Naked Festival
YONAOI-SHINJI

Jan. 14th of the lunar calendar
0:00-3:00a.m.


Yonaoi-shinji is the most important historical ritual which has continued since 767 A.D..
*The naked festival began during the Meiji period (1868-1912)

2:30a.m. Shin-otoko wakes up.
Amazake (sweet beverage made from fermented rice or sake lees) and zosui (rice porridge) are served.
Then Tesshokai members take him out in front of the front shrine.

photo from demo.

At 3:00a.m., Yonaoi-shinji begins at Choya.
A priest make the Shin-otoko shoulder a tsuchimochi (mud cake) which contains "bad luck and calamities ".
The tsuchimochi is tied with shimenawa.
Then a doll made of straw and paper, and two shishoku (paper lights look like slow match) are set on it.
A priest set fire to shishoku.

Shoulder the Tsuchi-mochi. Photo courtesy of Konomiya Shrine

A priest runs around Choya three times with shaking Onaru-suzu
At the third time, Shin-otoko start to run and is chased by him.
While he is running away, priests and visitors fire tsubute.
(Tsubute: Approx. 3cm of peach and willow branches binded with whitehemp thread and wrapped with white paper.)
After running aound the Choya,
he is drived out from the shrine precincts.
He throw the mud cake away on the ground on the way to his home.
Then Shinto priests bury the mud cake and doll with Shinto prayer in some secret place.
Then, the bad things which came from the ground return into the ground.