Ice ice baby - Shinto believers brave freezing ice water plunge to ring in New Year

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Shinto believers dressed in loincloths poured freezing water over themselves during the annual New Year’s ice bathing ceremony at Kanda Myojin Shrine in Tokyo on Saturday.

Before climbing into a bath filled with chilly water and large ice blocks, the 20 brave participants stood in queues in front of the shrine while reading from the ancient Japanese Liturgy and performing essential warming-up exercises.

The traditional ritual is part of the Daikoku festival and is believed to purify the soul and bring good luck.

Followers of Shintoism, the largest religion in Japan, believe that spirits called ‘Kami’ exist in the natural landscape, emphasising the sacredness of the material world.

The New Year’s tradition has been practised at the shrine for nearly 70 years, but such events have come under threat in Japan due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the potential for such collective events to spread the virus.

SOUNDBITES:

SOT, Mototsugu Matsuura, Participant (Japanese): “A lot of people have died in the last two years because of the coronavirus, which is a very, well, epidemic that is going around the world. I prayed that it would disappear soon.”

SOT, Ono, Participant (Japanese): “This year, the weather was better than before, and it wasn’t so cold.”

SOT, Nagata, Participant (Japanese): “Last year was cancelled, so I had to take a year off for that, so I guess it was a little hard on my body (doing water work for the first time in two years), for that.”

Video ID: 20220115-022

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