Naked new year in Japan, 1946 - a picture from the past
Young Japanese men, clad only in loincloths, dive into the crowd to search for two camphor-scented batons that have been thrown to them in utter darkness in the belief that by retrieving them, they will be granted good luck in the year ahead. The annual festival at the Saidaiji temple in Okayama attracts up to thousands of men every year Illustration: Photograph: Horace Bristol/ Hulton/ Getty Images
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