a superbly bizarre day in japan

well, im pretty sure that today i witnessed/experienced my most bizarre japanese experience…. the kawasaki penis festival.

kanawara matsuri.. explained by wikipedia

 

The Kanamara Matsuri (Festival of the Steel Phallus) is an annual Shinto fertility festival held in Kawasaki, Japan in spring. The exact dates vary: the main festivities fall on the first Sunday in April. The penis forms the central theme of the event that’s reflected everywhere; in illustrations, candy, carved vegetables, decoration, a parade of mikoshis, etc.

The Kanamara Matsuri is centered around a local penis-venerating shrine, once popular among prostitutes who wished to pray for protection against sexually transmitted diseases. It is said that there are divine protections also in business prosperity and the clan’s prosperity, easy delivery, marriage, and married couple harmony, etc. Today, the festival is used to raise money for HIV research. There’s also a legend of a demon that hid inside a young girl and castrated two young men on their wedding nights before a blacksmith fashioned an iron phallus that was used to break the demon’s teeth, leading to the enshrinement of the item.

 

bizarre. here are the photos

i didnt get the impression that this was a homosexual event, although i witnessed alot of latently homosexual action… and alot of women posing dirtily with penis lollipops and a giant wooden penis..

this wheelchair laden dude had a giant wooden phallus coming out of his pants. he gave me a high five

these guys were really stoked to carry the giant steel phallus mikoshi (みこし）

really stoked on a giant metal penis

this guy had a really big phallus with him

one of the shrines

the metal shrine people were dressed in traditional japanese clothes, but the big pink people were mostly dressed in womens clothing

the big pink crowd was way more obtuse… at least the big metal crowd was pretty subtle… as far as big penis sculptures go

scary mask dude preceding the phallus parade

man this festival was gaijin city! i couldnt get any good shots in the crowd until i joined them

this was for sure the weirdest day in japan… shinto is bizarre

there were penis lollipops, lets just leave it at that.