Polar plunge: Japanese ice bath ritual participants pray for quick recovery from earthquake

People gathered at a Shinto Shrine in Tokyo on Saturday to participate in an annual ice bath ritual and pray for the quick recovery from a deadly New Year’s Day earthquake that rocked the country. A group of 28 men and four women splashed freezing water onto themselves at the Kanda Myojin Shrine in Tokyo before being blessed by a priest in a tradition that began 37 years ago. “We had a tragic start of the New Year, so today I participated in the purification ritual to pray for the recovery (in the disaster areas),” said a 51-year-old dentist who participated in the tradition, Mototsugu Matsuura. The powerful 7.6 magnitude New Year’s Day earthquake was centred near Noto, about 300 kilometres from Tokyo on the opposite coast. RELATED: https://globalnews.ca/news/10207968/japan-earthquake-jan-5-deaths/ Subscribe to Global News Channel HERE: http://bit.ly/20fcXDc Like Global News on Facebook HERE: http://bit.ly/255GMJQ Follow Global News on Twitter HERE: http://bit.ly/1Toz8mt Follow Global News on Instagram HERE: https://bit.ly/2QZaZIB #GlobalNews #japan