Aoshima Naked Man Festival

(Don't worry, there wasn't actually any nudity involved in the festival!)

I know I promised to tell you more about my winter break. However, I want to tell you about what I did today while it’s still fresh in my mind. Tokyo will have to wait until next week!

Today, I went to southern Miyazaki for the 青島裸祭り, known in English as the Aoshima Naked Man Festival. Aoshima Shrine is located on a small island by the ocean. Beside the island, alternating rows of stone and water form stripes known as the “Devil’s Washboard” because of the formation’s resemblance to an old-fashioned Japanese washboard.

Aoshima’s entrance into Japanese mythology starts with the story of two brothers, descended from the Shinto sun goddess, Amaterasu. One of the brothers is a hunter, and the other is a fisherman. They decide to trade jobs for one day; in his ineptitude, the hunter, Yamasachi, loses his brother’s fish hook in the sea. He goes into the ocean to search for it, to no avail. His quest takes him to an underwater palace, home to the beautiful princess Toyotama.

Yamasachi falls in love with Toyotama and spends three years underwater. When he finally finds the fish hook and returns to land with his new wife, he is greeted by a crowd of people standing in the frigid water. That is where today’s festival comes in.

After ceremonially warming themselves up with various exercises, a crowd of people (once only men, but now women as well) rushes into the cold January sea. The women are wearing happi coats, which covers about the same amount of skin as a T-shirt and shorts. The men wear only loincloths. They stay in the water for perhaps five minutes, their heads bowed, hands pressed together in prayer.

Once they return to land, the participants disappear to warm up and dry off. 

There follows another portion of the ceremony. Water is heated up until it is steaming, and a priest dips a palm frond into the water and flings droplets at the participants. Everyone exclaims at the heat, enough that it is almost concerning, except that they are smiling and laughing the whole time. Afterward, the crowd lines up to be blessed by the priest.

That mostly sums up the festival, but the story isn’t over yet! Yamasachi and Toyotama stay together, and eventually Toyotama becomes pregnant. She asks Yamasachi not to visit or even look at her as she gives birth, and he promises to do as she wishes. But curiosity tempts him and he peeks in on his wife, only to see not a woman but a dragon. While giving birth, Toyotama has returned to her true oceanic form. In shame, she flees into the ocean. She leaves her child behind, though she gives him tools for survival: she sends her younger sister to take care him, and she leaves behind her breasts, to give him milk. The child grows up to marry his aunt, and their son becomes the first emperor of Japan.

The site of Toyotama’s childbirth is the location of the second shrine I visited today, Udo-Jingu. The shrine is inside a cave. Stalactites hang from the ceiling, dripping water. It is believed that if a woman catches a drop of that water in her mouth, she will be blessed with fertility.

I found myself particularly drawn to Toyotama’s story. Everyone learns to feel shame over their natural bodies in some way or another, but particularly women. We may be satisfied with the ways our bodies function and provide with us, but when we consider the gaze of others, we are taught to search instead for flaws. Our shame is doubled because we are so often valued for our bodies instead of for our minds. Toyotama was content with her true form in her own company, but as soon as her husband saw her for what she really was, she fled.

Wikipedia’s telling of the myth provides a different interpretation: “After catching her husband spying on her, [Toyotama] was utterly ashamed that he broke his promise. Unable to forgive [him], she abandoned him and their child by returning to the sea.” Instead of shame over seeing herself through her husband’s eyes, she is ashamed that he is not the honorable man she thought him to be.

Whatever the reasons for Toyotama’s disappearance, her feelings resonate across the centuries, and she herself is honored instead of disgraced: Aoshima shrine is dedicated to her, and Toyotama is the reason for the dragon imagery that I saw all over the place. The shrine is supposed to bless marriage, or those hoping for marriage, which does amuse me a bit: Toyotama’s and Yamasachi’s marriage did not end particularly well.

I seriously considered sleeping in today instead of going to Aoshima, and I am glad that I changed my mind. Even just in Miyazaki, I have so much exploring left to do!

Note: In addition to hearing the story from friends, the following web pages helped me piece it together:

https://us.jnto.go.jp/blog/the-legendary-birth-of-a-nation-in-miyazaki/#comments

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyotama-hime