Japan's 'Naked Festival': Thousands brave cold wearing only loincloths to celebrate Hadaka Matsuri festival

Around 10,000 men have taken part in Hadaka Matsuri, a naked festival in Japan's Honshu Island.

Clad in only loincloths, the men braved freezing temperatures on Saturday in celebration of prosperity and fertility.

The main event saw competitors gather at the Saidaiji Kannonin Temple in Okayama Prefacture at around 10pm on Saturday where they tried to snatch one of two 20cm-long "shingi" wooden sticks thrown by a priest into the crowd.

The two sticks, seen as lucky talismans, are thrown among 100 bundles of twigs and if caught are meant to bring the catcher good fortune.

This year, most men escaped with just a few cuts and bruises from the 30-minute tussle in contract with to past festivals when some have been crushed to death.

Similar naked festivals are held throughout Japan as part of a tradition that is said to stretch back five centuries.

"Once a year, at the coldest time in February, we wrap ourselves in just a loincloth to be a man," said 55-year-old Yasuhiko Tokuyama, the president of a regional electronics firm.

"That's the significance of this event and why I continue to participate."

Plenty of sake and beer is sold outside the temple to warm the revellers who are encouraged to take a purifying plunge into pools of cold water before the start of the festival.

Paper talismans used to be used but as popularity for the event grew the paper would rip under the grasp of so many hands, as did the clothes of the rising number of participants, so that eventually wooden sticks were adopted and garments discarded.