Date: 7 April 2013, & 6 April 2014
Time: 12 -13 PM
Place: Kawasaki, Japan
The Kanamara Matsuri is a yearly fertility festival held each spring at the Kanayama shrine, in
Kawasaki Japan from 1603 – 1867 to raise money to help research for HIV/Aids
and pray for sexual safety especially syphilis etc, among Kawasaki’s
prostitutes. The exact dates is changeable : the main festivities fall on the first Sunday in April .If you see the festival you will understood this festival attracts
different people such as somebody interest to fight against STDs, some couples
looking for good fertility luck, or somebody like gay or lesbian that gather as
a group etc.
This festival is strange for foreigners while it’s usual between
Buddhist and Shinto in Japan. This festival is about sex and they have no shame
in holding this event. Today, this festival is used as a tourist attraction in
order to gain money for HIV research. The gigantic portable plaster
phallus shrine appeared in different shape like candy, lollipops, toy stand,
candles, masks, key rings, toys gun, various accessories and bags of candy. You
can see sex anywhere in shaped like penis.
In this festival you can see three kind of penis as pink and huge,
iron and black and last one in timber and in smaller size. Also, all people
even children can participate in this day to took some photos while, they are
riding these penises. You can choose a kimono to wear for free to go to the
temple because all people in temple should be in traditional clothing.
The highlight is the parading of a large black phallus on a mikoshi (wooden float), as Shinto priests play traditional Japanese music (drums, flutes) in the background.
This is the History of that Event:
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, didn't accept his love and decided to marry another man. Angering the demon, he inhabited the woman’s vagina before their wedding night and when they tried to fulfill 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.the people from village decided to do something with the Evil. A local blacksmith made 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 celebrate by way of the Kanamara Matsuri and the enshrinement of the actual steel phallus at Kanayama Shrine, constructed to honor Kanayama Higonokami and Kanayama Himenokami, the Shinto deities of childbirth and lower abdomen health.
The highlight is the parading of a large black phallus on a mikoshi (wooden float), as Shinto priests play traditional Japanese music (drums, flutes) in the background.
This is the History of that Event:
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, didn't accept his love and decided to marry another man. Angering the demon, he inhabited the woman’s vagina before their wedding night and when they tried to fulfill 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.the people from village decided to do something with the Evil. A local blacksmith made 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 celebrate by way of the Kanamara Matsuri and the enshrinement of the actual steel phallus at Kanayama Shrine, constructed to honor Kanayama Higonokami and Kanayama Himenokami, the Shinto deities of childbirth and lower abdomen health.
