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.
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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?
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.
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