In ancient times, the Japanese believed that the troubles and misfortune of an entire village could be transferred to a single person. In villages where disease or calamity prevailed, a villager was chosen to walk naked through the village, and the villagers would pass their troubles onto him through touch. These men were called shin-otoko, meaning “god man”. 

The “god man” was then banished, or in some cases sacrificed, in the hope that he would take the evils with him. This practice became a festival tradition, and every year in cities where a hadaka matsuri takes place, a shin-otoko still parades naked, be it during the summer or the heart of winter. (In most festivals the participants wear loincloths, while in a couple they are completely naked.) 

During the event, the participants and spectators still attempt to touch him to transfer their bad luck onto him. However, at the end of the modern version of the festival, rather than being permanently banished – or worse, sacrificed – the shin-otoko usually undergoes some kind of cleansing ritual.

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The Nakada Hadaka Matsuri

Naked festivals are held in various places around the country. One of the biggest, oldest and most well-known festivals is the Konomiya Naked Festival in Inazawa, held annually since the year 767 AD. Though the Nakada Hadaka Matsuri, which takes place within the same prefecture, is not nearly as old or large as its famous nearby counterpart, for one day each year it transforms the otherwise modest locale of Nakada (near Toyota City) into a spectacular host town. Most of the approximately 130 participants come from Aichi, but the event is open to men from outside of the prefecture.

The Nakada Hadaka Matsuri has only existed since 1932, making it young by comparison with other naked festivals. The festival adheres to the commonly held belief in Japan that certain years in a person’s lifetime, known as yakudoshi, are unlucky. As a result, many Japanese undergo a ritual purification in a yakudoshi year and will often visit temples and shrines to pray for better luck. The most critical year for a man is age 42, because a yakudoshi year in your 40s might be considered bad luck and because the kanji or character for 42 (shi and ni) can be translated as “death”.

Because only certain years are considered unlucky, festival participants rotate every year. However, some return to participate, and one need not be in a yakudoshi year to take part – many join in purely for fun. No special preparation is required either: any healthy adult male can participate in the Naked Festival by applying in advance and paying the 7,000-yen entry fee. One local man from Nakada Town, however, is elected as the “god man”, its figurative human sacrifice – a great honour. If no 42-year-old yakudoshi male is available from Nakada Town, a 25-year-old male is chosen.

In this particular naked festival, the shin-otoko is entrusted to receive, carry and then bury in the soil the bad luck of all the festival participants. While this aspect of the festival may sound unusual enough, there’s more to it: before the ritual takes place, the men engage in a highly entertaining pole-climbing competition in a nearby field. This aspect of the ritual began in 1992, on the 60th anniversary of the festival, when someone clambered up a bamboo shoot on the way to the shrine. Since then, the men have prepared special bamboo poles wrapped in tailored white cloth and then climb them until they break.

On the day of the festival, participants meet at 10 am at a nearby community hall, where they pay the participation fee, collect a loincloth, beer and a bento box, and prepare for the day’s festivities. Though the festival doesn’t begin until midday, many of the festival participants are already happily drunk on beer and/or sake by the time the festivities are underway. Towards midday, the men exit the community hall and proceed through the village wearing their loincloths and carrying the kamitake – bamboo poles more than 10 metres in length, each carefully wrapped with tailored cloth bearing the wishes and names of women and children who cannot participate.

Throughout the day, red headbands are worn by men in a yakudoshi year, representing the highest degree of danger. Blue are given to men one year before a yakudoshi year, while yellow is assigned to men who previously completed a yakudoshi year. Others are given white headbands, and local participants from Nakada Town wear headbands with “Nakada” written on them to distinguish them from people from outside of the district.

With friends and family cheering them on, the men proceed to a large field near the Nakada Daikoku Shrine, where they implant the bamboo poles into the ground and hold it upright as a group. Then, one after another, the men attempt to climb to the top of the bamboo poles in an effort to snap them as their fellow participants support it at the bottom. While the cloth provides enough friction to do so, the task is considerably more difficult and dangerous on wet or muddy days.

The success of a climb is measured in height and/or whether the bamboo pole breaks during the climb. Although the field is quite soft, particularly after rainfall, the ritual is still potentially dangerous – especially as the men are usually inebriated. When a bamboo pole does give out, it goes with a loud snap, eliciting applause and cheers from the men and spectators alike. If the bamboo proves tough, however, the men will attempt to climb it two at a time until it breaks under their combined weight. 

Once all of the poles are broken, the men triumphantly march with the remnants towards the Nakada Daikoku Shrine about 100 meters away. The bamboo is then dedicated to the shrine. The bamboo poles are eventually burned together with other festival offerings on New Year’s Eve.

After devoting the kamitake to the Nakada Daikoku Shrine, the men gather outside the Hachiman Shrine, at which point the men in a yakudoshi year are hoisted onto the shoulders of their brothers-in-arms before being carried (usually at speed) through the shrine’s red torii gate. The men then form a circle and run around the “god man”, with each participant trying to touch the shin-otoko. The rotating scrummage creates a whirlpool-like effect. Once all of the men have touched the shin-otoko, he essentially now bears all of the bad luck of the men in their yakudoshi years.

At this stage, the shin-otoko is carried to the inner part of Nakada Taikoku Shrine, where he performs the strict ritual of burying that bad luck in the ground. That ritual, somewhat bizarrely, involves transferring the bad luck to a ceremonial mochi cake (a type of rice cake), which is buried in a hole marked by yakudoshi and the year of the festival. To perform the burial, the shin-otoko dons a white robe and the village elders line up in front of the shrine. The shin-otoko then straddles a hole, resembling an empty grave, next to the shrine. The shin-otoko drops the rice cake into the hole as if he were laying an egg and a voice calls out, “The trouble has fallen!” The rice cake is buried in a hole marked by the words “yakudoshi” and the year of the festival. The shrine priests then perform the final purification ritual and rice cake is served to all.

Once the rituals are completed, the shin-otoko, still wearing a white ceremonial robe, is hoisted by his fellow participants. Before finishing out the ceremony, the participants worship at the shrine and pray for good luck and peace for the year ahead. They then change into their street clothes at the ward hall, collect festival bags containing mochi cake, a talisman, and a small bag of candy, and hope that the year ahead is filled with fortune and joy.

To view other photo-essays from the “Matsuri” photography project, click here.

All images copyright © Thaddeus Pope. All rights reserved.