🏮 Kanamara Matsuri

かなまら祭り

Kawasaki, Kanagawa (若宮八幡宮・金山神社) · Every year in early April

MikoshiTraditional performing arts

206 days to go
Rooms around Kawasaki, Kanagawa fill up while the festival is on.

Kanamara Matsuri is held at Kanayama Shrine (within the grounds of Wakamiya Hachimangu) in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, on the first Sunday of April every year. The festival is for prayers such as business prosperity, conception, marital harmony, and protection from sexually transmitted diseases. The enshrined deities Kanayama Hiko no Kami and Kanayama Hime no Kami are gods of smithing, and the sacred object, Kanamara-sama, is a metal phallus. Overseas it is known as the Kanamara Festival (or "Festival of the Steel Phallus"), and many foreign tourists visit. Phallic worship existed here since the Edo period, but it was forgotten after the shrine was relocated to Wakamiya Hachimangu in the Taisho period, and the shrine building was destroyed in the war. In 1977, Chief Priest Nakamuro Hirohiko formed the Kanamara Ko, and the following year revived the Edo-period "Jibeta Matsuri," incorporating a phallus mikoshi (portable shrine) and a menkake gyoretsu (masked procession) to create the present form. On the day of the festival, there is daikon kezuri, in which phalluses and vulvas are carved from daikon radishes, and a menkake gyoretsu in which three mikoshi are paraded. In particular, the Elizabeth Mikoshi, which carries a giant pink phallus, was made in 1989 to ward off AIDS and convey the importance of sex. On the eve of the festival, mochi called "obukku" is made, and dedication performances are also held in the shrine grounds.