4/6/2006: Japan's Kanamara Matsuri (Festival of the Steel Phallus) (May be NSFW)

Undertoad · 04-06-2006, 11:10 AM

Promenea sends along this gallery of images from this Japanese street festival, Kanamara Matsuri, which translates to "Festival of the Steel Phallus". It's a fertility festival, which this article explains:

Quote:

Sexually transmitted diseases spurred the popularization of phallic symbols in some of Japan's festivals dedicated to the male member, such as this one dating back to the Edo period (1603-1867). At that time, Kawasaki's "ladies of the night" prayed not only that business would be brisk, but for protection from syphilis. Come cherry blossom time, they gathered baskets of bamboo shoots and other sprouting delicacies, carried the shrine's phallic image in procession through the streets, and then sat down to a merry banquet on mats spread out on the courtyard of Kanamara Shrine.

With the spread of syphilis now curbed, participants in the modern festival solicit donations for HIV/AIDS research. Today, the highlights of this saucy festival include transvestites parading through the town's streets carrying a mikoshi (portable shrine) with a humungous pink phallus on top. And, if that's not guaranteed to make you blush as deeply as the surrounding cherry blossoms, then the spectacle of grandmas and grandpas sucking on carnal candy and sweetmeat replicas of this stupendous phallus, is more than likely to.

Women ride huge carved phalluses while holding lollypop cocks...

...And the men photograph them. It's probably inevitable!

The artifacts are not only phallic.

Touch the woody penis for happiness and prosperity. I think I've used that line.

Even the official signage has a dick.

srom · 04-06-2006, 12:06 PM

(*speechless*)

lawman · 04-06-2006, 12:09 PM

lollypop penises...

Sweet.

Bitman · 04-06-2006, 01:10 PM

Not enough "quotes" in the article ..

Quote:

Come "cherry blossom" time, they gathered "baskets" of "bamboo shoots" and other "sprouting delicacies", "carried" the shrine's phallic image in "procession" through the streets, and then "sat" down to a merry "banquet" on
"mats" spread out on the courtyard of Kanamara "Shrine".

Feh, it's more fun when the topic's not already "sexual". And full of "syphilis".

Elspode · 04-06-2006, 01:56 PM

I can't help but think that this sort of thing is ever so much more sociologically healthy than sweeping naughty pee-pee's under the rug and pretending that you're going to burn in hell if you use it.

glatt · 04-06-2006, 02:01 PM

Agreed. Japan wasn't settled by Puritans.

lumberjim · 04-06-2006, 05:20 PM

they loooooooooove the cock!

richlevy · 04-06-2006, 05:24 PM

Sooo, if say, the Japanese community in North Carolina wanted to hold this festival, would they be protected under the first amendment?

xoxoxoBruce · 04-06-2006, 08:37 PM

Sure Rich, who's gonna dick with 'em?

I like this picture best.

zippyt · 04-06-2006, 10:35 PM

Oh Buster Needs to go a Anvil shoot'in a'gain !!!

I Wounder how far that thing would burry in Mother Earth !!?????!!

CaptainWingSauce · 04-07-2006, 08:27 AM

Japanese peni are nice and all, but you're just going to be hungry again in 20 minutes.

"I'm not racist...... my dog is Japanese"

barefoot serpent · 04-07-2006, 09:22 AM

I think I'm having daikon envy.

Promenea · 04-07-2006, 01:25 PM

So the question of the day is why are all those representations circumcised when that wasn't the cultural practice in Japan until recently?

xoxoxoBruce · 04-07-2006, 03:50 PM

They weren't carved until recently.

wolf · 04-08-2006, 02:14 AM

They really are inscrutable, aren't they?

04-06-2006, 12:06 PM	#2
srom a small little word Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: New York State and Massachussetts State Posts: 17	(speechless) __________________ "I know enough about cooking. If it tastes bad, then fry it until it tastes good."

04-06-2006, 01:56 PM	#5
Elspode Serve ice cold, add salt to taste Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Raytown, Missouri Posts: 12,172	I can't help but think that this sort of thing is ever so much more sociologically healthy than sweeping naughty pee-pee's under the rug and pretending that you're going to burn in hell if you use it. __________________ Peas and Logic, Patrick "He felt that his whole life was some kind of dream and he sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it." Douglas Adams

04-06-2006, 05:20 PM	#7
lumberjim just say no to entropy Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 19,044	they loooooooooove the cock! __________________ One is always in the dark about one's own personality. One needs others to get to know oneself. - Carl Jung

04-06-2006, 05:24 PM	#8
richlevy King Of Wishful Thinking Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Philadelphia Suburbs Posts: 5,641	Sooo, if say, the Japanese community in North Carolina wanted to hold this festival, would they be protected under the first amendment? __________________ Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek. -- Barack Hussein Obama Ideas must work through the brains and the arms of good and brave men, or they are no better than dreams. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

04-06-2006, 08:37 PM	#9
xoxoxoBruce The future is unwritten Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 36,410	Sure Rich, who's gonna dick with 'em? I like this picture best. __________________ The Truth and Robert Shapiro Shall Set You Free. Last edited by xoxoxoBruce; 04-07-2007 at 05:53 PM.

04-06-2006, 12:09 PM	#3
lawman unerringly questioning Join Date: May 2002 Location: Whitehorse, Yukon Posts: 100	lollypop penises... Sweet.

04-06-2006, 02:01 PM	#6
glatt waiting like a stalking Butler Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Arlington, VA Posts: 11,820	Agreed. Japan wasn't settled by Puritans.

04-06-2006, 10:35 PM	#10
zippyt still under warranty Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: paragould arkansas Posts: 5,284	Oh Buster Needs to go a Anvil shoot'in a'gain !!! I Wounder how far that thing would burry in Mother Earth !!?????!! __________________ "Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get. " Brother Dave Gardner

04-07-2006, 08:27 AM	#11
CaptainWingSauce Recruit or Something Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 4	Japanese peni are nice and all, but you're just going to be hungry again in 20 minutes. "I'm not racist...... my dog is Japanese"

04-07-2006, 09:22 AM	#12
barefoot serpent go ahead, abbrev. it Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Lawrence, KS Posts: 2,623	I think I'm having daikon envy.

04-07-2006, 01:25 PM	#13
Promenea Resident President Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 86	So the question of the day is why are all those representations circumcised when that wasn't the cultural practice in Japan until recently?

04-07-2006, 03:50 PM	#14
xoxoxoBruce The future is unwritten Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 36,410	They weren't carved until recently. __________________ The Truth and Robert Shapiro Shall Set You Free.

04-08-2006, 02:14 AM	#15
wolf The other bright meat Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Phila Burbs Posts: 17,854	They really are inscrutable, aren't they? __________________ wolf eht htiw og "Conspiracies are the norm, not the exception." --G. Edward Griffin The Creature from Jekyll Island High Priestess of the Church of the Whale Penis

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