に さん し ご ろく しち
THE HERITAGE AND THEIR BELIEFS
ROOTS OF THE FESTIVAL
CULTURE & IDENTITY
SAIDAIJI EYO HADAKA MATSURI: SHINTO
BELIEVE FAITH CONVICTION
COMPETE
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TO GET
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INTRODUCTION
CONTENT はち
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Introduction
HADAKA MATSURI Also known as the Naked Festival, is a type of Japanese festival, often regarded as one of the world’s weirdest festivals, most of them have long history with spiritual significance. Originated from Japanese Shinto rituals, the festivals involve purification rituals, prayers for good lucks, harvest celebration and driving away evil spirits and calamities. They are held at many locations throughout Japan at different times, with many taking place during winter months. Participants of Hadaka Matsuri are usually men dressed in traditional Japanese fundoshi (loincloths) and tabi (socks), and they must not have tattoos or consumed any alcohol. There are a few types of Hadaka Matsuri, each celebrated differently in different cities and has its own way of celebration, but all of them are celebrated for the same fundamental purpose which is to ward off evil or bad luck and receiving the happiness and good fortune.
西大寺会陽 - 裸祭り
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About
SAIDAIJI EYO HADAKA MATSURI Perhaps the most famous and the largest of the three grand Hadaka Matsuri celebrated in Japan is the Saidaiji Eyo Hadaka Matsuri, held in Saidaiji temple, Okayama, where it originated. Every year, during February, up to 9000 men wearing only Japanese loincloths, commonly known as fundoshi in Japan, participate in this festival to pray for safety, prosperous lives and good fortune. Participants of the Hadaka Matsui in Saidaiji are usually local men who form groups either from their neighbourhood or among their co-workers. In the Japanese culture, the people firmly believed teamwork and unity is the key to success and happiness.
Saidaiji Eyo Hadaka Matsuri
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Saidaiji Eyo Hadaka Matsuri “The Eyo Winter Fireworks are launched against the winter sky.”
Main Event Prior to the main event, other events that accompany the festival are held. The evening begins with the boy’s Hadaka Matsuri, in which boys from the first and second grade scramble for mochi (soft rice cakes), while the third and fourth grade boys compete for gofukuzutsu (octagonal treasure tubes), and fifth and sixth grade boys for the takarazutsu (treasure tubes). After the boy’s Hadaka Matsuri, on the banks of the Yoshii River, the Eyo Winter Fireworks are launched against the winter sky. Meanwhile the thundering sounds of an all women’s taiko (Japanese drums) group echo through the temple grounds (since beating drums is a common way to welcome the gods in Japan).
All participants will assemble in the temple, as they struggle ferociously with one another over a pair of lucky sacred sticks called Shingi, thrown into the crowd by the priest from a window 4m up in the temple. Some men creep between the legs of their rivals, while shrewd participants perform clever, premeditated teamwork.
“The evening begins with the boy’s Hadaka Matsuri ...”
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Saidaiji Eyo Hadaka Matsuri Main Event Located near the banks of the Yoshii River, the participants enter the temple grounds as a group and must first purify their bodies in the freezing waters of the river in order to please the gods, then run around the temple grounds and pray to the statues of two gods – SenjuKan’non and Go’ousho Daigongen. Then they push one another into the ground, purify their heated bodies again in the cold water and repeat the same routine, before entering the main shrine to jockey for the best positions. By midnight, thousands of participants cluster on the ground, shouting out ‘Wasshoi! Wasshoi!’ as they approach the precinct of the main shrine. Although this festival takes place in the cold season, the fervour of the men waiting impatiently is so strong that they seem to have difficulty breathing, which is why water is repeatedly splashed over them to ‘calm’ things down.
At exactly midnight, the lights are turned off all at once as the sacred sticks (shingi & willows) are being thrown into the crowd, and the vigorous rush to grab the sticks starts. Even if someone luckily gets hold of the sacred sticks, they are quickly snatched away by others, almost like a rugby game. At the same time bundles of willow strips are being thrown to the crowd, but they are the so called “less lucky” sticks. Although 100 of these are thrown into the crowd, it is not an easy task to catch them and also creates more confusion from the actual shingi. Measuring 4 cm in diameter and about 20 cm in length, the Shingi are considered to be the sticks of the gods. It is believed that anyone who gets hold of the Shingi and thrusts them upright in a wooden measuring box known as a “Masu” which is heaped with rice, is regarded as the lucky man of the year, and his happiness is promised for the whole year.
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The origins of this festival date back 500 years during the Eisho era (1504-1521), when worshippers competed to receive paper talismans called Go-o thrown by the priest.
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Roots of The Festival
These paper talismans were tokens of the completion of New Year ascetic training by the priests.
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Over time these amulets gained a reputation for greatly increasing the fortunes of those who received them, and so demand for them grew as people started pouring into the temple yearly.
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Today the first character written on the Shingi, was eventually replaced by the character ‘treasure’, which best describes the value ascribed to the Shingi and the lengths men will go to get them.
The easily torn paper amulets were replaced with wooden sticks (Ofuda) that we know today.
The sticks were called Shingi (sacred sticks), written with two characters meaning true and wood, and considered as sticks of gods.
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As the number of hopeful recipients swelled, the date of the festival was changed from its traditional date as set by the lunar calendar to the third Saturday in February.
