Japan’s Penis Festival Returns
The world-famous Kanamara Matsuri is back in all its uncensored glory.
Cover photo: Trans women and drag queens carry Elizabeth, the pink didlo mikoshi (神輿) [portable shrine] through Kawasaki City during Kanamara Matsuri, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan (2023). Photo by Yuichi Yamazaki and via AFP (color-corrected).
WARNING: This article includes graphic images and topics of sex.
Intro
After four years, Japan’s annual Kanamara Matsuri (かなまら祭り), or Penis Festival, was finally held once again Sunday, April 2nd, at Kanayama Jinja (金山神社) [Metal Mountain Shrine] in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo Metropolis.
Classified as one of the nation’s many kisai (奇祭) [strange festivals], visitors from all over the world attend to pray for fertility and sexual health, whilst surrounded by male genitals.
Kanamara Matsuri was postponed for over three years due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Previously, the festival has attracted as many as 50,000 visitors, 80% of whom are estimated to be foreigners. It’s considered to be one of the most popular festivals in the world.
The main event is a mikoshi (神輿) [portable shrine] parade featuring three sacred palanquin, including a large pink plastic dildo called Elizabeth. Starting at Kanayama Jinja, the parade concludes at nearby Daishi Park. The online sensation, otter mascot Chiitan (ちぃたん) also made an appearance.
Attendees can indulge in phallic foods like sausages and churros, as well as suck and lick specialty lollipops or chocolate-covered bananas. The day prior, visitors enjoyed a phallic daikon (大根) [Japanese radish] carving event.
Penis-inspired merchandise is available for purchase, including shirts, keychains and even candles. Unique goshuin (御朱印) [shrine seals] and other sacred mementos are also popular, with lines wrapped around the grounds, requiring hour-long waits.
Unlike Japan’s more reverent Shinto festivals, the event was a truly raucous and joyous affair, full of smiles and laughter. The atmosphere was wholly inclusive, welcoming all penis-havers and penis-lovers.
History
Kanayama Jinja is known for both childbirth and metalwork. On the shrine grounds, a metal anvil with an erect penis can be found in the ema-den (絵馬殿) [picture hall].
The site dates back to 698 AD, enshrining the divine metallurgical couple Kanayama Hime (金山毘売神) [Princess Metal Mountain] and Kanayama Hiko (金山彦神) [Prince Metal Mountain]. According to the old Shinto text, Kojiki (古事記) [Records of Ancient Matters], the pair erupted from the vomit of Izanami (伊弉冉尊) [She Who Invites] while giving birth to fire deity Kagutsuchi (軻遇突智) [Shining Force], from which she suffered fatal burns.
During the Edo Period (1603-1867), Kawasaki was a popular stop on the famed Tokaido Road connecting Edo (Tokyo) and Kyoto, and therefore home to a large community of sexworkers.
While Kanamara Matsuri is often called the Penis Festival, kanamara is best translated as “Steel Phallus.” According to an Edo Period legend, a beautiful woman was once cursed with a jealous sharp-toothed demon inhabiting her vagina, biting each of her romantic partners, rendering sex impossible. She asked a local blacksmith for help, who fashioned her a phallus made of steel.
Upon introduction to the device, the demon broke its teeth and fled, finally freeing the woman. A nearby black sculpture commemorates the freeing kanamara. It’s an especially popular photo spot.
Smiling visitors pose with a black sculpture, commemorating a kanamara from Edo Period legend, Kanayama Jinja, Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan (2023). Photo by Danny With Love.
Queerness
Kanamara Matsuri began in 1969 in an effort to revitalize Kanayama Jinja and promote anti-discrimination. It became popular among the queer community in the following decade amidst the AIDS crisis.
In 1999, chief priest Hirohiko Nakamura (中村 博彦) performed marriage rites for two men, in what was possibly the first same-sex wedding ceremony in the nation.
The flamboyant TV star Matsuko Deluxe (マツコ・デラックス) — Japan’s most famous gay celebrity — brought Kanamara Matsuri to national attention in 2012. Today, the event is the most popular of Japan’s sex-themed festivals, and a beloved international attraction.
Many news sources report festival proceeds are donated to AIDS research but the staff I spoke with denied this. The event does however offer a rare opportunity for queer people in Japan to be publicly visible.
The eye-popping, pink Elizabeth mikoshi was donated by Tokyo-based trans women and drag queen club Elizabeth Kaikan (エリザベス会館) [Elizabeth House] and is carried exclusively by club members.
Nudity
Aside from a few hanging ema (絵馬) [votive plaques] decorated with cartoonish pornography, the festival was surprisingly chaste. I did not find free condoms or advertised afterparties, though I was too overwhelmed by the crowds to visit Daishi Park. I did see a few men parading in fundoshi (褌) [Japanese loincloths], which were also for sale.
Blessed with abundant onsen (温泉) [natural hot springs] and a long tradition of public bathing at sento (銭湯) [communal bathhouses], Japanese culture is much more comfortable with nudity than the Puritanical United States.
“It is somewhat ironic now that the city of Kawasaki holds an annual ceremony in which locals parade giant phalluses around town in front of hordes of foreign tourists,” writes history professor Jeff Kingston, considering it was foreign influence that originally inspired Japanese censorship during Meiji Modernization.
Days after the festival, one confused Italian-born Tokyo resident, questioned me about recent news of outrage in the state of Florida over a middle school art class featuring Michelangelo’s David without prior parental approval.
Meanwhile, at Kanamara Matsuri, kids of all ages were in attendance. “If young children are not used to seeing [male genitalia], they could get into a bit of a panic when the time comes,” argues former chief priest Hiroyuki Nakamura (中村 博行).
Sexual Health
At the shrine, I prayed for my own sexual health. Tokyo-based digital men’s clinic Noah had a booth nearby, giving away free penis-decorated paper hats.
Around the world, COVID-19 restrictions pushed many people into loneliness, finding temporary companionship through hook-ups, which increased the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. In 2022, Japan tracked a record-high 13,000 cases of syphilis.
“Sex education classes at schools in Japan do not usually cover topics such as STDs or syphilis, so in order to raise awareness we need more places where young people can get informed,” says Kei Kawana (川名 敬), chief professor at Nihon University School of Medicine, in Tokyo.
Fertility
While Kanamara Matsuri has evolved into a novelty event for curious foreigners, the festival’s blessings of fertility are evermore vital as Japan struggles with a declining population.
Japan recorded just 800,000 births last year, a new record-low. As a country with one of the world’s oldest populations, strict immigration laws, and the lowest refugee acceptance rate of G7 nations, the falling birthrate signals an imminent crisis.
The situation threatens “whether we can continue to function as a society,” warns Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (岸田 文雄), who has made raising Japan’s birthrate a top priority of his administration.
On April 1st, the government launched the new Children and Families Agency, tasked with a mission “to overcome the declining birthrate, including [making] arrangements for a social environment that allows people to feel hopeful about getting married, having children, and raising them.”
Increasing child allowances is a major part of new plans as real wages have fallen for the past two decades, including an unprecedented decline of 3.8% just in the last year.
Hopefully, the renewed power of the steel phallus will save Japan from this crisis and preserve the festival for many generations to come.
Final Thoughts
The addition of booths with free condoms and materials about sexually transmitted diseases would fulfill Kanamara Matsuri’s educational potential and attract a larger presence of local attendees. Also, auxiliary events such as after-parties would keep visiting tourists in Kawasaki, further supporting the city’s economy.
While I find Kanamara Matsuri fails as a pedagogical event, it’s an undeniably fun, memorable, and surprisingly wholesome festival. I won’t forget the experience.
