This year, 40 women will be allowed to engage in certain festival rituals.

In a historic move, a shrine in Japan has allowed women to participate in the 'naked man' festival for the first time in its 1650-year history, South China Morning Postreported. The festival, known as the Hadaka Matsuri, is a traditional event organised by the Konomiya Shrine in Inazawa town of Japan's Aichi prefecture. It is scheduled to take place on February 22, and around 10,000 local men are expected to participate.

A shift in tradition

This year, 40 women will be allowed to engage in certain rituals of the festival which has been a 'men-only' affair. However, they will remain fully clothed, dressed in traditional happi coats, and avoid the traditional violent clash of near-naked men in loincloths, as per an Independentreport. They will only participate in the 'naoizasa' ritual, which will require them to carry bamboo grass wrapped in cloth into the shrine grounds.

Mitsugu Katayama, an official of the organising committee said, ''We have not been able to hold the festival like we used to for the past three years because of the pandemic and, in the time, we received a lot of requests from women in the town to take part.'' He clarified that there was no active ban on women in the past, but they tended to stay away from the festival voluntarily. 

The decision has been praised by local women and gender activists who have hailed it as a step forward in their campaign for equality.

What happens during the festival?

During the event, thousands of males sport minimal amount of clothing with most of them using a Japanese loincloth called ''fundoshi'' along with a pair of white socks. As a part of the rituals of the festival, men spend the initial hours running around temple grounds and purifying themselves with freezing cold water and then head towards the main temple.

The participants then tussle to find two lucky sticks that the priest of the temple throws along with 100 other bundles of twigs. They call out for the shin-otoko or the 'chosen man', and attempt to touch him, as it is believed to bring good luck for a year. At the end of the event men often emerge out with bruises and injuries due to a stampede-like situation. 

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