INAZAWA, Aichi -- Some 7,980 men in loincloths fiercely jostled to touch the "lucky man" during the recently held Konomiya Naked Festival at a Shinto shrine in this central Japan city. This ...

Japan’s annual ritual of “mame-maki,” or bean-throwing, at Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines and homes ... of beans as their age plus one, for good luck and health. Bean events at home ...