The Naked Man Festival

Perhaps one of the most discussed and certainly one of the most popular festivals for foreigners and tourists, the Naked Man festival is everything you look for in a festival.

To the Japanese, it's known as Hadaka-matsuri and it has been celebrated for over 1,200 years in Japan. One man is chosen as the Naked Man, the shin-otoko, and he becomes a vessel for all the bad luck of the not-so-naked men. They can rid themselves of ill luck by being fast enough to touch the naked man, thus transferring evil spirits from themselves into the naked man. This man however, is not cursed to be unlucky for all time, he will undergo a lengthy purification ritual upon reaching the shrine. He only has to survive hundreds of 42-year old, drunken, loin-cloth clad men chasing him all the way to the shrine.

There are dozens of Naked Man Festivals across Japan. In the northern part of Japan, across Hokkaido especially, the festival, occuring in January or February is as much a celebration of man's fortitude over the cold. The freezing men stripped down to their loin-clothes must drink endless amounts of hot sake to endure the temperatures before the running begins. If you are visiting Japan in the winter months, try to ask a local about the Hadaka-matsuri, it is surely an event you don't want to miss.