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The title of this blog alone should attract more visitors than any of my other entries! The third week of February I was lucky (unlucky?) to go to the Naked Man Festival, better known as the Hadaka Masturi. There are naked man festivals all over Japan, but I think the one in Okayama-Ken is the oldest and most famous. If you have no interest in reading the blog, check out this guy Josh's video.

Naked Man Festival

Casey Lary
2006-10-06 17:55:58

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of Okayama City, once a year priests would throw amulets to onlookers. They were supposed to bring you luck for the following year. 500 years later the initial concept still remains yet it has definitely changed with the times. They now throw 2
sticks out into the crowds of men, called "Shingi." Before entering the temple grounds the men, only wearing "fundoshi" (Japanese underwear/loincloth), must run through freezing cold water to purify themselves. Once inside the temple they climb the steps and try to get as close as they can to the center where the sticks will be dropped at midnight. At the stroke of 12, all the lights in the temple are turned off, signaling the release of the sticks. The man who successfully takes the stick from the Saidaji Temple and gives it to a priest at a nearby location is the winner. He is supposed to have a lot of luck and prosperity for the next year.

What probably started as hundreds of people has now turned into thousands. On the way to the temple we were told that 2,000 men participated. I estimated about 4,000, yet the news said 9,000 men took part this year. Crazy I tell you. Now, these sticks are like gold. Men will do ANYTHING to obtain these sticks. I was told that someone died last year in the mess of men trying to get the sticks. They also have teams. So, if one person gets the stick, then the whole team benefits. Often times team members will paint there bodies or tape their hands so they know if one of their teammates was lucky enough to get the stick. Team Gaijin wrapped blue tape all over their hands and arms- even in the mess of men gaijin could not be easily identified. There is now strategy. Some teams purposely wait next to the priests so at the last minute they can grab the stick from other men. Team Gaijin had the idea to give it to the tallest man (since the probably of a 6'5" J guy were slim to none) and then protect him. As far as I know Team Gaijin came up empty handed. So those are the basics ...

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