Anyone who is even a little familiar with Japan knows that it is a country full of shrines and temples, each dedicated to different kami, or spirits and deities, each of which are believed to grant different boons or protect agains ills when they receive prayers and offerings. This extends to all aspects of life, including fertility. As a result, several festivals that celebrate the penis, potency, and sowing. If you’re lucky enough to be in Japan at the right place and time, here are a few we recommend checking out!
Kamamara Penis Festival
The most popular of the penis festivals in Japan, in part due to its proximity to Tokyo, this event has a long and storied history. Though its popularity ballooned in the 1960s, legend has it that the roots of the celebrations are ancient, as hundreds of years ago a demon fell in love with a mortal woman. Jealous over her suitors, it hid inside her vagina and bit off the penis of two lovers. Frustrated, the woman had a blacksmith forge a metallic member, which caused the demon to shatter it teeth and leave. Ever since, the festival has been used to celebrate blacksmiths, as well as pray for safe childbirth and protection from STDs. Today, this legacy continues, with all profits going towards HIV research.
Before the festival, volunteers carve daikon radishes into the shape of penises which will be presented at the shrine as offerings. During the parade itself, four ceremonial penises are carried through the streets to the shrine: a small wooden one, carried on a single plank; a medium-large wooden phallus; a large black member, made of iron; and a pink “Elizabeth Penis,” donated by the local Elizabeth Drag Queen troupe. For anyone peckish, this is a great time to snack on bananas and other knob-shaped treats on sale for revelers.
Honensai Matsuri
Another very popular festival, Honensai in Aichi prefecture is celebrated every March, and is meant to be a time to pray for a good harvest. And what could symbolize a sincere wish for a bountiful growth of rice in the coming year than a gigantic cock?
The centerpiece of the annual procession is the 280kg, two meter carving of a penis made ten days before from fresh Japanese cypress. Known as the ō-owase-gata, or “Giant Man-Shaped Thing,” it is carried each year from Shinmei Sha shrine on even years and Kumano Sha shrine on even years to Tagata Shrine. Upon arrival, our beloved Giant Man-Shaped Thing is spun around over and over again while prayers are said to hope that seed this year will produce an abundance of food. At the end, rice cakes are thrown to the crowd in celebration.
The procession itself is a hoot, with singing, the beating of drums, and Japanese sake being handed around for merry-makers to enjoy. As with Kanamara Festival, you can also buy souvenirs and snacks to gobble as you enjoy the procession.
Hodare Penis Festival
If you attend this festival, it’ll give you the only excuse you can have to walk into work on Monday and say “this weekend I saw a lot of women riding one giant penis” and not get fired.
This festival in Hodare, Niigata, is one celebrating and hoping for fertility, and the star of the parade is, as you may have guessed, an enormous wooden carving of a penis, callied aloft by dozens of men. As it moves through the crowds of people, many take the opportunity to try and touch it for good luck and a good harvest in the coming months.
But if you are a woman who has married in the past year, you can participate in a more involved way. New brides, who should wear their wedding kimono, can sign up to straddle the giant dong up to three at a time, and be carried down the street as the crowds cheer. It is a local superstition that this will lead to a healthy, happy baby being born in the upcoming year. All the time, sake, noodles, and dick-tacular souvenirs are on sale for discerning visitors.
Tenteko Festival
Back to Aichi prefecture for this festival, which takes place on the third of January each year. Tenteko Matsuri gets its name from the onomatopoeia of the sound of a beating drum, and, as with many of the festivals on this list, is a time to gather and hope for a good harvest in the year ahead. So where does the penis come in?
First, the stars of this procession are six “unlucky men” dressed head to toe in bright red costumes, supposedly harkening back to an age where planting rice was a sacred task, and the red uniforms denoted closeness to God.
The back six in the march to the shrine carry food, representing the special lunch that field workers would enjoy during the planting season. But the first three bang their drums and rhythmically thrust their hips in time to the beat… which swings the massive daikon-carved tackles tied to the base of their backs.
After a brief ceremony of sake drinking, the men then throw mochi to the crowd, and also brush ash that has been gathered for the occasion: if any of the ash gets on you, don’t get mad, you’ve been gifted good luck for the year ahead!
Dontsuku Festival
Sadly, this festival in Shizuoka was cancelled permanently in 2018. But I suppose the meaning of permanent must have changed because it made its glorious comeback in 2023! The only festival on this list that takes place in the back-end of the year, this fertility festival also has a mega manhood that is carried through the streets to the delight of onlookers. Laying hands on it is encouraged, but if you can’t get close enough through the throbbing throngs of tackle touchers, then fear not: local volunteers have wang-wands that they can use to bestow luck on anyone they tap with them.
As with any festival, food and drink is a given, with specially sculpted sausages and other uncircumcised snacks on offer for anyone who’s looking to get something tasty in their mouth and down their throat.
In Summary
And that’s our guide to all the biggest penis festivals in Japan. But don’t worry if you didn’t see one nearby on the list, there are plenty around all over the country if you know where to look. Why not ask around about a nearby penis festival? But maybe be careful with how you word it.
