Japans Penis Festival

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Japans Penis Festival
Index > Events > Kanamara Matsuri, Japan Penis Festival, 2021
Venue Kanayama Shrine 2 Chome-13-16 Daishi Ekimae Kawasaki , Kanagawa 210-0802 Japan + Google Map
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The Japan Penis Festival is arguably the country’s most amusing event when tens of thousands of revellers roam the streets of Kawasaki city in April to pay tribute to fertility in an age-old ritual, amidst thousands of phalluses of all sizes, shapes and colours.
Kanamara Matsuri means Festival of the Steel Phallus and is becoming more and more popular every year amongst Japanese and foreigners alike, to whom it is more commonly known as the Japan Penis Festival. The modern day purpose of the event is to raise awareness of sexually transmitted diseases and to promote safe sex, but its rituals and practices betray ties to Japan’s traditional religion of Shinto.
Central to the festival is a big mikoshi parade where human-sized phalluses are carried in divine palanquins ( mikoshis ) to the Kanayama temple. What makes this event so special, particularly in today’s divided world, is that it’s all inclusive and everyone participates in it, from families, toddlers and the elderly, to youth in traditional dress, foreign visitors and local Japanese drag queens.
The parade’s popular mikoshis include the Kanamara Fune and Big Kanamara both of which contain large, traditional phallus sculptures made respectively of steel and wood. The Elizabeth mikoshi , named after the local drag queen club, contains the largest phallus and, with its bold pink colour, is quite impossible to ignore.
Once a phallus is erected at the temple, people pray against sexually transmitted diseases, for help in conceiving a child, or for a satisfied partner. Expect young and old, men and women, licking candy penises, posing for pictures on large, wooden phalluses, learning the art of carving vegetables into penis shapes, dress like phalluses, and other penile fun – all in good faith and humour. For the over-zealous, there’s a traditional, low-alcohol sweet drink called amazake which, combined with eating a mandatory small dried fish, mimics the taste and texture of semen – according to those in the know.
The steel phallus reportedly originates from the Edo period (1603 – 1868) when, according to local legend, a demon became smitten with a lady but couldn’t bear watching her falling in love with anyone else. The logical thing for him to do then was to hide in the lady’s vagina and bite off any lover’s penis the moment it entered her. As this inconvenience kept on occurring with every new candidate she tried to sleep with, the lady had a steel penis made by a local smith on which the demon broke his teeth and then fled. All’s well that ends well.
Today, at the courtyard of the Kanayama temple, a holy, one-metre-tall steel phallus is displayed to honour fertility, childbearing and to ask for protection against STDs. Over time, prostitutes came to pray at the temple until it eventually became a tourist attraction in the seventies.
During the last decade the Japan Penis Festival has increased a lot in popularity and keeps on expanding. The profit of the phallus-shaped items for sale goes to research of HIV and other STDs. The festival’s paraphernalia are very popular, from plenty of candy and other food items to t-shirts and large carrots carved into phalluses that can be carried on the shoulder in a small mikoshi . If you want to get your hands on your own phallus souvenir then it’s best to go early as they are very popular and go quickly.
It takes place every year during the first Sunday of April, which falls on 3 April in 2022. This is also the period of the famous cherry blossom season Japan and a time of the year that marks many beginnings, from the new school year to starting another job and the financial year. Many festivals in Japan begin around this time.
Kawasaki is one of the cities forming the Greater Tokyo Area and is located about one hour south of central Tokyo. Most of the Japan Penis Festival events take place in and around the city’s Kanayama temple which is a five minutes walk from Kawasaki-Daishi Station. Alternatively, follow anyone who’s dressed like a phallus.
To find the best accommodation in Kawasaki and flights, please search via our comparison engine, which scans all the major booking sites to find you the best deals:
Visit the official Japan Tourism Website .
Cover image by Rαge – Wikimedia Commons. Article Updated 10 February 2022.
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"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.

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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

