Japan’s Naked Festival in January 🥶
CW: Flash photography
The freezing climb up 113 steps in nothing but a loincloth 🥶
Nanokado Hadaka Mairi, or the ‘Naked Man Festival’, is held every year on the 7th January, usually in temperatures of below zero. This year nearly 200 men made the tough climb to Enzoji Temple, where they purified themselves with icy water and climbed to the temple rafters via the prayer rope.
The festival’s history traces back to a legend of a princess who received a jewel from a river dragon to protect her people’s crops, and the townspeople who banded together in only their loincloths to keep the dragon from taking it back. These days it’s a community event that brings visitors from all over, and members of the public can join too if they contact the organisers in advance.
Think you could survive a snowy Tuesday night in Yanaizu in just a loincloth? Save this post and we’ll see you on 7 January next year! 🙌 (You can also just watch it from inside the temple, wearing clothes.)
Getting to Yanaizu:
🚗 25min drive from Aizu-Wakamatsu
🚂 1 hour on the scenic Tadami Line train from Aizu-Wakamatsu to Aizu-Yanaizu
#fukushima #visitfukushima #japantravel #japantrip #matsuri
This was a lot of fun but it brought back some bad memories of Year 4 PE class