Monday, 4 April 2016

The PENIS FESTIVAL JAPAN !

THE PENIS WORSHIPPERS

enis festival, kawasaki, japan, kanamara matsuri, weird festivals


THE PENIS WORSHIPPERS




This is the website of travel writer, Michael Turtle. After working in broadcast journalism for a decade in Australia, Michael left Sydney to travel the world indefinitely and write about his discoveries.

KANAMARA MATSURI: JAPANESE PENIS FESTIVAL IN KAWASAKI



Map data ©2016 Google, SK planet, ZENRIN Imagery ©2016 TerraMetrics
The enormous pink penis catches the light as I approach it. There’s no glint of shame as it exposes itself to the crowd. It’s the centre of attention, with throngs of Japanese people pushing to get closer to the engorged phallus. In a country normally so obsessed with decorum, it’s an odd sight.
enis festival, kawasaki, japan, kanamara matsuri, weird festivals
Well, it would be an odd sight anywhere else in this country, but this is the annual Japanese penis festival – the celebration of manhood that happens under the guise of a religious ceremony at a Shinto shrine. That’s right, blessed be the cocks here in the city of Kawasaki, about half an hour south of Tokyo.
enis festival, kawasaki, japan, kanamara matsuri, weird festivals
enis festival, kawasaki, japan, kanamara matsuri, weird festivals
Before I get to the thrust of the Japanese penis festival in Kawasaki (see what I did there?), let’s take a step back for a second. We should pay tribute to the origins of this annual event which is officially called Kanamara Matsuri.
The shrine has been the place for people with penises in their prayers for more than four centuries. In the 1600s, this area was full of prostitutes and they would come here to ask for protection from sexually-transmitted diseases. Over time, people started coming to pray for fertility, long marriages, healthy births… and then (somehow) the penis symbology got twisted (sounds painful) to also represent a successful business and a prosperous life (try telling that to Tiger Woods!).
enis festival, kawasaki, japan, kanamara matsuri, weird festivals
enis festival, kawasaki, japan, kanamara matsuri, weird festivals
Now, back to this enormous pink phallus. It’s actually one of three that are the centrepieces of the festival and it’s not even the most important. That honour goes to the slightly smaller (but still quite well-endowed) black iron penis which is housed in a small wooden temple on sticks. As the legend goes, back in ye olde days, a sharp-toothed demon hid inside the vagina of a young woman and castrated her husband on their wedding night. The iron penis was forged by a blacksmith to break the demon’s teeth and kill it! (Don’t think about this story for too long… in fact, let’s just move on.)

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