岩手県奥州市・黒石寺で千年以上続くとされる、日本を代表する裸祭「蘇民祭」。諸般の事情により今年が最終開催とのことで、褌一丁になって数百人の男たちと揉まれに揉まれてまいりました。 以下感想（自分の局部の形状がわかる写真を上げる勇気がないので、文章だけで失礼します）。
蘇民祭の参加者はまず藁で囲われた仮設の小屋で褌一丁に着替えるのだが、この小屋の雰囲気からして凄い。 男たちが全裸になり、ボロン、ボロンッと寒さに萎えた＊＊＊を露わにする。 それはまるで酔芙蓉の花が次々と咲いていくようで、見ようとせずとも四方八方目に飛び込んでくる。
裸になった男たちが景気づけに飲む酒や、暖を取る炭火、そして「オスの匂い」としか言いようのない香りが小屋中に充満する。 地位や権力や衣服やその他すべてを投げ捨てた哺乳類のオスたちが満ち満ちる着替え小屋の異様な雰囲気だけで、お腹がいっぱいになった。
「どう締めたって※※※※はチラ見えするもんだっ。何も恥ずかしがることはねぇっ」と、地元の方がキツくキツく褌を締めてくれた。 「これは見世物でもねぇ、みんな裸さなって仏さまさなるんだから。褌一丁夜中の裸姿ほど綺麗なものはないんだ」
酔芙蓉の花を純白の褌に収めたわれわれ参加者たちは、川に入って水をかぶり、薬師如来をお祀りする本堂と、妙見菩薩をお祀りする妙見堂とを3たび巡拝してゆく。 例年は川に氷がはっていて、その氷を叩き割って禊をするそうなのだが、今年は暖冬で氷もない。
とはいえ0度近い気温に褌一丁、風が吹くたびに身体に痛みが走る。 ジョヤサ、ジョヤサ、ジョヤサ、ジョヤサ、掛け声を繰り返しては石段を昇り降りして巡礼を繰り返していくうちに、自分がなにか別の生き物に生まれ変わっていくような感覚を覚える。
これが「仏になる」ということか。 「蘇民祭にはじめて参加したのはもう40年も前のことなんです。その時は何も知らなくてねぇ、何か楽しそうだからやってみようって、ただそれだけだったんですよ」と、隣にいたおじいさんが話しかけてくれた。 「でもねぇ、毎年裸になると身体が丈夫になるんですよ。
蘇民祭に出ないと、と思うから身体を丈夫にしてられるのかもしれない。 年とるとわかりますよ。お金があっても健康でなくちゃダメ。だからこの年でもこうやって裸になれることは、やっぱり仏さまのご加護ですよ。今年で最後になるのは寂しいけど、ここで教わったことを大切に生きていきたい」
禊と巡礼が終わった後、いくつかの儀礼を経て（この儀礼―修正会や修二会などに由来するさまざまな要素も非常に興味深いのですが、また日を改めてメモしたいと思います）、蘇民祭はクライマックス、蘇民袋争奪戦に入る。
決して広くはない本堂の外陣に、例年よりずっと数の多いわれわれ参加者が集まって、上から降ってくる「蘇民袋」を争奪する。そこにさらに集まる報道陣やカメラマンたち。 荒っぽい参加者が邪魔だ、死ぬぞと言いながら報道陣やカメラマンを一人ひとりつまみ出してゆく。
堂内はさながら褌一丁の参加者数百人をかき回すドラム式洗濯機のよう。 お堂の端にいたと思えば、全力で押されて押し返して、いつの間にかもう一方の端にいる。まるで朝鮮戦争のように、裸の男たちが全力で押して押されて押しあった。
男たちの吐く息、触れ合う身体や髪の毛、絡まり合う褌や＊＊＊、揺れる※※※※、ジョヤサジョヤサの掛け声。 自分が息しているのか他人が息しているのか、そこにあるのが自分の＊＊＊か他人のモノか、そんなことがどうでも良くなってくるほど狂しく暴力的なまでに混ざりあう。
身体の境界がなくなってゆく。自分の身体は他人の身体であり、他者の身体は己の身体であり、息も髪も＊＊＊も、畢竟仏身である―。 三昧境のうちにいつの間にか争奪戦は決着し（1時間ほどだったらしい）、千年間続いたお祭りは終わった。残るのは清々しいほどの夜闇だけ。
「バラエティ番組なんかに奇祭って取り上げられて、ショーみたいにされてるのが嫌だったんですよ。これは薬師信仰の行事だから。 みんな素っ裸で仏さまさなるんです。昔は精進潔斎してねぇ。だから何もおかしいことはない。ほんとは褌もなく＊＊＊出してるのが、信仰の証なんです」
黒石寺蘇民祭は（本来）陰暦正月七日から八日にかけて行われるが、かつては陰暦の年越し前から肉や魚や五葷を食べない、男女の営みを断つといった厳重な潔斎が行われていたという。 精のつくものをずっと食べず、生物としての欲も断ってきた男たちが裸で集うのはどんな様子だっただろうか。
彼らからはどんなオスの匂いが放たれていただろう。 裸になって哺乳類のオスに戻り、いや、潔斎ゆえにオスであることすらもやめた裸体が氷水をかぶり揉み合って自他の境をなくしていく様は、自我をなくして赤子に戻っていくようだったかもしれない。 成仏とは、赤子になることなのか。
寒さ極まる陰暦の正月を挟んで潔斎し、蘇民祭を行うこと。それは裸になって赤子に戻り、もう一度復活して健康にこの世に戻ってくる蘇りの儀式だったのかもしれない。 蘇るには生物としての欲求や快不快の感覚を一度捨て去る必要がある。裸になって揉み合い、自我を捨て去る必要がある。
それこそがインドから中国を経て極東の島国の北の果てにまでやって来た仏教が築き上げた、生物としての人間に寄り添う真理だったのかも知れない―。 褌を脱いで人間に戻ってゆく男たちの真っ赤な酔芙蓉に囲まれて、ボンヤリとそんなことを考えていた。
