Fertility Festival in Kawasaki, Japan

Kanamara Matsuri

The Kanamara Matsuri (かなまら祭 ), also called Festival of the Steel Phallus, is an annual Shinto fertility festival held in Kawasaki , Japan in spring. The exact dates vary, but the main festivities fall on a Sunday. The penis forms the central theme of the event that's reflected everywhere; in illustrations, candy, carved vegetables, decoration, a parade of mikoshis, etc. etc.

The Kanamara Matsuri is centered around a local penis -venerating shrine, once popular among prostitutes who wished to pray for protection against sexually transmitted diseases . Today, the festival is used to raise money for HIV research. There's also a legend of a demon that hid inside a young girl and castrated two young men on their wedding nights before a blacksmith fashioned an iron phallus that was used to break the demon's teeth, leading to the enshrinement of the item.