The hadaka matsuri or “naked festival” dates back centuries in Japan.
Thousands of males participated in the event where they were seen sporting a minimal amount of clothing with most
of them using a Japanese loincloth called ‘fundoshi’ along with a pair of white socks.
When the village boys paraded around wearing loincloth, prayed to the Shinto god of health at a small temple and then purified themselves publicly before the gods, they were able to ward off disease, driving out
those evil spirits. No one wants to be the one to stop a centuries-old tradition, so the hadaka matsuri continues.
But the most fun for the kids came at the end. After hours in the nearly 90-degree heat, they were able to perform the purification part of the ceremony by jumping together into a shallow pond — so shallow that once the boys jumped in, it was just a giant puddle of mud. It’s an old tradition that, for
the kids of Shimadachi, never gets old.
