Japan’s ‘Naked Men's Festival To Include Women This Year (Photo on X Japan Info @Japan_Info_)

Celebrated as a traditional festival in Japan, Hadaka Matsuri translated as Naked Men”s festival organized by the Konomiya Shrine in Inazawa town of Japan“s Aichi prefecture will take place on February 22. This year’s naked man’s festival will mark a shift from its tradition of men only affair with the participation of women as the Konomiya Shrine allowed women to take part in the festival for the first time in its centuries-old history.

What is the festival?

Every year on the third Saturday of February, men gather at the temple Saidaiji Kannonin, wearing minimal clothes. The men will wear a fundoshi and tabi, a traditional Japanese socks worn with throned footwear. They will then run around the temple ground to purify themselves and then move towards the main temple. The belief behind the act is to drive out evil and bring good luck into their lives. However, most of the time, men will end up sustaining injuries caused by the stampede during the event.

Women for the first time

During this year”s festival, which will be attended by around 10,000 men, a total of 40 women are allowed to be part of the event, which was only a men’s event so far. According to the report, unlike men, the participating women will be completely dressed and will attend only the “naoizasa” rituals. The women clad in traditional happi coats will evade the traditional violent clash of near-naked ritual. During the “naoizasa” rituals, the women will have to carry bamboo grass wrapped in cloth into the shrine grounds, NDTV reported.

According to one of the officials from the organising committee, the committee got several requests from women expressing their interest in participating in the festival. “”We have not been able to hold the festival like we used to for the past three years because of the pandemic and, in the time, we received a lot of requests from women in the town to take part,”” Mitsugu Katayama, an organising committee member said. Mitsugu Katayama further made it clear that there was no restriction in the past too for the women to be part of the naked festival, but they voluntarily kept a distance from the event in the past.

However, the inclusion of women has been praised by local women and activists considering it a progressive step towards achieving equality.