Hounen Matsuri

Why yes, that IS what you think it is!

(and if you don't know what it is, my blog really isn't the place to learn!)

Pretty realistic, neh?

A few weekends ago, some friends and I went to the annual Hounen Matsuri, fondly known amongst foreigners as . . . The Penis Festival! It's held every year on March 15th in the city of Komaki, which happens to be near where a friend of mine lives. Hounen means "rich harvest" in Japanese, so this particular matsuri is actually part of a larger season of fertililty and harvest festivals held throughout Japan at the beginning of spring. The reason why it has become so famous, especially with foreigners, is because it involves carting a 2.5 meter wooden phallus through the town.

I think the natural reaction to festivals such as this is to simply say, "Japanese people are friggin' weird!" without making any attempt to understand what it actually is all about. But taken in the context of Japanese religion and culture, this festival is not weird at all. It is actually really interesting! Allow me to be a teacher for a moment. (History, not anatomy)

Think about this - coming from the West, we are taught that anything having to do with sex is sinful and naughty, and therefore must be confined only to the appropriate contexts, such as the bathroom, reproductive sex and MTV. So to us, parading genital images around in public seems shocking. But stop and ask - where does this idea of sex = bad come from? Why, Christianity of course!

Japan is not a Christian nation though. In fact, Christians make up less than one percent of the population in Japan. You can bet if the Christians had any influence here they would do their best to put an end to this festival. The vast majority of Japanese people, around 80%, are both Shinto and Buddhist. The Hounen Matsuri is a Shinto festival. This is not to say Shinto condones sexual liberalness though - in fact, a long time ago the phallus originally was attached to an effigy of a man, but that was considered too inappropriate. But it not a religion that automatically condemns everything related to sex. Whether it is appropriate of not is all about the context.

Here is the basic history of the festival...

The Hounen Matsuri centers mainly around a shrine called Tagata Jinja (jinja means shrine in Japanese) which is about 1500 years old. A female deity named Tamahime-no-mikoto is enshrined here. According to the history of the shrine, Tamahime was the daughter of a feudal lord. She married a man named Takeinadane, who was killed in battle. Over time, the area was developed by Tamahime's family, and eventually she was enshrined as a diety at Tagata Jinja. (These are the things you got to do in Japan if you had enough power - turn your own family into deities!)

The shrine, which today is filled with all sorts of phallic objects, is actually in honor of the earth's power to renew and regenerate. People go there to pray for fertility, plentiful harvest, and all other forms of abundance. So it is not actually phallus worship. The phallus merely a symbol for what is actually being worshiped. (Apparently there is another nearby shrine filled with objects resembling the female genitalia. )

During the year, locals visit the shrine to pray for a healthy child, material fortune, relief from illness, among other things. And every spring, the whole town comes out to pray for a bountiful harvest as part of the Hounen Matsuri. There are many things that take place, but the main event is the transport of the giant wooden phallus between shrines. The phallus starts at one of two different shrines, and ends at the Tagata Jinja. This is considered symbolic of the male Takeinande visiting the female deity Tamahime.

Here is an interesting factoid - every year, a new phallus is made by master craftsmen, out of a cypress tree, because the Japanese believe that newly made things express more purity and vitality. (Perhaps this is also why everyone here seems to have brand new cell phones and cars!)Each year, the old phallus is sold to someone in the local community, meaning that there are lots of these big wooden penises all around town. Now that's a conversation piece!

That is the basic rundown as I understand it. On to the pictures!

The procession is led by a Shinto priest, who hands out salt for purification.

The deity Sarutahiko-no-okami

Local Dignitaries wearing Shinto shawls

There are plenty of penis shaped things being sold, including lollipops.

The crowd anxiously awaits.

Jessie gets lucky!

There were a dozen or so women carrying smaller wooden phalluses, which are brought over for the crowd to touch for good luck. All of these women must be 36 years old - 36 is considered to be the unlucky age for women, and carrying a phallus for the festival is thought to offset this bad luck. It is considered an honor to be chosen for this.

I just hope she doesn't grow up with unrealistic expectations.

Japanese festivals usually involve plenty of free sake! These women also had to be 36 years old.

And then came the main attaction! The phallus is carried by teams of 12 men, all aged 42 years old - the unlucky year for men. Including the shrine it is housed in, it weighs over 800 lbs! As they carry it, there is plenty of dancing and chanting, bouncing and spinning. Pretty wild to see actually - one of those moments that feels almost unreal, and afterwards I was thinking, "Did I actually just see that?"



3 adorable Japanese dudes display their um, goods. I don't think they were actually eating these, but using them as a way to get the attention of foreign girls. Worked for me :)
After the procession came the throwing of the mochi, and I have to admit I don't know the significance of it. It was a pretty serious deal though, with people pushing and shoving for their chance to catch a mochi-cake. I even saw two people with baseball gloves! Good idea though, because those things are rock hard - in fact, we met a girl later that was holding ice to her cheek because she had gotten hit by one. Dangerous!

Reach for the Mochi!

One of the best parts of this festival was the FOOD! Ok, Japanese festival food is always great, but this one had it all - the usual treats that you always expect to find, plus a few, um, "specialties" in honor of the male anatomy.

This little guy was helping to sell Penis Saute.

A new twist on chocolate dipped bananas.....

But really, who could resist?

The next morning, we managed to drag ourselves to the store, helped by the fact that it was a lovely spring day, and pick up ingredients for lunch. Pretty ambitious for the day after a night out, huh? I had to include the photo because we were so proud of our lunch: Kimchi jjigae, rice, maki sushi and lots of fresh fruit.

Lunch

Fun festival! I recommend trying to make it if you are ever in Japan in March. But be warned, you will NOT be the only foreigner there!