Phallus Festivals in Japan

Kanamara Matsuri in Kawasaki Daishi, Kawasaki city

Kanamara Matsuri (Festival of the Steel Phallus) is an annual Shinto fertility festival held in Kawasaki, Japan in spring. The exact dates vary, but the main festivities fall on a Sunday.
Kanamara Matsuri is named after Kanamara Sama, or Lord Iron *****. The festival dates back to the 17th century when Kawasaki was a station town along the Tokaido Road that ran from where the shoguns ruled in Edo, the ancient name for Tokyo, to the ancient capital of Kyoto.


























Hodare Matsuri in Tochio city

Hodare in English is "male genitals", but if the character HODARE are used, the meaning then becomes "the ripening of rice plants". HODARE festival is a very unique festival in Japan. It is held every year at Shimoraiden on the second Sunday of March. Shimoraiden is a village of Tochio City. Originally, the main symbol of the HODARE festival - a wooden *****, 2.2m in length, and weighting 600kg - was made of wood. This symbol had special religious significance for many people who believed that praying to or touching the symbol would ensure a good marriage, fertility, or good fortune. Today, it is the biggest of its kind in Japan.












Hounen Matsuri in Tagata Shrine, Komaki city

Hounen Matsuri is a fertility festival celebrated every year on March 15th in Japan. The most well-known of these festivals takes place in the town of Komaki, just north of Nagoya City. Hounen means rich harvest in Japanese, while a matsuri is a festival or holiday. The Hounen festival and ceremony celebrate the blessings of a bountiful harvest and all manner of prosperity and fertility.

The festival's main features of interest are shinto priests playing musical instruments, a parade of ceremonially-garbed participants, all-you-can-drink sake, and a 280 kg (620 pound), 2.5 meter (96 inch)-long wooden phallus. The wooden phallus is carried from a shrine called Shinmei Sha on a large hill, to another shrine called Tagata Jinja.

The festival starts with celebration and preparation at 10am at Tagata Jinja, where all sorts of foods and souvenirs (mostly phallus-shaped or related) are sold. Sake is also passed out freely from large wooden barrels. At about 2pm everyone gathers at Shinmei Sha for the start of the procession. Shinto priests say prayers and make blessings on the participants and mikoshi which are to be carried along the parade route, as well as the large wooden phallus.

When the procession makes its way down to Tagata Jinja the phallus in its mikoshi is spun furiously before it is set down and more prayers are said. Everyone then gathers in the square outside Tagata Jinja and wait for the mochi nage, at which time the crowd is showered with small rice cakes which are thrown down by the officiates from raised platforms. The festival concludes at about 4:30pm.









too many foreigners. i dont know the reason why