Religious Ceremonies Outside of Work

It has been a couple of weeks since my last post. Sorry, kids. Hopefully this will make up for it.

Today, March 15th, I went with four friends to the Honen Matsuri (AKA Tagata Festival; AKA Penis Festival; AKA Fertility Festival.) This could be another check mark in the "Only in Japan" column, but since it has Buddhist ancestry, similar festivals are probably held in other parts of the world.

OK, so the Penis Festival. As you might already know, Shinto shrines serve as houses for divine spirits. The Tagata Shrine in Komaki-shi, a suburb of Nagoya, is estimated to be about 1,500 years old. It is dedicated to the diety (or kami in Japanese) Tamahime-no-mikoto, a princess from umpteen years ago.

Fertility is the main point here, hence the phallic nature of the many offerings. But also think "fertile," as in fertile ground for growing food, etc. Beginning hundreds of years ago, the offerings to the kami were often in the shape of a penis: Take a wooden wang from the shrine, wait for your prayers to come true, and return it with an additional offering to show appreciation. Makes sense, right? But that's not very entertaining.

Obviously, the festival is popular today because, well, there are tallywackers everywhere: Bananas, hot dogs, suckers, carvings, banners. Each looking just like a _____ (pick your own synonym.) There is something a little uncomfortable about kids eating food in the shape of a johnson.

The climatic event of the day is the parade starring a 13 ft long, 620 pound wiener. Each winter someone chops down a Japanese cypress tree and brings it to the shrine for a solemn ritual of purification and dedication. Wearing ritually-pure clothing, the tree is carved into the wooden phallus that will, after the festival and parade, reside in the shrine as the principle object of worship. (That said, it is actually an offering to the kami, so I'm not sure why people worship the ding-dong.)

Because my buddy Greg has a car, we also went a few miles up the road to the vagina shine. (I guess they didn't want the ladies to feel left out.) We showed up at the end of the ceremonies, but it was pretty much the same story. However, nobody had any food shaped like the female reproductive organ. On a funny side note, at the same shrine dedicated to the vagina, there is also a shrine dedicated to whiskey. HMMM! Is this a male-dominated society? I think so.

I'm sure there are plenty of people taking this festival very seriously, but, for the most part, it seemed the crowd of 10,000 - 15,000 was just having fun. The weather was perfect, we were hugely entertained and there were great people to hang out with. So, next time you're in Japan on March 15th, make sure to go to the Fertility Festival in Komaki!

PS

I tried to keep it PG-13. Enjoy the photos!