Wait, Naked Festival ?? Well, don't worry. The men weren't entirely naked. Every year in Isumi City, Chiba Prefecture, the Japanese people celebrates the Oohara Hadaka ( Naked ) Festival. The festival is celebrated by hundreds of nearly naked males and females to wish for the good luck and the prosperity of the year. It is by far the most interesting festival I've ever seen.
The Oohara Hadaka Matsuri is one of the oldest and most famous festival. It managed to entice thousands of people to come to Oohara to watch the festival. In this festival, there are 18 mikoshi ( the portable shrine ). Each district forms a group and bring out their mikoshi from their local shrine to this place, and later they will carry the mikoshi into the sea. Each of this mikoshi represents local god. Only during this festival, the gods could gather together. The festival is celebrated each year on 23rd September.
Yes, girls and women were also there. They weren't naked though. Sorry to disappoint. :)
The photographers were ready to capture the moment.
One of them were too eager to take photos of the festival.
At the start of the festival, all the teams were rushing to make a few laps around the place, shouting and chanting while hoisting the heavy mikoshi up and down. As if they were competing with other teams.
There were hundreds ( or thousands ) of people participating in this festival.
After that, they all went down, close to the beach, and be prepared to get wet.
This ritual is called Shiofumi. They rushed to the sea with their mikoshi while fighting the strong waves.
Sorry I couldn't take a better photos of Shiofumi. There were just too many people in front of me.
I managed to shoot the dog in front of me though.
At the end of the day, the mikoshi paraded through the town for about one hour. Later they would all gathered at one place and started to run in circles carrying the 18 mikoshi and lanterns for a while.
And that was the end of the festival. It was so much fun. If you live in Japan, this is definitely one of the festival that you should not miss.
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9 comments:
Sigh, I'm so damn envious of how hairless the Japanese are!
@Michael Flux: Lol. I know some Japanese who complain how hairless they are.
Hi,
I just wanted to let you know that your blog got listed in the Japan Blog Directory. Please let me know if any of the information is wrong or if you would like anything changed.
http://japanblogdirectory.com/
The Japan Blog Directory is still very new and you might also help spreading the word by adding a link or banner to your site or mention us.
I wish you all the best and a lot of success with your blog.
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Nicolas
Great photo. Love the expressions. No particular opinion about the hairlessness about these fellas ;-)
Very interesting! Cool shots :)
Thanks :)
Wow, very impressive shots!
I was wondering what lens/lenses did you use for these shots as they turned out pretty sharp with nice depth. I couldn't find out by looking at the exif data on flickr..
;P
Canon 50 mm f1.4. I usually removed the exif data from my photo to keep the file smaller.
What a interesting festival, there are sure a lot people in it.
Great shoots to capture the moment.
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