We took a train out of the centre of Tokyo to Kawasaki, and then walked and walked and walked and walked until we found the Kanayama shrine in a nondescript residential area. We could tell we'd found the festival because all of a sudden the narrow road was jammed with tourists, locals, and... um... this guy:
What do you reckon this guy is dressed as? Yeah, that's right. That's exactly what it is. A giant penis. Kanamara Matsuri is also known as the Festival of the Steel Phallus, and every year several thousand people gather here to join in with the phallic festivities.
Three giant phalluses are paraded through the streets to the shrine, where they are greeted by priests and taiko drummers.
First comes the black steel one, standing proud is his very own mikoshi (a kind of portable shrine carried on people's shoulders):
Next comes a rather disturbingly pink one:
And then one made of, ahem, wood, and hiding bashfully inside its mikoshi:
At the shrine, the willies stand to attention while the priests give prayers and everyone claps:
Then it's off to buy some appropriately-shaped refreshments and souvenirs:
And have a bit of a sit down:
Although it's now a bit of a tourist-fest, the festival has an interesting history – the shrine used to be visited by prostitutes to pray for protection against sexually transmitted diseases, and other people went for blessings of fertility and marital harmony. There is also a local legend in which a woman's vagina was inhabited by a demon, who castrated her newlywed husband when they tried to have sex. The woman went to see a blacksmith who made her a steel phallus, which she used to break the demon's teeth. And I suppose they lived happily ever after.
posted by Chloe
