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They say that all great things must come to an end. In Japan, that “great thing” is the 1,000-year-old tradition of the “Naked Man Festival.” After ten centuries, due to a “declining population” in the area surrounding the Kokusekiji Temple, the Somin-sai festival is shutting down. During the festivities, “hundreds of loincloth-clad men…wrestle for ownership of a bag of talismans blessed by the temple’s chief priest.” The event was held this past Saturday, and chief priest Daigo Fujinami said it would be the last, despite considerable effort to keep things chugging along. Now, the nude dudes will have to wrestle naked for prizes someplace else.
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