HADAKAMATSURI

'Naked festivals'. A general term for popular festivals, mostly held at New Year in the coldest season, which these days feature near-naked young men usually dressed only in afundoshior mawashi (loincloth). Hadaka matsuri are often an opportunity for youths to show off their strength and manliness by jostling (see Dorokake matsuri), climbing or fighting over a trophy of some kind such as a wooden or straw ball, being sprayed with water or immersing themselves in a river. Similar hadaka matsuri are held at both Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines. A celebrated hadaka-matsuri is held for example at Enzo-ji Buddhist temple, Fukushima on January 7th. When the temple bell sounds at 8pm semi-naked youths and men swarm up a rope to the roof to attract good fortune for the coming year. At theOni-jinja, Aomori, youths wearing mawashi make offerings ofshimenawaat the shrine on new year's day. At theKompirajinja, Akita, participants dressed only in a koshi-mino, grass underskirt, immerse themselves in the river for purification before offering candles and other gifts to the shrine, while at the Chokoku-ji temple in Nagano the procession includesmikoshimodelled in the form of sacred horses, bales of rice orsakebarrels, and the participants jump into the river.