Size matters at Japan phallus festival

So are these people going to get arrested too?

There used to be similar festivals throughout Japan but from the Meiji Era onwards have been phased out mainly due to criticism by interfering disapproving foreigners.

It seems a bit hypocritical that genitals are obscene and blurred out in AVs as well as the artist lady being arrested on indecency charges over her Kayak however this festival has genitals apparrantly everywhere on display for anyone to see. Huh???

I'm not really interested in penises but a vagina festival would catch my attention....

This type of custom is not unique to Japan. Simple goggle search will show many Asian countries (India and Korea for example) have worship phallus object for centuries.

Known as the Festival of the Steel Phallus—or colloquially as the “Willy Festival”—legend has it that in the Edo Period (1603-1868) a sharp-toothed demon inhabiting a woman’s vagina castrated several unfortunate young men on their wedding nights.

Oral sex done wrong, methinks.

I've been there but I found it weird to make children touch and caress the phalluses paraded around and to see women suck sweet dicks while eye contacting.

There used to be similar festivals throughout Japan but from the Meiji Era onwards have been phased out mainly due to criticism by interfering disapproving foreigners.

seadog538 - Don't you just HATE those stuffy foreigners who get all those traditional Japanese festivals cancelled? Just yesterday I showed up at the local festival which celebrates bums only to be told a stuffy, rotten foreigner had it cancelled 5 minutes before.

I see what you did in that Headline...wink wink.

And no pixelation anywhere....

And yet the woman with the vagina boat gets arrested?

A sure sign that I've lived here too long is that I don't even think there's anything strange about it.

"I don't even think there's anything strange about it"

In England we celebrate Spring and fertility with CHOCOLATE EGGS... but in Japan, a THREE-METRE STEEL PHALLUS!!

In England we celebrate Spring and fertility with CHOCOLATE EGGS...

You've obviously never danced around a maypole.

I'm sorry but this festival plus the child porn in this country makes my blood boil. I've seen this festival and watched how preverted it is for parents to be buying their little children penis lollies to suck on... It's freaking sexual as all hell and rather sick.

I think this should be a 18 only event.

Good luck with the 'phallus festival', the numbers necessary to balance depopulation are truly eye-watering. I would fall back on the maypole, the lollipop lurid or not is uncomfortably self-conscious hanging out one's mouth.

If young children are not used to seeing (male genitalia), they could get into a bit of a panic when the time comes.

The amount that can be read into that statement is staggering.

Not that I'm against the festival, but afforded only this type of sex education, little Hitomi is bound to be quite underwhelmed when she discovers the true size and shape of little Hiro's junk.

And yet the woman with the vagina boat gets arrested?

No! No! No! She was arrested for selling 3D digital data of her underbits, which is illegal and quite different to this festival's many plastic, metal, stone, paper mache, candy and ice block penises. However, I do wonder if any of these effigies were made on a 3D printer and if the data was sold, which would make it illegal.

Should go to the festival and tote around a 3-D pixelated phallus.

Awesome time! Awesome people! Maybe 40% + were foreigners..... The very few children I saw sucking dick candy was a little weird but that number was very few....(less than 10 and I was there for 4 hours)

To all the haters, your life sounds boring, please go to a festival and enjoy the love! You won't regret smiling!

If size really does matter in Japan, well... This is one sad place.

"If young children are not used to seeing (male genitalia), they could get into a bit of a panic when the time comes."

Well, I guess after having access to western pornography, and then being faced with what the reality is here... The lollipops would be a great way to temper expectations.

Just want to also add, yes the festival is OK, but how can this country seriously prosecute an artist and her boat?

“If young children are not used to seeing (male genitalia), they could get into a bit of a panic when the time comes,” Hiroyuki Nakamura told AFP, explaining the festival’s educational role.

Right, so panic must be averted for 'male genitalia' which is not all that complex but let's not dare even talk about female genitalia and even jail people who would make a kayak with a vagina opening for the user to sit in because that would terrify all! Sucking on a penis lollipop is not at all even mildly sexual but getting into a vagina kayak must be. I love Japan but this is one of those things that really make me scratch my head and wonder.

I'm sorry but this festival plus the child porn in this country makes my blood boil. I've seen this festival and watched how preverted it is for parents to be buying their little children penis lollies to suck on... It's freaking sexual as all hell and rather sick.I think this should be a 18 only event.

Cortes Elijah, I really think you may be living in the wrong country. You may be a little bit uptight for such things.

Why are not female genitalia a symbol of fertility. After all, women are the ones that do all the work to birth a child! It is beneficial that there is some public discourse surrounding human sexuality, but the conversation must also convey the naturalness of female sexuality and expression.

It shows the male dominated influence on Japanese society when there isn't a tradition to venerate the vagina!

There used to be similar festivals throughout Japan but from the Meiji Era onwards have been phased out mainly due to criticism by interfering disapproving foreigners.

While stationed there in the Navy, the commands used to ask us to get out and participate in the various local festivals and events, even pointing out some of them in notices. Funny, they never did point out these types of festivals or recommended that we attend. But they did give us a heap full of sexual harassment training. Go figure.

And to think the vagina artist was arrested. WTH

Although I don't have anything against this festival, propagating the myth that some ancient harpy was so rambunctious that only a forceful penis to the mouth saved the day, seems sexist and contributory to the current position of women in the country

Not sure if the phallus in the first picture is steel, marble or polished concrete. It sure looks heavy.

Alex Hutchins.

Most of those Fertility festivals got banned after WWII(thanks USA).

There are many shrines that celebrate Fertility like suitengunmae or shrines that are good for breasts, etc.

In the Inaga you also find traditions where people will fashion replicas of the opposite sex genitaiia, which are than baked and consumed in a big celebration.

every culture has itsownideosyncracies