Japanese Dick Festival
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Japanese Dick Festival
"A hundred thousand revelers come here to celebrate one thing: the male organ."
Every year on the first Sunday of April in Kawasaki, Japan, one might cross paths with a peculiar sight — a succession of enormous erect penises parading down the street under the strength of men in traditional female garb.
This year, photographer B.A. Van Sise was in attendance of the annual Festival of the Steel Phallus , a regional tradition dating back to the 17th century that today serves as a platform for the benefit of HIV research. Here, Van Sise shares his experience and some of the history behind what is perhaps the most phallic festival in the world.
Early April in Kawasaki, Japan, is set aside for the Kanamara Matsuri, or the festival of the steel phallus, in which a hundred thousand revelers come here to celebrate one thing: the male organ. Home to the Kanayama Jinja Shrine, Kawasaki, southwest of Tokyo, has been closely tied to the male anatomy for centuries, due to a persistent local legend, so its famed Shinto shrine to the relic of a steel phallus was, well, erected.
Legend holds that a jealous, red-faced, sharped-tooth demon hid in the vagina of a goddess and then bit off, to their great surprise, the penises of her first two husbands. History forgets to mention why she failed to warn the second guy.
Finally a third, more determined suitor, a blacksmith, created an iron phallus that broke the demon's teeth; the man won over the beautiful woman while the demon presumably returned back to the ether to receive quite the lecture from his orthodontist.
The shrine is humble but has stood the test of time. Made of old stone and boasting a small but pretty network of traditional orange torii gates, it was built in roughly 698 CE — but is now more famously home to the festival — in prim and proper Japan, an unusual but charming celebration of the sacred and the profane.
While beautifully frocked Shinto priests in the shrine celebrate the thousands-year-old god, long worshiped by prostitutes fearing disease and pilgrims worried for their fertility, a different sort of celebration is going on outside, as tens, if not hundreds of thousands of partiers take to the streets.
Revelers carry penis lollipops (funny to look at, but not particularly tasty), phallic vegetables, and enough whimsical toys to stock a year's worth of Las Vegas bachelorette parties. They enjoy them all while snapping not-quite-ready-for-Instagram selfies and watching a parade of all of Kawasaki's manliest men, struggling to carry a bunch of giant junk through the street.
Local families and businesses work for months to make the enormous genitals carried on the shoulders of teams of men through Kawasaki's tight streets. Three, in total, are carried around town; two are of metal and one, true to Japan's contemporary anime-loving culture, is of the cheery, bubblegum-hued cartoon variety, and lofted by 18 fellows wearing glitter and fantastic makeup.
For the prudish, it might be hard to see, but it does have its benefits: These days, sales from the festival — penis clothing, candy, food, toys — rake in gobs of money every year, put duly to work toward HIV research.
This year marks a half century for the festival in its modern form. Visitors wanting to see it themselves, and unafraid to face the throbbing masses, can make it to Kawasaki from Tokyo in an easy day trip on the first Sunday of April, any year, and see for themselves the giant phalluses of Kawasaki — and the many men who get them up.
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B.A. Van Sise is a New York-based portrait and features photographer.
The Kanamara Festival (かなまら祭り) is held on the first Sunday in April every year at the Kanayama Shrine in Kawasaki, Japan. The shrine is just a three-minute walk from Kawasaki-Daishi Station on the Keikyu-Daishi Line.
The festival centers around penises, which appear everywhere, as candy, on hats, and on clothing. Phallic-shaped objects or anything which has to do with sex are sold all around the shrine.
In recent years, the festival has gained popularity among foreign residents in Japan, who flock to the festival in great numbers to see the penis-shaped objects. Don’t be surprised if half of the people you see are foreign. The staff are very friendly and can speak basic English.
This fellow greets visitors as they enter the shrine.
He’s a literal dick-head. As I posed for a picture with him, he whispered into my ear. “You’re cute. I love your freckles. Can I take you out to dinner?”
As the beer and the chu-hi started to flow, things got a little wild at the festival.
Despite the blatant sexual objects and the hilarity of it all, the festival has a much deeper meaning than just large penises being waved around with the cheery blooms in the background. Kanamara Shrine has long been a place for prostitutes to go pray for protection against sexually transmitted diseases and prosperity in business. In addition, people visit the shrine to pray for easy childbirth, marriage, and matrimonial harmony.
Legend has it that a demon hid in the vagina of a young woman. On her wedding nights, both of her husbands had their penises bitten off, in a fashion reminiscent of a scene from Teeth . Determined to ensure that her third marriage was a charm, she sought the services of a blacksmith who fashioned an iron penis, which broke the demon’s teeth. The iron phallus is enshrined here.
The festival now serves as a way to raise awareness and funds for AIDs. All the proceeds from the sales as the festival go toward HIV research or other charitable causes such as the reconstruction for the 2011 earthquake.
The most popular objects sold at the festival are the large penis and vagina-shaped lollipops, which visitors suck and slurp on as they walk around. The crowds around the lollipop stands are thick, and the sweets usually sell out by mid-afternoon.
The highlight of the festival is the parade of portable shrines called mikoshi (神輿), which contain large phalluses. As the mikoshi head through the shrine gates, they bob up and down in a rhythmic movement. “The way they move is interesting,” remarked one visitor standing next to me.
The large, pink penis was pulled by transvestite women.
Here a Shinto priest prays and bows to one of the iron penises enshrined in the mikoshi . Many visitors pay their respects at the shrine.
In addition to penis-shaped objects everywhere, there is an abundance of little children.
