Throngs of Japanese men and women have taken to the streets in their underwear to show off their full-body, Yakuza-style tattoos at one of Tokyo's most popular festivals.

The Sanja Matsuri festival, in the north Tokyo suburb of Asakusa, sees close to two million people taking to the streets in an annual celebration of the founders of the local Sensoji temple.

Each year, a parade of parishioners carries portable shrines or 'mikoshi' through the neighbourhood for the three-day-event, which dates back to the Edo period.