The Kanamara Matsuri (かなまら祭り; literally the Festival of the Steel Phallus) is an annual fertility festival held in Kawasaki Daishi, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. The event is held on every spring, and this year’s main festivity was on April 6.

The festival was once popular among sex workers praying for protection against sexually transmitted diseases. It’s also mentioned as divine protections for 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. [Wiki]

Basically it’s a festival where you can see penis everywhere… on the mikoshi (portable Shinto shrine), pictures, foods, candies and merchandises. It might sound gross for some people, but the festival is on my wish list as one of the must go event in my life… seems fun for me.

Penis and pussy for sale at Kanamara Matsuri 2008, Kawasaki, Japan
I am so going there lol (Image by Triplexpresso)


Possibly Related Posts
Kuala Lumpur World Drums Festival 2008
45th Daejong Film Festival - red carpet
Dragon Boat Festival, zongzi, bakchang
45th Daejong Film Festival - winners


4 Responses to “Kanamara Matsuri aka Festival of the Steel Phallus”

  1. japan’s fertility festival 2008 « mga Kakaibang Kwento on April 9th, 2008 at 10:08am

    [...] http://yeinjee.com/2008/kanamara-matsuri-2008/ [...]

  2. bb on April 9th, 2008 at 10:44am

    lol, the japanese always have the most exotic ideas =D
    sounds really interesting to me though~
    i would like to go if i get the chance to…and take lots of pictures!
    i’m lazy to read the article…
    so what’s the purpose of the festival?

  3. YeinJee on April 9th, 2008 at 12:40pm

    There are a few stories of the origin; the most common believe is that the festival was used to be a ceremony for sex workers to pray for protection against sex diseases.

    These days the tradition is preserved while also used as a medium to raise HIV awareness.

  4. bb on April 11th, 2008 at 7:53am

    thanks for the clarification!
    i guess a lot of places in the world have events that raise awareness for different diseases, but this one in japan is definitely very eye-catching and interesting =D


Leave a Reply

All the above fields are optional






RSS and Newsletter


RSS and XML feed
Enter your email address for latest updates