Hadaka Matsuri

"Naked Festival"

The Hadaka Matsuri is a festival in which people wear a minimal amount of clothing.

Usually just a loin cloth.

HISTORY

The Hadaka Matsuri dates back 500 years to when worshipers competed to receive paper talismans called Go-o, thrown by the priest.

These paper talismans were tokens of the completion of the New Year ascetic training by the priests. The people who received the talismans

had good things happen to them, so more men began competing for them. However, since paper is easily torn the talismans were changed to

wooden sticks called shingi. These shingi are considered sticks of the Gods.



Okayama

The festival originated in the city of Okayama and the largest Hadaka Matsuri still take place in Okayama. There are an estimated

10,000 participants in the festival at Okayama. All 10,000 of which are competing for 2 shingi thrown from a balcony into the crowd

of men. If you manage to acquire a shingi, you are then required to shove your way through the crowd toward a wooden measuring box

full of rice, known as a masu. The man who drives the shingi upright into the masu is proclaimed one year of happiness and is



"the lucky man".

Variations

There are dozens of Hadaka Matsuri all over Japan. Another tradition follows the shinto belief that the naked man

absorbs all bad luck and evil deeds from those who touch him. It is said that the ritual used to commemorate the end of

a plague. The Naked man takes on the ills of his community and is then exiled.

A selection ceremony is held to determine the Shin-otokoa (god man) and sometimes there is more than one. It is



a great honor to be chosen as the naked man. Once chosen he must undergo a purification process. He is kept alone

for three days in a small shrine and fed nothing but rice-gruel and water. All body hair is shaved off as part of the purifiaction process aswell.

During the festival he sets off through the streets, besieged by over 9000 men, all desperate to

touch him for good luck. He is pummelled, chased, pulled over; he faints, is bruised and must spend an entire day

in the thick of a heaving mass of loinclothed bodies while completely naked. Some Shin-otokoa are trampled to death.

When he finally arrives at his destination (usually a shrine or alter of some kind), he pays his respects to the Shinto deity of the shrine

and is symbolically banished from the town.



Freezing water is thrown upon people as part of the purification process.

It is common for mud to be involved.

People walking through the streets to the festival.

To show excitement and boast the crowd

participants often chant, "WASSHOI! WASSHOI!"



