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On February 21st we headed down to Okayama for the Hadaka Matsuri or Naked Man Festival. After arriving in the late afternoon we walked down to the river to view Okayama Castle.
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After a quick dinner of udon and a short break, we boarded busses for Saidaiji, where the festival was held. Above is the poster for the festival.
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As Joe was running, he was on a separate bus from Eric and I, and we wouldn't see him until he appeared in fundoshi (loincloth) with the other running men. Meanwhile, we walked around the temple area, checking out the various foodstalls, as seen above and below.
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Above is a kasudera stall, and below is Eric with one of the doughy treats.
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Some of the many policemen on guard for the festival.
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Saidaiji temple grounds.
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The interior of the main hall at the temple.
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Around 9 p.m. the first groups of men came running through the temple gate. You can see the line of guys amidst the crowd of warmly dressed people.
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The foreign delegation running through the temple grounds. They ran around the temple as well as around the neighborhood surrounding the temple. At various points the runners would go through the white gate (below) and run through waist-deep water while being sprayed with water. The temperature was about 45 degrees fahrenheit.
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Taiko drumming.
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At around 11 p.m. the men begain to make their way to the main temple building where the shingi, or lucky sticks, would be tossed into the crowd at midnight. For additional explanation of the festival click here.
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We watched as the men tried to get a good spot under the temple roof. You can see steam rising from the crowd.
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A few fights broke out, and we also saw some guys fall from the stairs as the crowd surged from one side to the other.
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At midnight the lights on the temple went out and the shingi were thrown from a balcony inside of the main temple building onto the crowd of men. One of the other English teachers in the foreign group was lucky enough to have caught a shingi!
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Joe at the end of the night, feeling like a true warrior. He escaped with a minor cut on his arm and some scraped up feet. Hardcore.
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On Sunday morning Eric left to catch his flight back to the U.S. Joe and I stayed on in Okayama and visited the Okayama Digital Museum, where we viewed a special exhibition of sculpture, paintings and relics from Saidaiji, displayed in conjunction with the Hadaka Matsuri.
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The museum was beautifully designed and included lots of technological features, such as interactives for your cell phone.
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Photos were not allowed in the special exhibition, but the regular exhibits included a section on the Hadaka Matsuri. Here Joe is using a touch screen that allowed viewers to zoom in on a historic painting of the festival and explore more information about the painting.
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Above are the shingi in their relic-like cases, below Joe explores a huge satelite floor map of Okayama with a moveable touch screen. The screen on the mobile unit zoomed in on the area that you were standing over and included an array of historic and geographic information about the specific place.
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Me outside the museum.
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We hung out by the station for a while, browsing shops and enjoying the beautiful display of tulips in the underground mall.
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Before heading home we had lunch at a small restaurant serving onigiri and rice bowls. Below is the display of food at the entrance.
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Lunch!
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Joe outside of Udon, our lunch spot.
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