Japan: 100 worshippers endure icy waters for Shinto ritual in Tokyo

About 100 participants, mostly men wearing white loincloths and a few women in white robes, stepped into tubs of ice cold water in the shrine courtyard.

After warm up runs and chants to the purification goddess Haraedo no Okami, they poured water over themselves with wooden buckets, shouting to steady their nerves. Drums and flutes accompanied the ceremony, now in its 71st year.

The rite is rooted in Shinto beliefs that physical hardship cleanses the spirit and protects against misfortune. Once limited to shrine members, the event now accepts public applications, which filled quickly this year as onlookers watched from outside.