Doya doya festival, Shitennoji, Osaka

Doya doya is a dynamic event on the final day of Shushoe. Young men wearing headbands and clad in loincloth struggle for possession of Go Hoin, a cow god amulet. With their brave shouts of doya doya, so-called strength water poured on them evaporates quickly from their bodies due to heat and energy.

Shushoe (修正会) is a New Year’s memorial service 1-3 January dedicated to world peace and the well-being of the temple. In Tendoku ritual priests read symbolically the 600 fascicles of the Great Wisdom Sutra. The ritual on all three mornings involves shouting the title and volume number of the sutra, then quickly flipping through the sutra book itself.