In Japanese, “hadaka matsuri” (裸祭り) literally means “naked festival”. One of the most famous naked festivals was recently at Okayama, Japan. It looked like this!
At a naked festival, the male participants aren’t actually naked. However, they are typically dressed only in fundoshi (ふんどし), which is a traditional Japanese loincloth, and hope to get lucky — rather, good luck — by catching sacred sticks and other fortune items.
Here are dudes in fundoshi. Note that in Japan, the body isn’t seen as something to be ashamed of like in some parts of the world. At hot springs and in public baths, people bathe with strangers as well as friends, family, and even co-workers.
That being said, hadaka matsuri are some of the more unusual festivals in Japan and are held at both Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines. “Truly a bizarre festival”, wrote one Japanese Twitter user.
“I went to the hadaka matsuri,” added another. “It was creepy. Truly creepy. I’m addicted.”
Other Twitter users called the festival “fun” — and said that the participants were “cool”.
The Saidai-ji Temple naked man festival began over 500 years ago and is the country’s largest.
According to the Japan National Tourism Organisation, nine thousand people usually participate. If you are keeping count, that’s 18,000 butt cheeks.
ふんどし９千人が「福男」争奪戦 岡山・西大寺で裸祭り [47News]
岡山）福男６人、喜びかみしめた 西大寺会陽 [Asahi]
Photos: 005GoGoGo, Asahi_NKS20, ohmura_hideaki, umekanyon
GIFs: SankeiNews, SankeiNews, SankeiNews
Comments
9 responses to “Japan’s ‘Naked Festival’ Is A Sea Of Man Butt”
asscraft
Did those being gifs REALLY add anything to the article?
Many unneeded megabytes.
It shows the undulating wave of people that an image cant capture.
5 or 6 times over…
Sausage fest
put this into a game, instant horror
Man they love to cram people into places in Japan!
Soylent Green is people! Japanese people!