In Japan, the millennial festival of “naked men” is definitely getting a new look

The organizers of the Japanese festival “Sominsai” are now too old to ensure the holding of a ritual reserved for men. The big day crowd came to attend this latest edition, on February 17, at the Kokuseki-ji temple in Oshu, in the Iwate region, in the east of the country.

Intense white steam rises as hundreds of men dressed in light loincloths purify themselves in cold water and compete for talismans: this centuries-old ritual in northern Japan took place for the very last time on Saturday 17 FEBRUARY. The “Sominsai” festival, considered one of the strangest in Japan, is the latest victim of the demographic crisis which is hitting rural communities hard.

Passionate chants of “jasso, joyasa” (“correct and remove evil”) will no longer resonate as they echoed for hours Saturday evening in this cedar forest in the Iwate region of eastern Japan. The isolated temple of Kokuseki hosted a final time this popular annual rite, more than 1000 years old according to legend. Organizing the event, which attracted hundreds of participants and thousands of tourists each year, became too much for the often graying-haired monks and devotees of Oshu and its region.

Victim of the aging population

“It is very difficult to organize a festival of this magnitude”explains the monk Daigo Fujinami in front of the temple which opened its doors in 729. “There are so many people (Saturday night) and it’s motivating. But behind the scenes, there is so much work to do. I can’t be blind to this reality.” Japan is seeing its population age faster than most other countries, with a third of its residents aged 65 and over. A large number of schools, shops and transport services have had to close, particularly in small towns and villages.

Fortunately for this country of tradition, other temples across Japan still host similar festivals where, for example, men in loincloths bathe in icy water or honor their deities by competing for talismans. Some festivals are adapting in order to continue to exist, in particular by allowing women to attend ceremonies previously reserved for men. The coronavirus had already forced Oshu organizers to curtail prayer ceremonies and practice more modest rituals.

Prayers to replace the festival

On Saturday evening, this latest edition of the festival ended around 11 p.m., but it attracted a crowd rarely seen in local memory. At sunset, men dressed in white loincloths come out to the temple on a mountain slope. They bathe in an icy stream and walk around the temple as the winter breeze blows. They clench their fists to endure the cold and shout “jasso joyasa”. The crowd follows the men as they climb the stone steps of the temple and stroll along the dirt roads. The festival reaches its peak when these hundreds of “naked men” crowd inside the wooden temple building and aggressively shout, chant and jostle for talismans for over an hour.

Many participants and visitors expressed both sadness and understanding about the end of the festival. “It’s the last edition of this great festival which has lasted for 1000 years. I really wanted to take part in it,” said Yasuo Nishimura, 49, a geriatric caregiver from a region west of Osaka, more than ten hours away.

Starting next year, Daigo Fujinami and the other temple monks will replace this festival with prayer ceremonies and find other ways to continue these spiritual practices. But the loincloths will be put away and the “jasso, joyasa” will remain silent.