Friday April 4
 
17:35
 
The Festival of the Steel Phallus

No, my blog hasn’t become a S11HT only blog. I do have some other things going on in my life.

The weekend is the yearly Kanamara Matsuri festival in Kanamara - The Festival of the Steel Phallus.

I didn’t make it there last year, but armed with my new DSLR, I plan to get up early on Sunday and head to the festival. My suspicion is that I’ll see more Western girls getting excited about the big steel cocks than Japanese. Don’t know why I think that, I just do.

From Tokyo Gaijins mailing list:

The Kanamara Matsuri (?????), also called Festival of the Steel Phallus, or in layman’s term “Penis festival”, is an annual Shinto fertility festival held in Kawasaki, Japan in spring. The penis forms the central theme of the event that’s reflected everywhere; in illustrations, candy, carved vegetables, decoration, a parade of mikoshis, etc.

The Kanamara Matsuri is centered around a local penis-venerating shrine, once popular among prostitutes who wished to pray for protection against sexually transmitted diseases. Today, the festival is used to raise money for HIV research. There’s also a legend of a demon that hid inside a young girl and castrated two young men on their wedding nights before a blacksmith fashioned an iron phallus that was used to break the demon’s teeth, leading to the enshrinement of the item.

Other attractions include locals carving penises out of daikon (radish), children and young women sitting astride penis-shaped seesaws for good luck and fertility blessings, as well as a seated banquet in the compound of Wakamiya Hachimangu shrine where the phallic radishes are auctioned. All are welcome to take part in the festival’s parade and banquet, which includes dancing and karaoke singing. Many revelers, Japanese and foreigners alike, turn out in kimono, Edo period attire or drag for this two-day event of phallic fun which is also attended by many of the area’s community leaders and civic dignitaries.

Check festival photos here:
http://tomuraya.co.jp/wakamiya-10.htm
http://www.deadhippo.com/photo_albums/kanamara/kanamara.htm

I’ve never been to a Tokyo Gaijins event. This time also, I’ll be meeting up with friends so I doubt I’ll join up with Tokyo Gaijins - I’m not really into being around big groups of foreigners. The mailing list is interesting for finding out about events in Tokyo though.