Phallus Festival

Sausage Fest? Why isn't one of them riding on top?...

Mirai, wow, 77 thumbs up (including mine)! Has anyone ever gotten more...lol.

Participants carry a phallus symbol during the Kanamara Matsuri, or Iron Phallus Festival

Wait, this is actually a real thing? I thought it was just a gag from an ecchi anime, an excuse to make about a thousand penis jokes. I kind of want to see this with my own eyes, but at the same time I kind of don't.... I'm not sure. I'm still reeling from finding out that this is a real festival.

@Mirai

You're right that people don't like to hear the word "vagina". But that's not because it's a female thing, it's because it's such a cold, medical, clinical word. "Penis" is exactly the same.

The English language is completely useless when it comes to intimate body parts or bodily functions. We use scientific words (urinate), childish words, (wee), or nasty words (p.ss). There's no middle ground.

The Scandinavian languages, among many others, have one, easy word that everyone from the King to a kindergartener can use without the slightest embarrassment.

Oh please....Harvey is right and you know it....PENIS FESTIVAL??? please

Just don't cock it up!

Life is just plain unfair at times . . .

Maude Lebowski said it the best:

**My art has been commended as being strongly vaginal which bothers some men. The word itself makes some men uncomfortable. Vagina. ....they don't like hearing it and find it difficult to say whereas without batting an eye a man will refer to his dick or his rod or his Johnson.

sorry mods, forgive me.

@Bad2Dbone

I see that your Schwartz is as big as mine, ha ha!

I wonder if George Lucas came to this festival, the black Phallus , easily strikes the shape of Darth vader

This festival has been officially approved by the locals.

They sell penis and vagina shaped lollipops, and nobody ever get arrested at this festival.

CH3CHO: "Because the festival outdates Penal Code, whereas the canoe was built after its promulgation."

And if you think that's the real reason I've got a unicorn to sell you (to put with your many others).

Mirai beat everyone to what pretty much all of them were thinking -- the hypocrisy. There are two or three old fertility shrines left in Japan (maybe more), I think the most famous being the one off Hiroshima (Yakushi? -- not the Yakushiji in Nara, of course), but they are very low key. But still, if they made a giant model of a vagina to go with the stone phalluses there would probably be some problems with the law. The bottom line is the old codgers who made the laws get off on this kind of thing, but not on the natural beauty of the vagina (even saying that would make some squirm, I bet).

harvey: who the hell really cares if they are women or not holding it? I don't think it's really all that big of a deal, except that there should be no reason for guys to dress up as women to hold it up, so to speak, unless they are naturally cross-dressers. I realize if they are all men (or just some of them) then it's probably because there are no women to traditionally fill the roles, so why bother with the traditional roles at all if that's the case?

Got a boner just thinking aboout it

The festival became too popular. I was there yesterday, just huge crowds on very limited space. At least half of visitors were foreigners, most of them definitely liked what they saw,

Sioux ChefApr. 06, 2015 - 10:14AM JST

The festival started in 1977 (according to Wikipedia anyway).

Japanese wikipedia says it started in Edo period.

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%87%91%E5%B1%B1%E7%A5%9E%E7%A4%BE_(%E5%B7%9D%E5%B4%8E%E5%B8%82)

@CrazyJoe

"NUTS".

Anatomy not your strong point? ; )

NUTS?

I guess they don't feel like a right bunch of ..............

I think it has been more than a few places in Japan that I have seen penis and vagina statues side by side. However, while the penis was ornate and obviously a penis, the vagina was nothing more than a random looking crack in stone or something.

Actually I went to the same type of festival in Aichi years back and they sold vagina candy, pencils and carried statues and all. You are right though, the vagina statues that they have at shrines aimed at fertility were like rocks with cracks down the middle.

Funny thing about the event was half of the people were Westerners and 3 big buses of U.S. Military even came in for the festivities.

