annual hadaka matsuri or “naked festival” every winter. Although it’s called a “naked festival”, very rarely are the participants completely naked. Rather, they would usually wear a fundoshi loincloth, sometimes topped with a happi coat.
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The chief priest of the temple, Daigo Fujinami, recently announced that they will be holding their last festival on February 17th next year from 6 PM to 11 PM. They said that, since most participants are already aging and there was a lack of people to whom they can pass the baton to carry on the tradition, this will be the end for the festival.
For the festival held at Kokusekiji, participants will be fighting over a sack filled with talismans. They believe that the talisman will help them ward off bad luck, diseases, or any kind of disaster.
Despite the end of Kokusekiji’s hadaka matsuri, it’s not the only one that holds such festivals. Other places hold their own hadaka matsuri with slightly different elements involved such as the one at Konomiya and Saidaiji.
The Konomiya hadaka matsuri features a shin-otoko or ‘man of god’ who is selected beforehand and is given the blessing of the priests before he runs into the crowd. The goal is for the participants to touch the shin-otoko to transfer their bad luck to him. Afterward, all the bad luck is transferred to a giant black mochi which is buried in the forest.
On the other hand, the Saidaiji hadaka matsuri involves a purification ritual and the throwing of a pair of shingi sticks which is believed to bring the catcher good luck and happiness throughout the year. Before this, though, 100 smaller sticks called kushigo are thrown, representing a portion of the luck from the shingi.
(Image credit: CES/Wikimedia Commons)
Source: neatorama