All in all, the Kanamara Festival is an event where people show their love for the penis. Although Japan may blur out the genital parts in pornography, this country has an open attitude when it comes to sex.
There used to be many more penis shrines until the Meiji government had most removed. They wanted to be respectable to the West and saw the shrines as a problem.
However they hide here and there. For example if you go to Hanazono Jinja in Shinjuku, just net to the bars in Golden Gai in Kabukicho and face the shrine from the street entrance you will see a small Inari shrine to the rtight of the pathway. Go through the tori and when you reach the Inanri shrine look up and you will see a large wooden penis spanning the path. This Inari shrine is often visited by couples.
Tymour, I believe they are. It’s a fertility festival (though rather “weird” by Western standards of decorum and behavior). Japanese would probably ask about Americans: “Are those people thinking (when they shoot each other with guns every day, and can’t agree on reasonable laws on firearms)?” I guess “weirdness” is in the eye of the beholder. After factoring in everything, I think I actually prefer “weird Japan” to “weird U.S.A.”.
A festival celebrating the phallus is a good idea, but men need to show it respect every day; one way is by using a first class penis health crème that can deliver amino acids and nutrients directly to the organ, helping to maintain its health.
Seeing these images and reading these given sentences i am feeling that penis once upon a time was a great god of creation in the world. most of the countries of the world worshiping to penis till now in different wa in different cultures and creats.
Thank you for share this knowledge to us.
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Penis sausages, penis candies, penis costumes, and penis parades — all things one would probably come across when attending Japan’s Kanamara Matsuri festival. When literally translated, the Japanese phrase approximates to “Steel Phallus Festival” in English, and it’s just as exciting as it sounds.
Lessons from History is a platform for writers who share ideas and inspirational stories from world history. The objective is to promote history on Medium and demonstrate the value of historical writing.
Truth is stranger than fiction. I write about both. || benkageyamawrites@gmail.com
By thefyslife
October 6, 2021 October 6, 2021
Whenever I tell people about Japan’s penis festival, there’s often a mix of disbelief, astonishment, bemusement, and amusement. Usually, in that order. Even my friends from Japan have a hard time believing me. But yes, ladies and gentlemen, Japan’s P-E-N-I-S festival is real .
Fair warning, there’s gonna be a whole lot of mentions of dongs and pictures of them throughout this post. So if curiosity took you this far, let it carry you a bit further, my friend.
Perhaps you think about Japan’s penis festival as one of those “Look at the crazy things Japan gets itself into, haw haw” sort of things. But for someone (me) who grew up loving Japan and had built up ideals of the country from decades and decades of watching anime and other Japanese media, the mere existence of this penis festival has made me love Japan that much more . When I learned about this years ago, I swore to myself that I’d attend a penis festival in my lifetime.
And lo and behold, dreams do come true.
Japan’s penis festival is properly called Kanamara Matsuri . It happens once a year in Kawasakidaishi in Kawasaki, usually the first Sunday of April. It typically starts at 11am day of and is free to attend and check out.
As you’d expect, it’s a gathering of people celebrating dicks of all kinds: statue ones, candy ones, candle ones, and even drawings of dicks. There is no shortage of imaginations running wild or phalluses at the penis festival (as you’d expect). Surprisingly, I didn’t see any real ones just flapping around like you would during the somewhat similarly themed and popular Gay Pride in San Francisco (though apparently the Hadaka Matsuri is kind of like that).
In my experience, the festival gets pretty nuts. Pun intended.
The truth is, the penis festival isn’t just a strange tourist attraction for bewildered foreigners. The festival is actually supposed to promote HIV awareness. It takes place at the Kanayama Shrine, where the centerpiece is this giant iron dong.
This iron phallus is a symbol based on the story around vagina dentata , or vagina with teeth. Legend has it that a sharp-toothed demon hid inside the vagina of the woman it had fallen in love with and deterred any would-be suitors. Ergo, they’d get their dicks bitten right off. In other words, it’s a metaphor about having STDs, which was common at the time. In order to fight this demon (and probably finally get some), she requested a blacksmith to fashion together this unbreakable ding-dong to, in turn, break the demon’s teeth. And so, the iron dick became a venerated item since…
For some, the festival is a symbol of fertility and a peaceful marriage. At one point, it was popular among prostitutes who prayed for protection against STDs.
It has elements of most festivals in Japan, but the penis festival is special beyond the obvious reasons. It’s more celebratory of LGBT culture, uncharacteristically expressive and overt of Japanese people, and a place where you can show respect by not taking yourself that seriously.
Throughout the festival, you just go to observe the mikoshi parades, watch some people dance, eat various festival foods, and high-five fellow attendees who are sucking on dick candy–whoa, come again?
Dick candy. You get to buy them. They come in various shapes, sizes, colors, and (presumably) flavors.
These dick lollipops aren’t just hilariously phallic; they’re straight-up edible dick molds. The entire time I was paranoid that I’d be caught on camera somewhere by someone with a freeze frame of me obscenely licking this lollipop. The one I bought didn’t taste like anything. Disappointing.
Unsurprisingly, the festival consisted of mostly foreigners like me who were really just keen on chortling at the spectacle and the quirkiness of it all (and making dick jokes). The most noteworthy thing is the famous “Elizabeth Mikoshi” which is a giant pink penis float and was apparently donated by a drag queen named…Elizabeth! Around noontime, it’s carried by men in drag to the shrine, where the street parade begins. The Elizabeth, along with one or two other penis floats, are carried throughout the streets at around 1p.m. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see the pink float up close in person.
Overall, “nuts” doesn’t quite describe the energy, atmosphere, and the serious ridiculousness of it all.
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