Fertility festival › Japan Today: Japan News and Discussion

Monday 07th April, 07:53 AM JST

Fans take part in Kawasaki’s annual Kanamara Matsuri (Festival of the Phallus) on Sunday. The fertility festival is held to pray for protection against STDs.
PHOTO BY ERIKA ARAGON

› Login to comment

Latest 15 of 32 Total Comments Show All

Hikozaemon at 12:30 PM JST - 7th April

greentea - is it the two cross dressers that offend you, or the large pink ***chinko ***in the background?

Peace
greenteaonsens at 12:34 PM JST - 7th April

Mainly the lewd poses by the crossdressers. JT wouldn't tolerate heterosexual males strinking similar lewd poses - so why are these queens ok?
Hikozaemon at 12:40 PM JST - 7th April

Greentea - I wouldn't be surprised if these guys were hetrosexual doing this for a lark. One nice thing about japan is that there isn't the same kind of overt prejudice against gays or effeminity that there is in other countries where such intolerance is advocated by religious doctrine.

What is lewd about the poses - showing a bit of leg but nothing more than in a sumo photo or a omikoshi festival. I see nothing lewd in this whatsoever. Are you being serious?

Peace
dat5h at 12:44 PM JST - 7th April

I'm going to have to agree with notimpressed. The people who are saying that this is "inappropriate" and what not need to understand that every culture has its differences. I'm an American and I personally find our (American) society is generally full of uptight twits who think they know whats best for everybody. If children visit this site, then allow them to have a cultural experience and see what happens in a far away country, it won't harm them ... seriously. If you don't want your children seeing this, then don't let them visit JT while this picture is on the front page, that's all it takes. But if they use the computer whenever they feel like it, then they've probably found some worse stuff than this, sorry to break the news to you.
Zaphod at 01:25 PM JST - 7th April

The festival has a long tradition, the "gay parade" aspect is new. I have been there before, and this is the first time I see this.

No excuse with "tradition" or "culture" for those "lifestyle" perps in the photo, and the editors who chose it.
notimpressed at 01:49 PM JST - 7th April

mostly the lewdness and grotesque aspect of the photo is amusing. Life is too short to get up in arms about this kind of thing. This is no more lewd than the average Lingerie billboard, or music video, and is in fact less so because it is done with humour.
conqueror_of_Uranus at 01:53 PM JST - 7th April

Misleading caption. The actual festival is men in priests robes carrying a wooden un-painted phallus that is thrice the size of the that pink one. Women wishing for successful pregnancy are invited to straddle the wooden phallus as the preists chant mantras to the fertility god. The pink phallus and the Okamas are some 2-chome lady-dudes trying to jump the bandwagon.
conqueror_of_Uranus at 01:57 PM JST - 7th April

And to the prudes. I suppose then, that the National Geographic and the Discovery Channel are "lewd" for showing, OMG! naked breasts and men in clad only in penis sheaths! Naked tribal men and women! Naked tribal Children! This constitutes child pornography! Worship of the phallus is one of the oldest forms of deity-worship, and understandably so; as ancient cultures depended heavily on high birth rates.
telecasterplayer at 02:07 PM JST - 7th April

Oh puh-lease. Japan can have all of the fertility festivals it wants to. The crossdressers can have a good time if they want to. The only question I have is.. why is that phallus mikoshi so small?
Farmboy at 04:23 PM JST - 7th April

Eeeeek! It's two European guys on a Japanese vacation!

There's another fertility festival near Nagoya, I think, and if I remember right there are a couple of shrines featuring vaginas somewhere. I seem to recall that these are originally Shinto shrines worshipping the earth and its power to create...has anyone visited any of the other places?
Loki520 at 04:41 PM JST - 7th April

"there are a couple of shrines featuring vaginas somewhere"

As well there should be.

As for why the mikoshi is so small... we'll have to forego any stereotype jokes! Maybe it's modeled after an infant?
lunach1ck at 04:51 PM JST - 7th April

I was there :-) It was a blast.
outhousejt at 05:55 PM JST - 7th April

If you had to choose which one? Left or right? You had to choose.
Alfie_in_Tokyo at 03:20 PM JST - 8th April

Odd picture to chose to highlight this festival as it sort of skews the whole inference of the event from its tradition towards it being just another street parade for knobbly-kneed, over-the-hill transvestites.
Zolt at 03:27 PM JST - 9th April

It's this kind of matsuri that reminds me why I miss japan so much.

That said, if they really intend to pray for protection against STD, I suggest they find a giant rubber to wrap their shrine in. Wrapping rope and folded paper around you kanamara is not only not going to help agains STD, but could cause serious harm to you and your partner.