Enoshima Koshogatsu Matsuri Mikoshi - Koshigatsu or Little...

KANAGAWA-KEN, JAPAN - 2017/01/15: Enoshima Koshogatsu Matsuri Mikoshi - Koshigatsu or Little New Year celebrates the first full moon of the new year on the 15th day of January. The main events of Koshogatsu are rites and practices praying for a bountiful harvest, and rice gruel with azuki beans or bean paste is traditionally eaten in the morning. New Year decorations are taken down and burnt at the local Shinto shrine (they are normally never re-used for the following year). One of the more popular activities is organized by local shinto shrines, involving a winter matsuri festival. Local men carry the mikoshi portable shrine into the ocean after firing themselves up with sake, then bring the mikoshi back to the shrine. This ritual is most famously celebrated in Enoshima, near Kamakura, which draws thousands of spectators to the beach to participate in and watch the fundoshi loincloth men carry the mikoshi into the ocean, and back again. It is a form of ritual cleansing and a way to brace onself for the new year. (Photo by John S Lander/LightRocket via Getty Images)