Hadaka Maturi and tiny pieces of mochi

These are just some tiny little three pieces which were shared from the huge 4 tons of Kagamimochi（rice cake） that were offered on the alter at Konomiya Shrine of the city of Inazawa, Aichi Prefecture.

Across the nation, we have so many unique ritual events so called "Maturi", literally means "festival." At Konomiya Shrine, every year at this time of the season, people hold "Hadaka(naked) Maturi" which large crowds of half naked men trying to touch a divine man of the year in their rough and wild fray.
It is believed that a divine man can ward off bad evils so anyone who touches him can be blessed and free from every evil throughout the year. It’s quite rough and wild event but has been handed down for centuries.

After the festival, the huge rice cakes are devided into thousands of pieces and turn out to be an offering to people. A friend of mine gave these to me wishing my family may be blessed with good health. How? I cooked them and served with stewed red beans and sugar. That’s one of the very popular way to cook mochi(rice cake). My husband, my son and me had them. Sorry about my daughter and my mother-in-law. They were not with us at home for the moment. Since these tiny offerings were so important and limited, three were just all she could keep for us. I'm pretty sure the Shinto gods are generous enough to bless all of my family. Right?


All the three images here are from the website of Konomiya Shrine. http://www.konomiya.or.jp/