Japan is a country with strong heritage of culture and traditions. In a year, there are so many different types of festivals celebrated throughout Japan. One of such festivals is the hadaka matsuri (裸祭り) or literally means naked festival. Participants wear a minimum amount of clothing; usually just a traditional underwear or fundoshi (Japanese loincloth). Hadaka matsuri are held in dozens of places throughout Japan every year, usually in the summer or winter.

For Inazawa City (稲沢市), Hadaka Matsuri is celebrated at the beginning of Spring. Men aged between 23 to 43 years old come to Inazawa City in the hope of touching a naked man to ensure their good luck for the coming year. Since 767BC the Sacred Naked Man, aka Shin-otoko, has walked this seasoned route through thousands of sweaty, desperate men to reach the Kounomiya Shrine. Shinto tradition believes that the Sacred Naked Man absorbs all bad luck and evil deeds from the men who touch him. This ritual is said to commemorate the end of a plague during the ancient time where it is believed the Sacred Naked Man will take on the illness from the community and is then expelled from it.

It is a great honor to be chosen as the Sacred Naked Man. If chosen, he must undergo elaborate purification rites by shaving off all the hair on his body. He then sets off through the streets, besieged by up to 9000 men, all desperate to touch him. During this time, he is pummeled, chased, pulled over; is bruised and must spend an entire day in the thick of a heaving mass of loin clothed bodies while completely naked. When he finally arrives at his destination, the crowd jostle to grab any available part of his body for an hour or more before he can pay his respects to the Shinto deity of the shrine. Once he is dressed he is then shooed out of town to rid the town of all evil.

大きな地図で見る

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