補足 今回終了となったのは「黒石寺の」蘇民祭で、他にも岩手県内には（黒石寺ほどの規模ではないにせよ）蘇民祭のある場所があります。 今回の黒石寺蘇民祭は正直人が多すぎてビートルズの来日公演状態だったので、今度はまったりした蘇民祭にも参加してみたい。
Japan's most famous naked festival, Somin-sai, is held at Kokuseki-ji Temple in Oshu City, Iwate Prefecture, and is said to have continued for over 1,000 years. Due to various circumstances, this year will be the last time the event will be held, so I came wearing only a loincloth and being rubbed with hundreds of other men. My thoughts below (I don't have the courage to post a photo that shows the shape of my private parts, so I apologize for just text).
Participants of the Sominsai first change into a loincloth in a temporary hut surrounded by straw, and the atmosphere of this hut is amazing. The men get completely naked and reveal their *****, which are withering in the cold. It's like the flowers of a drunken butterfly blooming one after another, and they fly in every direction without even trying to look at them.
The naked men drink alcohol to cheer themselves up, charcoal burns to keep them warm, and the hut is filled with a scent that can only be described as ``the smell of men.'' The strange atmosphere of the changing hut, filled with male mammals who have given up their status, power, clothes, and everything else, made me feel full.
"No matter how you tie it, you can still see a ******* of the loincloth. There's nothing to be embarrassed about,'' said a local who tightened the loincloth tightly. "This is not a spectacle, for everyone is like Buddha when they are naked. There is nothing more beautiful than a naked figure in the middle of the night with just a loincloth.''
We, the participants, placed the Drunken Furin flowers in our pure white loincloths, entered the river, covered ourselves with water, and made three pilgrimages to the main hall, where Yakushi Nyorai is enshrined, and Myoken-do, where Myoken Bodhisattva is enshrined. . Usually, there is ice on the river, and people break the ice to purify themselves, but this year's winter is mild and there is no ice.
However, the temperature is close to 0 degrees Celsius, I wear a loincloth, and every time the wind blows, I feel pain running through my body. As I went up and down the stone steps, chanting joyasa, joyasa, joyasa, joyasa over and over again, I felt as if I was being reborn as some other creature.
