Sometimes thousands of naked men sprint after a shaved man. In others, it’s a bag of wooden talismans they tussle over.
Later today, thousands of men – wearing nothing more than fundoshi loincloths, if that – will take part in some of Japan’s ‘naked man festivals’ in Iwate Prefecture.
While Brits sometimes board the Tube in nothing more than their underwear, the Somin-sai festival sees people strip down to ring in the Lunar New Year with good luck, harvests, health and fertility.
Kokusekiji Temple in Ōshū City has held the rite for about 1,200 years to worship Somin Shōrai, a penniless man who in Shinto folklore provided shelter and food to a drifter who turned out to be a god.
The festival has been off-limits to women since it was first held, but for the first time, organisers are allowing 40 women to take part – although they won’t be getting naked.
But organisers say this will be the last time the festival, known in Japan as a Hadaka Matsuri, is held.
‘As for the Sominsai beyond 2025, it has been decided not to proceed with the festival,’ Daigo Fujinami, a resident monk of the temple that opened in 729, said in a statement.
‘This decision is due to the ageing of individuals involved in the festival and a shortage of successors.’
Just shy of three in 10 Japenese citizens is over 65, and the population has been shrinking since 2007 as the birthrate plummets.
And this includes the festival’s organisers, where 10 team members are said to be around 80 years old.
‘While efforts were made to continue the festival to the best of our abilities, in order to prevent last-minute cancellations or disruptions in the future, the decision to cancel the festival itself has been made,’ Fujinami added.
Here’s how the festival usually goes down.
Coming together at about 6pm at the secluded Kokusekiji Temple as roughly 3,000 locals watched, the men first grab square lanterns called kakuto.
Chanting ‘Jasso joyasa!’ (evil, go away), the men purify themselves in the cold waters of the Yamauchigawa River.
The Ashashi Simbun, a Japanese newspaper, reported that participants prayed for a prosperous year ahead at the Tendai sect shrine’s Yakushido hall.
Then the real fight begins. Thousands of men fight over the bag of charms, known locally as somin-bukuro, that the chief priest had blessed.
But only one man can succeed: Kikuchi Toshiaki, 49, a local resident and member of the festival’s preservation association, became the final winner of another version of the festival held last weekend.
‘It is sad that the festival is ending. I participated in hopes that it would be a memorable festival,’ he told Japan’s public broadcaster, NHK.
For those who didn’t manage to grab the somin-bukuro, they may have to find other ways to avoid evil spirits.
‘I feel very lonely without this festival in the future,’ a participant told the Anime News Network (ANN).
The women getting involved in today’s festival will make ritual offerings of bamboo grass, but won’t take part in the nearly-naked wrestling.
Ayaka Suzuki, who campaigned for the unofficial ban on women to be lifted, said she had wanted to take part in the festival since she was a child.
She told the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper: ‘I could have participated had I been a boy.’
Suzuki added that she would use the opportunity to pray for her family’s safety and for people affected by the recent deadly earthquake on the Noto peninsula.
Somin-sai is held up and down Iwate Prefecture and is one of three main naked man festivals held in the country, though countless smaller ones take place around February.
The 1,300-year-old Hadaka Matsuri held in Fukushima prefecture sees participants chase after clean-shaven men called shin-otoko to touch and transfer their bad energy to him.
At the Saidaiji Temple in Okayama, about 9,000 men tried to snatch a pair of 20cm-long “shingi” sacred sticks from a window 4 meters above ground.
While the ‘Boys’ Naked Festival’ at a shrine in Okayama saw 10,000 participants sprint for two 20cm-long blessed pieces of tree bark on Saturday.
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