Penis Festival In Japan
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Penis Festival In Japan
Every spring, people gather for the traditional Japanese “Kanamara Festival” to celebrate one thing: the penis.
The Kanamara Festival is all about penises. (Yes, penises, genitals, no typos involved!) This traditional festival is held in the city of Kawasaki every spring, just outside of Tokyo, and the festivities are right out there in the open. The Kanamara Festival is quite literally the penis festival, as "mara" is one word for penis in Japanese, and together "kanamara" means "iron penis." All of this puts the popular festival right on the edge of taboo, so what does a penis festival look like in Japan?
On the first Sunday of April every year, thousands head to Kawasaki's Kanayama Shrine (金山神社), with travelers and locals alike joining together to create a lively crowd, waiting in anticipation of one of Japan's most unique yearly events. While the festival is traditional and involves plenty of local Shinto religious practices, it's not a solemn event! The cheerful festival atmosphere is punctuated with blushing cheeks and plenty of giggles, as the crowd revels in an event that is both serious and clearly a little ridiculous!
While Japan may have a reputation for creating some pretty wacky culture, the reality is that there is still a strong conservative voice in the country, and since the start, some have worried about the Penis Festival's rather risque celebrations. But the festival has been going on for more than 50 years now, and with decades of tradition now firmly established, it looks like the festivities will last into the future. In fact, the Kanamara Festival attracts more foreign visitors every year, solidifying the event's place as a permanent part of local culture.
Many participants festoon themselves with penis-shaped accoutrements, some of which have obviously been carefully prepared at home for this very purpose.
For some, the festival really brings out their creative side.
And for those who aren't interesting in preparing advance, there are plenty of penis-shaped treats to be found at the festival itself.
So, why a penis festival? Well, the Kanayama Shrine, where the festival is held every year, has a long history as a "penis-venerating shrine." Legend tells of a sharp-toothed demon who fell in love with a young woman, and so decided to hide inside her vagina and bite off the penis of any potential suitors (in fact, the demon apparently played this trick on two different young men on their wedding nights). Unsurprisingly upset about the situation, the young woman went to a blacksmith for help, and he forged her a penis made of iron. This broke the demon's sharp teeth, freeing the woman from her troubles, and the iron penis was subsequently enshrined at Kanayama Shrine. The Penis Festival we know today is held each year to celebrate and remember this unique Japanese legend!
This shrine carried the "little penis."
And finally, the true symbol of the festival, the "large penis." With its cute pink color and truly enormous scale, all eyes are on this penis shrine as it passes by.
Don't get flustered, there's plenty to do at the Penis Festival! Perhaps the most important activity is to watch the procession of three shrines carried through the crowd, each portable shrine containing its own penis: small, medium, and large. As the shrines are carried, participants shout "dekaimara, dekaimara," meaning, well... "huge penis, huge penis." Nothing if not accurate.
Visitors will also find plenty to entertain themselves among the many stalls and sellers that set up around the festival, mostly offering a variety of items made in the shape of a penis. Penis earrings? Plenty of options! Penis art? Lots of it! And penis candy? Who wouldn't want a penis lollipop! If the sweets aren't quite enough, though, you'll find less phallic (but more filling) street food stalls as well.
Leather penis earrings available in a variety of colors.
Some extremely suggestive chocolate-covered bananas, the perfect festival snack.
And anyone who really wants to bring home memories of the event can pick up merchandise like penis-print t-shirts and stickers.
With a nickname like "The Penis Festival," it's hard to know what to imagine at the Kanamara Festival, but a real-life trip to the event proves that it's a fun, light-hearted festival with participants of all kinds. Whether you like traditional Japanese legends with surprising storylines, or just want to participate in some ridiculous modern-day festivities, there's plenty to enjoy at this Kawasaki festival. Next time you're in the Tokyo area during the spring, especially for cherry blossom season , think about adding this unique event to your itinerary!
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Normally I think the little things at Muji are the best - simple, appealing stationery and so on... but I recently bought some sheets on sale there, and those are pretty nice too! hahahaFor travelers looking for some souvenirs, things like bags of traditional Japanese snacks might be fun. Do you have a favorite thing from Muji?
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First things first: lots of zoos and aquariums in Japan are posting their cutest content on twitter right now, so don't miss it! 😄 But you can also read some manga in Japanese for free (like Bleach, Naruto, and One Piece!), watch Detective Conan on youtube for free (in Japanese), and then check out some good Japanese movies (with subtitles) all over the internet. Stay safe!
According to the official Tokyo Disneyland website, they're closed until further notice, so there is no official date right now! Since Tokyo is currently in coronavirus lockdown, Disneyland probably won't reopen very soon. You can always check this list of closed facilities in Tokyo to see what's closed and what's open! They'll probably announce an opening date when the situation with COVID-19 calms down.
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Specialty rolls aren’t really a Japanese thing; fancy maki sushi (rolls) with lots of fillings and topping are pretty rare in Japan! They’re really more like American-Japanese or wherever-Japanese food. 😉
But if you love some really high quality nigiri sushi (simple sliced fish, etc on top of a nugget of rice) then you’ll find some good stuff in Japan. I think the best route is often to find a shop with a good reputation and then try their omakase, so whatever the sushi chef recommends that day! It can also be fun to try like a maguro (tuna) tasting plate, with various cuts (everything from lean “red meat” to really fatty otoro).
What would be the best food that you would want to eat when you come back to Japan?
Oh, by the way, my favourite is Soba noodles. Especially cold ones!
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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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