Naked Japs Struggle To Get Wood

by Earl Morningstarr

Around 9,000 men dressed only in white loincloths scrambled to get their hands on two pieces of sacred wood at a Buddhist temple in Okayama yesterday, marking the 500th anniversary of “one of Japan’s three oddest festivals.” The ceremony at Saidaiji Temple is called Saidaiji Eyo, and the two winners who manage to grab the pieces of wood and get out of the temple’s compound are declared by the monks as “the man of fortune of the year.”

The near-naked men entered the compound at around 10 p.m. Saturday after undergoing a purification rite by pouring cold water over themselves. At midnight, the monks turned off the lights and dropped the 20-cm-long pieces of wood into the writhing throng. The participants immediately started struggling to grab hold of them, their bodies steam in the cold night air.

Comment

Read All Comments

Leave a comment:

FEATURES AND ARTICLES

Celebrity Dead or Alive Game
Try this quiz to see if you can identify which of these famous celebrities are still alive and which are entertaining the underworld.

Speak Your Brains
Have your say in our superb forum.

Competition
Enter our competition to win an amazing swearing turtle!

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR LATEST NEWS HEADLINES VIA EMAIL

SIGNUP FOR EMAIL DELIVERY HERE:

POP CULTURE NEWS

Judge Anderson is in the new Dredd movie
Good news for fans of Judge Dredd, telepathic PSI Judge Cassandra Anderson will be appearing in the forthcoming 3D adaptation of the comic book.

‘The Sandman’ television show going into development
Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman comic books are set to become a television show, planning and development have begun the early stages.

Amy Pond to die
Unconfirmed reports are flying around the interwebs saying that Doctor Who actress Karen Gillan will be leaving the show part way through the next series.

Naked Japs Struggle To Get Wood

THE MORNINGSTARR* © 2006-2010