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Konomiya Hadaka Matsuri in Inazawa
Konomiya Hadaka Matsuri, held at Konomiya Shrine in Inazawa near Nagoya, dates to 767, when it was instituted to ward off a plague epidemic, making it one of Japan's oldest and most prominent naked festivals. Held on the thirteenth day of the lunar new year, thousands of men wearing loincloths converge to touch that year's chosen shin-otoko, or lucky man, an act believed to transfer misfortune away from the toucher.
The Konomiya Hadaka Matsuri, held at Konomiya Shrine in Inazawa just outside Nagoya, is one of Japan's oldest and most widely recognized naked festivals, with a history said to stretch back to the year 767, when the local governor of Owari Province, roughly corresponding to modern Aichi Prefecture, is credited with instituting the ritual specifically as a response to a plague epidemic sweeping the country at the time, giving the festival's origin an unusually direct connection to public health crisis rather than harvest or military commemoration.