Kanamara Matsuri Draws Crowds
Japanese Fertility Festival Is Popular with Tokyo Gays and Ex-Pats
Held in early April, the Fertility Festival in Kawasaki is sure to be a memorable experience for any visitor to Tokyo.
Japanese festivals are a great way to really appreciate and sink your teeth into Japanese culture. There are a ton of festivals throughout the year in Japan, usually commemorating the seasons and special occasions. If you travel to Tokyo in the spring, however, be sure to check out the Fertility Festival in Kawasaki, for a genuinely unique and unforgettable Japanese experience.
What is It?
The Kanamara Matsuri (translated as Iron Phallus Festival) takes place every year at a small shrine in Kawasaki, Japan. It is held to commemorate fertility and allow practitioners to pray for children, healthy pregnancies, and happy marriages. The festival started hundreds of years ago after a local blacksmith carved an iron phallus to protect a local girl from a demon that was believed to be murdering her lovers. The blacksmith was honored with Kanamara Shrine, where prostitutes started coming to pray for protection against STDs. Nowadays the festival raises money for AIDS as well.
What Goes On?
The Fertility Festival has the atmosphere of a typical Japanese matsuri. There are stalls selling food, offering crafts and souvenirs, and different prayers and ceremonial goings on occur. The festival also has the common mikoshi, or portable shrines, which are carried through the street by costumed revelers in a parade through the streets.
Truly Unique
This festival is truly unique. Instead of celebrating a season, this one seems devoted to worshipping the phallus, as a symbol of fertility. The mikoshi are all giant penises- the most famous being large and pink- and even the food and souvenirs are shaped like the male organ. People come in droves to the small shrine’s grounds.
There were people from all walks of life, but a large percentage of foreigners and gay people seemed delighted to take part in this bizarre Japanese day of penile worship. A plethora of pictures were taken, lewd gestures done with the large penises, and even some penis carving done out of Japanese radishes. The place was more like a gay pride event than a religious occasion, though. There were many drag queens, men in costumes and short shorts all drinking and really getting into the festival which culminated in a parade where the penis mikoshi were hoisted up by costumed volunteers and carried around Kawasaki, sometimes being flung around wildly amidst chanting and singing.
Where/When to Go
The Kanamara Matsuri is held every spring on the first Sunday in April. The closest station is Kawasaki Daishi. The festivities start at 10am, with the parade commencing later in the afternoon.
