Hadaka matsuri

[thomas]

Two in coma after being trampled in naked festival

=> mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/20030213p2a00m0fp036000c.html

Crush at Japanese nudefest

Two people were crushed unconscious after a crowd of about 9000 men wearing only loincloths got out of control at an annual Naked Festival in central Japan. The two men, aged 30 and 41, were trampled by fellow participants in the popular ritual, which dates back 1200 years. Another 38 spectators and participants were treated for injuries. Some 125,000 people showed up to watch the crowd of men dressed in white loincloths try to ward off bad luck by touching the body of the year's appointed "sacred man" as he entered Konomiya Shrine, near Nagoya.

=> thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,5991971%5E401,00.html

Perhaps the most famous and widely attended of these Hadaka Matsuri is the one held in the city of Inazawa in Aichi Prefecture on the south-central coast of Honshu near the metropolis of Nagoya. On the thirteenth of January, nearly 300,000 people converge upon Konomiya Shrine to witness the spectacle of 10,000 men in loin cloths and wooden sandals, each one hell-bent on touching the Shin-otoko, a naked man chosen by the townspeople to act as a scapegoat to divest them of all evil. [...]

The Inazawa Hadaka Matsuri culminates in the arrival of the Shin-otoko at Konomiya Shrine, where he spends the final hour of his torment being jostled about by the crowd. At long last, he is allowed to get dressed and relinquish his duties for the day.

=> Hadaka Matsuri Getting Naked...In Japan...In January | ThingsAsian