The first Sunday in April marks the celebration of the Shinto fertility festival, the Kanamara Matsuri or the “Festival of the Steel Phallus.” Known colloquially as the “Penis Festival”, these festivities celebrate just that: the power of the male genitalia. And it is an event that is gaining increasing popularity, especially among foreign visitors, each year.
The next Kanamara Festival will take place on Sunday, 7 April 2019.
So you're probably wondering why the Japanese celebrate the “steel phallus.” Well, legend has it that sometime back in the Edo period (1603-1867), there was a sharp-toothed demon who fell in love with a beautiful woman. The woman, however, didn't return the demon's affection and decided to marry another man. Angering the demon, he inhabited the woman's vagina before their wedding night and when they tried to consummate the marriage, the demon bit off the groom's penis with his razor sharp teeth.
When the woman remarried, the jealous demon once again made his feelings clear by biting off her second husband's penis. Deciding that enough was enough, the upset villagers concocted a plan to trick the demon. A local blacksmith forged a steel phallus and upon its insertion, the demon's teeth were broken and he left the woman's vagina for good.
Sometime thereafter the legend was commemorated by way of the Kanamara Matsuri and the enshrinement of the actual steel phallus at Kanayama Shrine, constructed to honor Kanayama Hikonokami and Kanayama Himenokami, the Shinto deities of childbirth and lower abdomen health.
The Kanayama Shrine then became renowned as a site for sex workers to pray for protection against STDs. Nowadays the shrine is said to aid fertility and is often visited by married couples hoping to start a family. The festival itself has also become popular with the gay, lesbian and transgender communities.
They have come up with additional monkeys at this shrine.
Well, imagine a whole lot of items and activities dedicated to the male sex organ.
First you are welcomed to the shrine with some festival-appropriate signage.
Along with food and drink vendors like any typical Japanese festival, there are also stalls selling penis-themed souvenirs including key chains, trinkets, pens, toys and chocolates.
Or maybe a pair of glasses with a penis nose attached?
These visitors walked around asking if anyone had a tissue!
The most popular item would have to be the penis (and vagina) shaped lollipops. Grab one early to ensure you don't miss out and avoid the long queues (they can and do sell out).
Just take a look at the crowds trying to get their hands on one!
And if you're wondering whether to open your wallet, all the proceeds from items sold go to AIDS research.
There are plenty of opportunities to pose with other phallic items too.
Give this guy a small tip for a photo and he'll show his appreciation.
Or a bottle of “testicle-vagina” rice wine? The bottle of sake that the woman is holding here is sold at the festival as a kind of play on words with the characters used for this “Kingyoku/Banko Happy Set” (as Japanese kanji characters can carry different pronunciations and meaning depending on context). While the first word could be taken to mean “testicles”, it's actually in reference to the expression kin-gyoku ryouen , meaning “flawless jewel.” And while the second could be mistaken for “vagina”, it's referring to the expression ban-ko fu-eki , portraying a permanent state of goodness or quality.
If you can't wait to drink your sake, then the free tasting from early afternoon might be up your alley. But of course there is a Kanamara Matsuri twist! You eat a small dried fish before swallowing the amazake (sweet sake). Why? The sweet cloudy white sake mixed with the salty fishiness of the dried fish is said to mimic both the look and taste of semen!
Or maybe you'd like to try your hand at carving a penis out of a radish?
Perhaps the highlight of the festival are the three large phallic portable shrines (mikoshi) that are carried throughout the streets in a parade from around midday. There's the “Kanamara Fune Mikoshi” – a steel penis in a ship – which represents the steel phallus that the woman used to dispel the demon…
The “Big Kanamara Mikoshi” made of wood… (here they are carrying out a Shinto ritual in order to “transfer” the Gods from the shrine to the portable one to be carried through the streets, and to bless/purify it).
And then the standout pink penis mikoshi known as “Elizabeth” which was donated to the festival by Tokyo drag queen club Elizabeth Kaikan.
“Elizabeth” is famously carried through the streets by trans-gender/cross-dressing festival participants.
It was a very windy day and “Elizabeth” took on a precarious lean. You can imagine how it sounded to have people in the crowd start screaming “The penis is falling!”
The portable shrines are carried throughout the streets for around an hour and a half before being returned to the shrine so there are plenty of opportunities to take pictures with them both before and after, although the large crowds can make them difficult to get to, especially around midday before the parade.
If you wish to go out onto the streets to follow the parade, make sure you get out of the shrine before 12 as they block off the exit right before the mikoshi leave and it becomes so cramped in there that you literally can't move. Otherwise, you can follow the mikoshi from a distance after they leave and the exit clears. Anyone can participate in the parade, and the shrine actually loans out kimonos to anyone wanting to don one and join in.
Be sure to also wander the festival grounds to take in some of the other cultural displays.
And if you are wanting to get pregnant, then you can take advantage of being at one of the last remaining fertility shrines and pray to be blessed with child.
It may appear to be an outlandish display of sexuality (and in many ways it does make Western culture seem quite prudish), but many would argue that the openness of the festival is a healthy one which celebrates the ability to reproduce. In fact, many Japanese visit the festival with their children and happily go about giving them a penis lollipop or propping their babies up on a phallus for a picture without “sexualizing” it in any way. I even passed by a family who were buying penis candles together, the children contemplating with the utmost seriousness which color would look best in their rooms.
It is also a place where people of any sexuality are welcomed and the festival exudes a kind of acceptance that I haven't seen so often in Japan, where ideas of homosexuality and sex change are often ignored and/or repressed as “not the done thing” by society at large.
So why not experience something you don't see everyday and embrace sexuality, whatever your preference, by celebrating the life-creating male sex organ.
When: First Sunday in April (next event: April 7th, 2019).
Where: Kanayama Shrine on the grounds of Wakamiya Hachimangu Temple, Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan.
Time: Officially 11am to around 4pm, however, this festival is getting so incredibly popular these days, it's already packed at 9am. Our word of advice: Go early and head straight for the lollipops so you can avoid the long queues later. The parade takes place from around 12:00-13:30. Other activities conclude around the same time, although the stalls remain open and phallus items are around for more picture taking.
Access: Kawasaki-Daishi train station on the Keikyu Daishi Line. Take the south exit. Upon exiting, you'll see a Sunkus convenience store across the road. Take the street to the right and the shrine is just a minute or so on foot on the right hand side. Just follow the crowds.
From Shinagawa (Tokyo), take the Keikyu Main Line to Keikyu Kawasaki (around 10 mins on the Rapid Ltd. Exp. or around 25 mins on the local service) and change to the Keikyu Daishi Line (5 mins). Total fare ¥240.
Posted on Published: January 9, 2015
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