I wonder if this is the penis from the King Missile song detachable penis, in which case we have found for them!!1

Easter: Old English Easterdæg, from Eastre (Northumbrian Eostre), from Proto-Germanic *austron-, "dawn," also the name of a goddess of fertility and spring, perhaps originally of sunrise, whose feast was celebrated at the spring equinox

In addition to Easter bunnies and eggs and lilies (VAGINA!) and other symbols of fertility, we now coincidentally have this.

This is such an awesome sight, I quiver and wallow in fear as I dare to imagine how the rest of the day unfolded at the festival.

Is this where the song 'detachable penis' comes from?

Oh, and by the way, the woman that was arrested for vagina models was arrested for selling the 3D data, which means she was selling porn, not for making a pussy canoe.

I must say I find the vagina much more fascinating and somewhat mystical

Married, then?

Hi, @commodore,

That's why JapanToday changed the caption of the photo from "women" to "participants". It's a misrepresentation to the readers. They aren't women, tell me I'm wrong.

Yes, I also do not understand why the female parts artist got arrested. Japan is still a male centered society. I think the word I heard when I studied in the US was "phallocentric".

How about a vagina festival to celebrate women, pregnancy and childbirth? Not a phallus festival with the vagina as an afterthought but the vagina upfront? (make crass jokes here...) With the vagina on a palanquin and hoisted by women in drag?

I hope somebody who sympathized with the VJ canoe artist protested the festival!

Because the festival outdates Penal Code, whereas the canoe was built after its promulgation.

The festival started in 1977 (according to Wikipedia anyway).

Yes, you are. Extremely rude. Saying you're not doesn't change the rudeness of the statement that follows

Yet harvey pekar is correct.; they are in drag. Is it rude to point out that they're not exactly passable?

There's nothing childish or wrong with speaking the international language of the knob joke on a forums with a diverse readership.

Oh, the crass jokes I could make about this being held on Easter. But I'm not in junior high anymore and will let you all think of them yourselves.

'Because the festival outdates Penal Code'

If I had a junior-high school level sense of humour, I'd try to make a crass joke there.

I think it has been more than a few places in Japan that I have seen penis and vagina statues side by side. However, while the penis was ornate and obviously a penis, the vagina was nothing more than a random looking crack in stone or something.

And as stupid, hypocritical and sexist as that is, Japan is far, far from the only place where such stupidity is practiced. The Japanese just do it differently. I could point out the unreasonableness in anyone's culture and the people there would refuse to see it.

The phallus bearers are panting, presumably from the weight.

Mirai HayashiApr. 06, 2015 - 07:15AM JST

Meanwhile, a woman in vagina canoe is arrested for public indecency .....

Because the festival outdates Penal Code, whereas the canoe was built after its promulgation.

I'm not being rude, but those aren't women carrying that. If I've ever seen a wig and a dude in drag, those "women" are it.

Yes, you are. Extremely rude. Saying you're not doesn't change the rudeness of the statement that follows: "I'm not A, but (behavior that constitutes the very definition of being A)." You're being something else, too.

There is nothing wrong with penises, nothing wrong with vaginas. There is something wrong, though, that showing the former is okay, but making a boat or some models out of the latter is a criminal offense.

Women carry a phallus symbol, The festival celebrates fertility" They "hold" that festival in many parts of Japan.

Would have been nice to have some coverage or a show of support for Ms. Megumi Igarashi and the hypocritical persecution she is suffering due to her vagina kayak.

I'm not being rude, but those aren't women carrying that. If I've ever seen a wig and a dude in drag, those "women" are it.

That's a huge pink tower of power.

The shrine is also for couples who wish to bear a child but have not succeeded.

Looks like hard going.

Mirai Hayashi!!!!!! You remember!!!! Thank goodness. (I'm not saying you are forgetful). I am saying that most people are forgetful.

Although the phallus is very easy to maintain due to the fact it's external I must say I find the vagina much more fascinating and somewhat mystical.

Wonder if it's easier to get laid while this is going on.

A man's best friend. Sometimes I have to have to chase mine around the block.

Where is the mosaic on that phallus!!!! I call hypocrisy!!!!

If I wear that Iron Phallus, I will truly be Iron Man! Ha ha

Meanwhile, a woman in vagina canoe is arrested for public indecency .....