Day 214 - Kanamara matsuri!

Hey everyone!

So I have a rather odd post for you all today! I just want to pre-warn you that there will be some sexual(ish) images because today I went to…

Kanamara matsuri! 

The Kanamara matsuri is a festival that is held every year on the first Sunday of April at the Kanayama shrine, Kawasaki.  Kanamara matsuri is known as the festival of the steel phallus in English. Yes. You did read that correctly.

The festival celebrates fertility and it does so in a pretty big way! Large penis-themed mikoshi divine palanquins (portable Shinto shrine) that start off in the grounds of the shrine are taken around the neighbourhood in a mikoshi parade. There is also drumming and other rituals but there were so many people it was very hard to see much of it.

The phallic theme of the festival is pretty apparent not soon after entering the temple grounds. There are people dressed up in penis themed costumes and accessories, penis themed goods and food and even phallic statues around the shrine grounds.

The quirky theme of the festival coupled with its presence on the internet as another “oh, Japan!” point of amusement, has resulted in the numbers of festival goers swelling over the past years. This is primarily due to the increased number of tourists drawn to the event.

It was clear even on the train during the journey to Kawasaki that it would be rather crowded and we weren’t wrong.  It was absolutely packed, and it only got busier as the day went on (until it rained that is!). The shrine was only very small, not really meant for such heavy crowds so it was a case of shuffling and squeezing through a sea of people.It got progressively harder to move until the rain thinned the crowds slightly so it was a challenge, but we managed to see quite a few things. 

As with most Japanese festivals there were of course many things to eat!
As soon as you entered the gates to the shrine the smell of cooking food was in the air with a kebab stall and a hot dog and churros stall by the entrance. Not Japanese enough? Well fear not because there were other stalls with plenty of other goodies to try.  There were yakitori skewers, croquettes, yakisoba and of course, alcohol!

What I believe was a Chinese savory pancake with a meat filling - delicious!

Couldn't resist after I saw some girls carrying this around!

There were also some rather unusual snacks being sold around the shrine... Penis and vagina lollipops! They were being sold in various colours, shapes and sizes! One stall - with perhaps the most realistic looking sweets - sold them as "King" and "Queen" sweets.

The "king" - one of kanamara matsuri's infamous sweets!

Aside from the sweets there were also many phallic goods and souvenirs on sale such as the penis-shaped candles above. 

In the shrine area there were many other things to see and do. Unfortunately I couldn't get pictures of it all due in part to the crowds and part to my being so short!

One of the mikoshi

The girls in white were performing a ritual

Wooden ema - plaques on which people write their wishes

See no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil.... What?!

Folklore says that a woman, inflicted with vagina dentata sought help from a blacksmith who forged an iron phallus to cure her of her infliction. It was lead to the iron structure being enshrined in Kanayama shrine. Perhaps this is fabled iron penis from the tale?

There were phallus-shaped structures around the shrine which of course were used as photo opportunities by many of the visitors. In fact there were two wooden penises that people were taking turns to ride on!

I always find myself drawn to the kitsune

Waiting for the parade

Due to the large number of tourists there was some inevitable second-hand embarrassment as some less-than-thoughtful foreigners committed cringe-worthy acts such as sitting down to smoke in a group on a shrine *shudders*.  I somehow managed to get though without dying of shame!

The mikoshi parade was scheduled to start around 12pm so we lined up outside to await its arrival. But on asking one of the workers we found out that  it wouldn't be passing us so we moved to a road opposite the station which proved to be a better spot by far!

So many people

All the people near the shrine entrance

The crowd stretched all the way down both sides of the road

We saw this guy when we were waiting for the mikoshi parade. He was acting as a guider but whether he was official or not is something I cannot say.

We didn't have to wait long for the parade to pass us!

The front of the parade

Pretty scary!

And you thought high heels were hard to walk in!

Two men dressed in wigs and female Kimono

The only photo I could get that didn't have a bald head entirely filling the frame!

This mikoshi was carried by transvestites!

We stayed a bit longer after the parade but it started raining soon after prompting us to return home.

On the way home we decided to stop by the Shrine near Waseda - Ana Hachimangu. In fact I can actually see this shrine from my window!

At the shrine we did a bit of O-hanami (sakura blossom viewing) and I decided to buy a shuin cho stamp book. These stamp books are used to collect stamps from the various shrines and temples. Each shrine or temple has their own stamp.

'Til next time!