Women take part in Japan’s Naked Man festival for first time in 1000 years

Men cram into the temple waiting for priests to drop the sacred talisman at the Hadaka Matsuri, or Naked Festival at the Saidaiji Temple, Japan. Photo / Getty Images

Hadaka Matsuri has been called the oddest festival on earth. At over 1250 years old, the “naked man” festival is also one of the oldest too.

However, faced with an ageing population the event, which sees thousands of participants in nothing but loin-cloths compete at temples for a “lucky stick”, pursued a break with tradition.

On Friday a group of 40 women were permitted to take part in the millennia-old ritual melee.

According to local media, the women would be allowed to compete if fully clothed and their bamboo cane offerings would be accepted at the Shinto shrine in Inazawa where the strange ritual sport takes place. They were, however, not able to take part in the climax of the ceremony, which took place in the freezing, wet temple over the weekend.

Among the 40 brave history makers was Ayaka Suzuki, who says she had been trying to overturn the competition’s ban on women since she was a child.

She told local newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun that she had been thwarted from entering.

“I could have participated had I been a boy,” she said.

Finally, she and 39 other women have changed history and added to the mass of bodies that compete for good luck charms.

The change to the rules comes as similar shrines are losing their traditional games and rituals.

While Inazawa was celebrating new traditions, in Oshu they were lamenting the loss of a 1000-year-old ritual this weekend.

The Kokuseki Temple held its version of the Hadaka Matsuri for the final time, faced with rapid depopulation.

The Tokyo Weekender lamented the end of the millennia old ritual in Oshu, which the temple says was held for the “last time” this weekend, after its ageing community was no longer able to accommodate the event.

While the Hadaka Matsuri festivals are being forced to change or go extinct, the Japanese National Tourism Organisation says it remains a big draw for international visitors, calling it the “oddest festival” on the planet.

“Although the prevailing image of Saidaiji Eyo is that of a men’s-only festival where only semi-naked men can enter Saidaiji’s grounds, the excitement from the stands is also palpable,” says the organisation’s website.

Held on the seventh night of the lunar new year, the traditional event in Inazawa draws 10,000 domestic visitors and thousands of curious international tourists every year.