'Erectile Dysfunction'
Every April, thousands flock to Kawasaki to participate in an ancient Shinto fertility ritual that is now a sex-positive celebration.
A letter from Selena Hoy
This is annually in Japan
Celebrating scholarly excellence
If any country has a reputation for modesty and manners, it's Japan. The Japanese are polite, never late and constantly curtsy, going by the usual narrative - there is certainly some truth in it. But the reality is a little more complicated — and that complexity is one of the country's most foreign-attended religious festivals at the annual Kanamara Matsuri, or "Steel Phallus Festival," in Kawasaki, south of Tokyo.
It's the first Sunday in April, and I'm in Kawasaki's Daishi neighborhood, surrounded by genitals of all colors and sizes. Normally the streets here are sleepy – three days ago, only a few lone pedestrians strolled the lanes – but today there are throngs of people pushing and shoving, shouting, laughing and chanting as they jockey for position.
They all try to catch a glimpse of the giant penis mikoshi, or portable shrines, that are paraded through town. Each mikoshi is accompanied by dozens of locals dressed in merry-go-rounds and sweatbands, with some male fundoshi dressed in loungcloth-style underwear.
Kanamara Matsuri is often presented to outsiders as another facet of "weird Japan," but it's actually a serious religious affair linked to Japan's nature-worshipping Shinto religion.
Japan's Annual 'Erectile Dysfunction Festival'
It is organized by the priests of Kanayama Jinja, a 'sub-shrine' of the larger Wakamiya Hachimangu, which is inhabited almost entirely by locals the rest of the year. For centuries, Kanayam has been a place where couples pray for fertility and marital harmony; During the Edo period, from the 17th to the 19th centuries, sex workers came and prayed to get rid of sexually transmitted diseases contracted on the job. There was even a festival revolving around fertility and sexual health during that time - but the tradition died out in the late 1800s. In the 1970s, then head priest Hirohiko Nakamura decided to resurrect it.
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The first incarnation of the 'new' Kanamara Matsuri was held at night, and only about a dozen people attended. But since then, the festival has morphed into what it is today: a joyous and shameless celebration of the usually more sophisticated country penis.
The Japanese aren't exactly known for flaunting their sex lives, and until recently the Kanamara Matsuri mostly attracted foreign visitors. But that all changed five years ago when it was name-checked by Matsuko Deluxe, a Japanese TV personality known for his cross-dressing and sexist views. The festival quickly gained a local following - today it attracts around 50,000 visitors.
The procession consists of three mikoshi, each of which contains an enormous myriad phallus. The first – ramrod straight and made of shiny black metal – is carried by a group of whistling and chanting shrine-bearers, working their way down the street as festival-goers jump out of the way. The second is an old wooden model, ancient and coarse.
The third is run by a group of Jozo: members of a cross-dressing club called the Elizabeth Kaikan, whose members in bright makeup and colorful wigs kiss, cry and pose for the cameras in the mikoshi pit.
But while some see the ceremony as a joke, the shrine's former head priestess Kimiko Nakamura (and wife of Hirohiko, who revived the ceremony) insists that it is a legitimate event from a political as well as a religious perspective.
In the procession, groups of people wander around munching green, blue, purple and pink linga-shaped lollipops. The line of sweet spot is at least 30 feet deep. Even local restaurants have their own take on the phallic-shaped fare.
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And everyone loves it. I see the grandmothers enjoying themselves. I meet one woman who says she works in the kindergarten next to the temple and has been a festival stalwart for 30 years. And many people have brought small children. One small boy sits on his father's shoulders and shows Mikoshi a large pink phallus. "Wow, Willie!" He says. “Yes,” his father replies. "That's big Willy."
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