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Above Vulgar
In Japan, the nature of its festivals in which the participants are scantly-clad, usually just a fundoshi, is not an issue. In fact, they are considered a healthy, sacred act, above vulgar, and on the level of holy Japanese shrine attire.
Most Japanese festivals originated from the Shinto rituals, which involve purification rituals, prayers for good lucks,
harvest celebration, driving away evil spirits and calamities or to commemorate the end of a plague. Being a nation with rich traditions, its people play a highly important role in the preservation of their culture and traditions.
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The older generation often set themselves as an example in the hope of projecting a strong image and cultivating the younger generation, who in turn will do the same to the next generations. Based on my research, participants of the Hadaka Matsuri are often adult males. However, young boys and girls have been known at times to participate in the festival, and in this sense it becomes a rite of passage
for the young participants. Most Hadaka Matsuri limit participation to adult males, but many of them have separate events where the youth may participate, allowing communities to pass their traditions from generation to generation.
Hadaka matsuri held in summer tend to involve participants in loincloths carrying mikoshi, a sort of portable shrine. While those that are held in winter, tend to involve ritual purification by water followed by a mass fight for a holy object (e.g. stick, jewel, etc) that symbolizes the event.
Culture & Identity
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Culture & Identity As each Hadaka Matsuri is celebrated differently on different cities, they still hold the same basic principles on what are required and the compeititive nature during the celebration of the festival. Examples are, the wearing of their traditional undergarment, fundoshi; the use of water to purify the body and calm the tension; the fight for a holy object to bring oneself good fortune and ridding of bad luck. As such the Saidaiji Eyo Hadaka Matsuri, being perhaps the most famous Hakaka Matsuri in Japan,
which involves the mass brawl over the snatching of a ‘lucky charm’, Shingi, and numerous smaller events preceding to the main event, set itself apart from other Hadaka Matsuri and at the same time enables itself to draw a huge crowd and curiosity from all over the country and the world.
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ご Saidaiji Eyo Hadaka Matsuri
Shinto Saidaiji Eyo Hadaka Matsuri, like most Japanese festivals, originated from Japanese Shinto rituals. Shinto started as ritual and religious practices in ancient Japan and became the foundation of Japanese mythology, traditions and festivals celebration. It was the state religion during the Meiji Restoration era, however after World War II,
the numbers of Japanese identifying Shinto as their religious belief started to decline constantly. But the general practice of Shinto rituals has not decreased, and many practices persisted as general cultural beliefs and community festivals. There is this general concept/ thinking among the majority
“In Saidaiji Eyo Hadaka Matsuri, the festival involves the Japanese spirit of teamwork, competitiveness and receiving of good fortune and blessings.”
of the Japanese people, in which “Shinto is not my religion anymore, but its practices run deep in my roots and moreover it is a tradition being passed on by my ancestor.”
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“心灵上的寄托 变成了一种 理念和信念” “In a way Shinto has transformed itself from a spiritual attainment to part of everyday life and beliefs.”
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Believe Faith Conviction
ろく
People who do not understand the tradition of the festival may find it absurd to why these Japanese men wearing loincloths only, compete so fiercely for just a piece of stick from the temple. It is probably because they believe, have faith and conviction in what they are competing for. Believe that the action in competing for the Shingi is meant to test men in a way that allow the gods to have a clear and direct say in their affairs.
Faith & Conviction that the gods already lend out a hand by giving the people the scared sticks through the temple and as god cannot be bias so it is up to the men themselves to fight for it out in what the gods have given them.
“The faith in remembering the traditions passed down from the older generation.”
“The people firmly believed that one who gets the stick will be truly blessed.”
“The conviction in the beliefs of the festival.”
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Compete
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Perhaps the answer to why Japanese men compete, is because due to the competitive nature of the Japanese culture, as they have the mentality that to compete is to strive against one another to attain a goal, by striving they stand a chance to realize their goal. At the same time being determined not to fall short in order to achieve their goal.
One who is not competitive and does not to compete, will be regarded as being disappointing and not motivated to succeed in the society. To compete among one another, means there is always healthy competition and nasty competition.
As the Japanese culture is group oriented and people tend to work together rather than exert their individuality; Japanese people tend to have a group, rather than individual mentality. Thus when one competes, one will converge with other individuals in order to attain each of their personal goal faster. To further emphasize the competitive nature of the Japanese people, they also believed that their own destiny lies in each own hand and one can’t wait for money or anything to drop from the sky, but to grab at any opportunities that come along the way.
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To Get はち
When individual converges with one another, unity is formed, and there is a saying – unity is strength, and the ‘strength’ involves teamwork, support and encouragement that come from the unity among one another. Thus the attainment to their goal is made easier.
During Saidaiji Eyo Hadaka Matsuri, men working in the same company or living in the same area will form groups in order to compete for the ultimate prize of one of the two sacred sticks, which promised good luck and life for a year for the eventual winner.
Deriving from the healthy nature of the competitiveness of the festival and the firm belief of being able to grab hold of being blessed with happiness and good luck in one’s life, I came to a conclusion of the essence of the festival ...
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*UNITY IS STRENGTH
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“Coming together as one to attain good luck and happiness from the blessings of the gods; regardless of who is the eventual the winner, at least they did their best to do something about their life and they need not be sorry for themselves and to the gods.�
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合精 取神
A Information Booklet by Panna Chee