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Naoi-shinji / Naked Festival / Hadaka Matsuri
January 13th of the lunar calendar
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| photo courtesy of Takeken |
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The first shinto ritual on this day starts at 5:00 a.m. to pray
for the Shin-otoko's safety completion of the mission.
As soon as it finishes, people rush to make lines to get prayers of warding
off evil.
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In the afternoon, lots of groups organized by the people who live in the
same area dive into
the front shrine to dedicate Naoi-zasa.
Naoi-zasa is a big bamboo pole wrapped in long pieces of cloth
made of hundreds of small cloths, called naoi-gire,
tied to each other.
On these naoi-gire, names, birthdays, and wishes are written
by those who can not participate in the festival, like women, children
or sick men.
After they offer their Naoi-zasa, they wait for
the appearance of the real naked man called shinotoko.
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 Making of naoi-zasa with a bamboo and noi-gire to dedicate |
 Naoi-gire Write your wish name and birthday on a naoi-gire |
| Very small naoizasa |
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At 3:00 p.m. the Shinto ritual begins in a main shrine and a front shrine.
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| Photo courtesy of Konomiya Shrine |
After this ritual, a priest shakes a largre tessho three times above the naoinin,
then orders him loudly "Go to Naoi-toriba, now !"
Naoinin and his guards answer "Oooooo ! " and leave the shrine.
After this, they prepare to rush into the crowds of naked men who want
to touch naoinin (the real naked man).
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Outside of the shrine, naked men are taking naoizasa to the front shrine.
Approximatery 9000 to 100000 naked men keep coming to offer them
*****
Soon after all the naoi-zasa are dedicated, members of the local fire department
called "teoke-tai" come to the front of the shrine
holding buckets of water over their heads.
All the Teoke-tai
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As soon as the shin-otoko rushes into the crowd of naked men,
a shinto priest keeps shaking the tessho ( 3 meter long sakaki)
with bells, talisman, and a knife to pray for his safety.
All the naked men try to touch the shin-otoko, and the guards around him
try to protect him.
It looks like a battle.
After the big struggle, shin-otoko is pulled up to the Naoiden.
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He almost lost cosciousness.
He is also hurt seriously from thousands of attacks by naked men.
He is carried to the bathroom and put into cold water to help him regain
consciousness.
He is laid down on a futon/bed where a doctor examines him.
Priests come and express thanks to him.
He has to prepare for the Yonaoi Shinji.
*****
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