Japanese pray for end to pandemic in annual ice bath ritual at Tokyo shrine

Participants wearing protective face masks amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, pray as they take an ice-cold bath during a ceremony to purify their souls and to wish for overcoming the pandemic at the Teppozu Inari shrine in Tokyo, Japan, January 10, 2021. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

TOKYO (Reuters) - Men wearing traditional loin clothes and women dressed in white robes clapped and chanted before going into an ice water bath during a Shinto ritual at a Tokyo shrine on Sunday to purify the soul and pray for the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Only a dozen people took part in the annual event at Teppou-zu Inari Shrine, scaled down this year due to the health crisis, compared to over a hundred in early 2020. Spectators were not allowed at the event.