Japan’s Annual Penis and Vagina Festivals

April 11, 2014
COLEEN-AND-DAN-SINGER

by Coleen Singer at Sssh.com

In Kawasaki, Japan, each spring a festival is held called Kanamara Matsuri, or "The Festival of the Iron Phallus." According to the BBC website, the festival has its roots in the 17th century, when it was an occasion for prostitutes to pray for protection at a shrine devoted to Kanamara. As this selection of photos from Huffington Post suggests, the festival circa 2014 is a joyously crass and commercial good time, as only the Japanese can manifest. The festival helps spread awareness about HIV and other sexual transmitted diseases, but it's also more or less a passionate paean to the penis.

A Japanese Spin On A Parade Float!

The photos are delightful: from young women sucking on penis lollipops, to an array of hand-dipped (ooh!) penis shaped candles in a rainbow of pastel colors, to girls wearing plastic glasses reminiscent of those mustache-trimmed Groucho Marx-inspired half-masks, except these have a penis where the nose ought to be. It's apparently a very family-friendly event as well, judging from the number of children present in the photos. I think that's wonderful; I mean, kids don't have hang-ups about sexual organs like adults do. To them, what's between their legs is fascinating and utilitarian. But as we mature, adult attitudes about sex get all tangled up in shame, guilt, insecurity, etc. Oh, to be a Japanese child held aloft on Daddy's shoulders, waving to the giant pink papier-mache penis sculpture being carried by dozens of women in pink lab coats!

Can you imagine a festival like this being held in the United States? I can't. Then again our 17th century roots are Puritanical, which kind of eliminates any sense of levity associated with sex.

Japan has more than one penis festival, and lest you think the ladies are given short shrift, there are vagina festivals as well. According to this article, such festivals have long and storied histories are are holdovers from the days when folk festivals were held to help encourage fertility. Interestingly, the article also points out that Japan currently as one of the lowest birth rates in the industrialized world (a statistic possibly related to another interesting trend in Japan: that of young adults opting not to have sexual relationships).

These festivals can draw huge crowds: according to one festival brochure, up to 100,000 Japanese and foreign tourists attend to view the giant penis and vagina sculptures, join the parades, purchase goods in the shapes of various genitalia, and eat sticky rice balls. I am guessing the sticky rice balls are meant to have some kind of fertility symbolism as well. In fact the edible treats available are all pretty much naughty in shape and intent: there are penis shaped candies, chocolate-covered bananas, and the ubiquitous lollipops that everyone likes to take photos of.

One female academic, doing research on gender at a nearby university, was in attendance at her first penis festival in Komaki City, one of the biggest festivals of its kind. She said: "I heard about this a long time ago and I'm not sure I believed it," she said. "But now I'm here and it's everything I thought it would be. I highly recommend the penis-shaped candy."

Of course Buzzfeed, the home of all things outrageous, cute and head-scratchingly-odd on the internet, got in on the act and featured some of the photos of the Kanamara Matsuri; but, in typical sensational fashion, their headline calls it a "completely ridiculous penis festival."

I think that's a bit unfortunate. I mean, maybe they mean "ridiculous" in its recent vernacular association which has come to convey something that is outrageous or over the top, as opposed to the word's traditional meaning referring to something worthy of ridicule. Because, despite how silly some of this seems on the surface, there's obviously something profound about centuries-old fertility festivals still taking place today.

I think the idea that Japan still embraces these festivals is just wonderful: they're connecting to history, keeping cultural traditions alive, making plenty of money for the tourist industries in the places where the festivals are held, and just generally having a great time. I imagine there are vendors who create special items just for these festivals, which is a boost to the arts economy as well. And the family-friendly atmosphere is really kind of amazing to behold.

Yeah, sure, it's a bit weird; but so is celebrating the Salem Witch Trials for an entire month.

Sigh.

About Coleen Singer
Coleen Singer is a writer, photographer, film editor and all-around geeky gal at Sssh.com, where she often waxes eloquent about sex, porn, sex toys, censorship, the literary and pandering evils of Fifty Shades of Grey and other topics not likely to be found on the Pulitzer Prize shortlist. She is also the editor and curator of EroticScribes.com. When she is not doing all of the above, Singer is an amateur stock-car racer and enjoys modifying vintage 1970s cars for the racetrack. Oh, she also likes porn.