
Ten thousand nearly naked Japanese men braved freezing temperatures on Saturday night for a frenzied scramble in the dark for lucky talismans as part of a 500-year-old ritual.

After stripping down to flimsy white loincloths, the revellers crammed into the Saidaiji Kannonin Temple in the southern city of Okayama to mark the Hadaka Matsuri annual festival.

The wild antics started in the evening when the men tore through the temple grounds, diving into icy plunge pools to cleanse themselves before filling their bellies with beer and sake to warm themselves.

Just before 10pm, the scores of attendees squeezed into the inner temple and, on the stroke of the hour, the lights went out as a priest hurled bundles of twigs and two lucky sticks each about eight inches long into the crowd.

A 30-minute mad tussle for the sticks, coveted as symbols of good fortune and prosperity, ensued, until they had all been scooped up.

Ten thousand nearly naked Japanese men braved plunging temperatures on Saturday night for a frenzied scramble in the dark for lucky talismans as part of a 500-year-old ritual

The wild antics started in the evening when the men tore through the temple grounds, diving into icy plunge pools to cleanse themselves before filling their bellies with beer and sake to warm themselves up

After stripping down to white loincloths, the revellers crammed into the Saidaiji Kannonin Temple in the southern city of Okayama to mark the Hadaka Matsuri annual festival

As the buttock-bearing revellers whooped and cheered as they made their way back outside, some sported cuts and bruises - war wounds from the carnage

Just before 10pm, the scores of attendees squeezed into the inner temple and, on the stroke of the hour the lights went out

A 30-minute mad tussle for the sticks, coveted as symbols of good fortune and prosperity, ensued, until they had all been scooped up

As the buttock-bearing revellers whooped and cheered as they made their way back outside, some sported cuts and bruises - war wounds from the carnage.

Yet this paled in comparison to previous Hadaka Matsuris - Naked Festival in English - when people have been crushed to death in the stampede.

Despite previous tragedies, every year thousands flock to the event from across the world, with many taking part in teams but some opting for a solo scramble.

'Once a year, at the coldest time in February, we wrap ourselves in just a loincloth to be a man,' said 55-year-old Yasuhiko Tokuyama, the president of a regional electronics firm.

Bracing for the chill: A team of participants pose a photograph prior to take a part at the Naked Festival in Okayama

The annual celebration at the Saidaiji Kannonin Temple in the southern city of Okayama has its roots in a competition to grab paper talismans that dates back more than 500 years

Despite previous tragedies, every year thousands flock to the event from across the world, with many taking part in teams but some opting for a solo scramble

'That's the significance of this event and why I continue to participate.'

Several naked festivals have new sprouted up across Japan, but the tradition spawned at the Saidaiji Kannonin Temple in the 1500s where a priest would toss paper talismans.

But as its popularity grew, the paper talismans began to rip, as did the clothes of the rising number of participants, so that eventually wooden sticks were adopted and garments discarded.

One of the other naked festivals in Chiba sees men similarly strip to loincloths, but they fight each other and carry their children through mud as part of an exorcism ritual.

Men wearing bandannas cheer as they take part in the annual Hadaka Matsuri in Okayama, Japan

Team of participants arrive to take a part at the Naked Festival, or Hadaka Matsuri at Saidaiji Temple

Lots of sake and beer is sold at the festival, and is enjoyed by revellers who throw themselves into icy plunge pools

As night fell, the barely clothed participants descended on the temple to mark the ritual dating back 500 years

The men raise their hands as they wait to catch sticks signalling good fortune thrown by a priest in the temple