Held at Saidaiji Kannon-in temple, the Okayama Hadaka Matsuri is over 500 years old and considered one of Japan's three greatest strange festivals. At midnight, the lights are extinguished and a priest throws two sacred wooden sticks (shingi) into a crowd of roughly 9,000 men clad only in white loincloths; whoever secures a stick is said to receive a year of great fortune. The intense, jostling mass of bodies generates extraordinary heat even in the freezing February air, making it a uniquely visceral cultural spectacle.
- Type
- Festival
- Category
- Matsuri
- Season
- Winter
- Month
- Third Saturday of February
- Region
- Chugoku
- Prefecture
- Okayama
- City
- Okayama
Highlights
- ◆9,000+ participants in traditional loincloths
- ◆Midnight sacred shingi-throwing ceremony
- ◆500-year-old ritual at Saidaiji Kannon-in
- ◆One of Japan's three great bizarre festivals
- ◆Spectacular torchlit temple atmosphere