With only a skimpy loincloth to protect their modesty, thousands of men brave freezing temperatures to fight for lucky charms thrown by a priest at Japan’s annual Naked Man Festival.
A writhing mass of sweaty worshipers wrestled for elbow-room inside Saidai Temple in Okayama late on Saturday night in the hope of catching the sacred batons.
About 10,000 hardy souls celebrating the religious festival stepped under ice-cold fountains to purify their bodies before risking life and limb in a mysterious ceremony dating back 500 years.
Photo: AFP
“It can get very rough,” 62-year-old auto mechanic Kazuhiko Nishigami told a reporter, bare-chested and ready to rumble. “You have to write down your blood type on a form and tuck it into your loincloth in case you get seriously hurt.”
Most who took on the Hadaka Matsuri (Naked Festival), suffered no more than a few bumps and bruises after scrapping over a pair of wooden sticks, measuring 4cm in diameter and 20cm in length, believed to bring good fortune to whoever catches them.
However, revelers have been crushed to death in the past in a melee that makes Tokyo’s infamous rush-hour trains look like a walk in the park.
Photo: AFP
It is easy to see how fatalities could occur when the lights suddenly go off and priests cast the mystical charms from the temple’s rafters into the heaving crowd below.
As holy water was splashed from above, camera flashes illuminated the sea of bodies like disco lights at a rave — before all hell broke loose.
In a scene reminiscent of Dante’s Inferno, steam rises as thousands of groaning men, faces contorted with pain, thrust their arms upwards from the suffocating pit below, as if begging for forgiveness — or if not a pair of trousers and a shirt to keep warm.
Those who snaffle one of the holy talismans tossed from above have to fight tooth and nail to keep hold of it as they come under attack by rivals desperate for the fortune it bestows.
Fueled by beer and sake, many festivalgoers came to blows.
“I was lucky to escape,” said firefighter Kosuke Yasuhara, clutching one of the talismans.
“It dropped right in the middle of our group,” the 38-year-old added. “I had to quickly slip it into my loincloth to hide it and then force my way out.”
High priest Zenko Tsuboi said the festival was not an orgy of violence, even if wailing ambulance sirens have provided an unwanted soundtrack in previous years.
“Those who catch the charms will prosper and receive a bumper harvest,” he said. “We want to remind people this is a religious festival so we have become much stricter these days about alcohol and rough behavior.”
As revelers and the hundreds of police and firemen on call made their way back through the rice fields to the city, father-to-be Yasuhara broke into a wide grin.
“This charm is a gift from the gods,” he said. “I believe it will deliver us a bouncing baby when it’s born in April.”
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
ALLIES: Calling Putin his ‘old friend,’ Xi said Beijing stood alongside Russia ‘in the face of the international counter-current of unilateralism and hegemonic bullying’ Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday was in Moscow for a state visit ahead of the Kremlin’s grand Victory Day celebrations, as Ukraine accused Russia’s army of launching air strikes just hours into a supposed truce. More than 20 foreign leaders were in Russia to attend a vast military parade today marking 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, taking place three years into Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and has marshaled the memory of Soviet victory against Nazi Germany to justify his campaign and rally society behind the offensive,
CONFLICTING REPORTS: Beijing said it was ‘not familiar with the matter’ when asked if Chinese jets were used in the conflict, after Pakistan’s foreign minister said they were The Pakistan Army yesterday said it shot down 25 Indian drones, a day after the worst violence between the nuclear-armed rivals in two decades. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed to retaliate after India launched deadly missile strikes on Wednesday morning, escalating days of gunfire along their border. At least 45 deaths were reported from both sides following Wednesday’s violence, including children. Pakistan’s military said in a statement yesterday that it had “so far shot down 25 Israeli-made Harop drones” at multiple location across the country. “Last night, India showed another act of aggression by sending drones to multiple locations,” Pakistan military spokesman Ahmed
RSS