Muko-nage

I had some trouble figuring out what to write first, but I found this very interesting article on the Mainichi website. According to Mainichi, there is an annual festival in Niigata where bridegrooms are thrown off a five meter slope into the snow at the Matsunoyama Onsen resort. These men were newly married, and the purpose of this festival is to receive the "wild blessing of locals." If one wants to get thrown, you actually have to apply.

Curious to know the origins of this festival, I decided to look it up. Currently, this festival is to wish the couple a happy marriage and strong unity. The same article then goes on to state the believed origins: how it originally began either to get rid of the hints of a destructive marriage or as revenge for marrying a girl from the village! I thought this was kind of funny, and was even more delighted to learn there's another festival that goes along with it, called Sumi-nuri. 

During this fun festival, a Sai-no-kami statue is burned, the ashes are mixed with snow, and members of the family paint each other's faces with this ash. It's supposed to protect against evil spirits. This post explains the Sai-no-kami is a god that protects the community from evil and also protects babies from disease. Whether or not this is true, I'm not sure, because whenever I type in "sainokami" into Google I get a manga! The Sainokami manga description mentions something about an online dating site, so I'm not sure if it'll help here. 

Regardless, I'm glad to learn about yet another festival in Japan. I can't really find its origins that well, due to the manga results that pop up when I type it into google search, nor can I find any religious associations aside from the burning of the statue of a god that protects against evil. If anything, it'd be interesting to be there in person as they throw someone off a slope!