Demon-Dance "Okayama Momotaro Festival (Uraja)" & 500-Year-Old "Saidai-ji Eyo Hadaka Matsuri" Sacred Stick Festival

Every August, the heart of Okayama City erupts with color and rhythmic energy during the **Okayama Momotaro Festival**, anchored by the massive **Uraja Odori** dance parade. The name *"Uraja"* derives from the ancient Kibi Kingdom legend that inspired the Momotaro folktale: an overseas giant or demon (*Oni*) prince named **Ura**, who ruled from the mountain fortress of Kinojo before being subdued by the imperial prince Kibitsuhiko-no-Mikoto, is also remembered fondly in local lore for introducing ironworking and agricultural techniques to the region. Across the two-day festival, thousands of dancers organized into vibrant teams (*Ren*) paint their faces with striking demon makeup (*Ura-gesho*) and dance enthusiastically down Momotaro Odori Boulevard, culminating in an all-inclusive finale (*Sou-odori*) where spectators and performers unite in one giant celebratory circle. In stark seasonal contrast, on the third Saturday of February each winter, **Saidai-ji Kannon-in Temple** in eastern Okayama City hosts one of Japan's Three Most Extraordinary Festivals (*Nihon Sandai Kisai*), dating back over 500 years to 1510: the **Saidai-ji Eyo (Hadaka Matsuri)**. Nearly 10,000 men clad only in traditional white loincloths (*Fundoshi*) jog through the freezing temple grounds chanting *"Wasshoi! Wasshoi!"*, plunge into an icy purification basin (*Kori-mizu*), and pack tightly onto the elevated wooden veranda of the Main Hall (*Hondo*) while buckets of cold water are doused over them, sending plumes of white steam rising into the winter night sky. The breath-stopping climax occurs at exactly 10:00 PM when every light in the temple is extinguished into pitch darkness, and the chief priest hurls a pair of sacred, camphor-scented 20-centimeter wooden batons called **Shingi** from an upper window into the surging sea of thousands of men below. The participants who successfully wrestle the sacred *Shingi* free from the crowd and thrust them upright into a wooden *Masu* rice box are hailed as the year's **Fuku-otoko** (*Lucky Men*), blessed with supreme good fortune—a gripping 500-year-old communal ritual designated as an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Japan.