On the way back from Chiba, my girlfriend and I stopped off at the Kanamara Festival in Kawasaki. Kanamara means "big iron penis" in Japanese slang, and the festival celebrates fertility.
Several hundred people turned out to suck on penis-shaped lolipops, drink sake from penis-shaped flasks, watch old Japanese women carve giant daikon radishes into penis shapes, and have their pictures taken astride a giant wooden penis:
The whole thing felt a bit like a tourist attraction, with as many foreigners as Japanese in attendance. But there was also a genuine Shinto ceremony, with various blessings and invocations solemnly uttered by a priest in ceremonial kimono and black cap. Finally, the fesitvities reached their... um,
climax, as a massive pink penis was carried aloft through the streets of the town:
Some religions may frown on displays of sexuality, but Shinto never got the message.
5 comments:
And who says the Japanese people are repressed???
Posted by Chad
Wow!!! Great post.
Posted by Paul
I showed this to a friend of mine and explained that it had something to do with a penis spirit. (This is a Shinto thing, right?)
Upon learning that Japan recognized such a thing as a penis spirit, my friend was forced to reach the same conclusion reached on last week's episode of South Park : "Japanese people have no souls."
Posted by Joe
we have a day like that in america it is called V day (you know what the V is for, though we do get the pictures like the Japs do)
Posted by cubicle
Now Thats hard to beat!
Posted by Billy Budd
Post a Comment