The report below, featured in today’s Independent newspaper, prompts the question of what the women will be wearing when they partake for the first time in a Naked Festival with over a millennium’s worth of tradition . As can be seen in the picture below, the men are not naked but wearing fundoshi (loin cloth). The festival should rightly be called, The Near Naked Festival.
(courtesy Wikicommons)
Quote:
A shrine in Japan that organises the famous Naked Man festival will allow women to participate for the first time in its 1,250-year history.
A group of local women in Inazawa, in Japan’s Aichi prefecture, are all set to join the annual Hadaka Matsuri, held in February at the Konomiya shrine.
While the women will remain fully clothed and avoid the traditional violent clash of near-naked men in loincloths, they will participate in the naoizasa ritual, which will require them to carry bamboo grass wrapped in cloth into the shrine grounds.
Men typically wear a minimal ensemble, consisting of a Japanese loincloth known as a fundoshi and a pair of white socks called tabi. The festival, celebrating the abundance of harvest, prosperity, and fertility, kicks off around 3.20pm local time.
The Mainichi reported that this is the first time a group of about 40 local women will be a part of the ancient event.
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