By Milo Boyd
A global hub of naked male wrestling has shut up shop after 1,000 proud years due to demographic issues.
For the past millennium Japan’s Somin-sai festival has attracted hoards of men who share a love of dropping their trousers in public and having a good scrap. They would lock horns wearing nothing but white loincloths and in the punishing cold February temperatures.
The event - which is more commonly known as the naked men festival - was held for the last time on Saturday. The reason for its death is Japan's aging population. The organisers of Somin-sai have been unable to find enough young men to join in the fight, leaving the sparring to old locals in the town. As broad as their shoulders may be, it was judged they've become too few to keep the tradition going any longer.
“This decision is due to the aging of individuals involved in the festival and a shortage of successors,” Daigo Fujinami, chief priest of the Kokusekiji Temple, wrote.
Japan is one of the few countries in the world where the population is decreasing. In 2014, the country's population was estimated to be 127 million. This figure is expected to shrink to 107 million (by 16%) by 2040 and to 97 million (by 24%) by 2050 if this current demographic trend continues.
Deaths have outpaced births in Japan for more than a decade, leading to a ballooning elderly population and shrinking workforce. This has made funding pensions and health care particularly difficult, especially as Japan has a very low immigration rate. Just 2.3% of the population was born outside of the country, compared to around 15% in the UK.
Somin-sai participants would walk into the freezing waters of the Yamauchigawa river with square temples inscribed with 'evil, go away' in Japanese to cleanse their bodies before praying at the temple. Come the evening they would scramble for a bag of wooden talismans blessed by the chief priest.
This year's winner was Kikuchi Toshiaki, 49, a local resident and member of the festival’s preservation association. "It is sad that the festival is ending. I participated in hopes that it would be a memorable festival," he told NHK.
Those who are ruing having missed the chance to witness the festival during the 1,000 years it was on needn't fear too much, as there are two others which are still running. Two other Hadaka Matsuri festivals, at the Saidaiji Kannonin Temple in Okayama prefecture and Kuronuma Shrine in Fukushima prefecture, will continue.
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