Is this what it means to “become a Buddha”? "It's been 40 years since I first participated in the Somin-sai festival. At that time, I didn't know anything about it, and I just thought it looked like something fun so I'd give it a try,'' says the neighbor. The old man who was there spoke to me. “But you know, every year I get naked, my body gets stronger.
Maybe it's because I feel like I have to go to Sominsai that I can keep my body strong. As you get older, you realize that even if you have money, you still have to be healthy. That's why even at this age, I still wear clothes like this. Being able to become one is all thanks to the blessings of Buddha. I'm sad that this year will be my last year, but I want to cherish what I've learned here in my life."
After the purification and pilgrimage, several rituals (these ritual - the various elements derived from Shuji-e and Shuni-e are also very interesting, I would like to note the date again) are completed, and the Somin-sai reaches its climax, the battle for the Somin-bukuro.
A much larger number of participants than usual gather together to compete for the "Somin-bukuro'' that falls from above in the outer part of the main hall, which is not at all spacious. More reporters and cameramen gathered there. The rough-and-tumble participants picked off reporters and cameramen one by one, telling them that they were getting in the way and that they were going to die.
The inside of the hall resembles a drum-type washing machine that stirs hundreds of participants with just one loincloth. Just when you think you're at the edge of the temple, you're pushed back with all your might, and before you know it, you're at the other end. It was like the Korean War, with naked men pushing and pushing each other with all their might.
The breath of the men, their touching bodies and hair, their tangled loincloths and *******, their swaying ******, and their chants of joya-sa joya-sa. Whether it's me breathing or someone else's breathing, or whether it's my dick or someone else's, it all mixes together in such a frenzied and violent way that it doesn't matter.
The boundaries of the body disappear. My body is the body of another person, and the body of another person is my own body, and my breath, my hair, and my **** are, after all, the bodies of Buddhas. Before anyone knew it, the battle was over (it seemed to last about an hour), and the festival that had lasted for a thousand years came to an end. All that remains is the refreshing darkness of night.
"I didn't like it when variety shows featured strange festivals and made it into a show. It's an event dedicated to the belief in Yakushi. Everyone is completely naked and looks like a Buddha. Hey, so there's nothing strange about it. In fact, having your **** sticking out without a loincloth is proof of your faith."
The Kokuseki-ji Somin-sai (originally) is held from the 7th to the 8th day of the lunar new year, but in the past, strict rituals such as refraining from eating meat, fish, and gourds, and refraining from intercourse between men and women were carried out before the lunar new year. It is said that he was I wonder what it must have been like for men who had never eaten anything that stimulated their souls or refused to have any desire as a living thing to gather together naked.
What kind of male scent must have emanated from them? The nude bodies, which have become naked and returned to male mammals, or even stopped being male because of Kessai - purifying one's mind and body by refraining from eating, drinking, and other activities, and by bathing, etc., are doused in ice water and massaged each other, erasing the boundaries between self and other, as they lose their sense of self and return to babies. It might have been like that. Does attaining Buddhahood mean becoming a baby?
To purify oneself and hold Sominsai during the extremely cold New Year of the lunar calendar. It may have been a resurrection ritual in which the person stripped naked, reverted to a baby, was resurrected once more, and returned to this world in good health. In order to be revived, it is necessary to once abandon the desires and senses of pleasure and displeasure as living beings. We need to get naked, rub each other, and throw away our egos.
This may be the truth that Buddhism, which came from India through China to the northern reaches of the island nation of the Far East, established to be close to human beings as living beings. I was thinking about these things absentmindedly as I was surrounded by the bright red Drunken Furong of the men who were taking off their loincloths and turning back into humans.
Note: The Somin-sai at Kokuseki-ji has ended this time, and there are other Somin-sai locations in Iwate Prefecture (although they are not as large as Kokuseki-ji). Honestly, there were so many people at Kokuseki-ji Somin-sai that it was like the Beatles were performing in Japan, so next time I would like to attend a more relaxing Somin-sai.
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