From: wa2ise@cbnewsb.cb.att.com (robert.f.casey)
Subject: Japanese sex festival (TV show bit) discussion in s.c.japan
Keywords: it's real
Organization: AT&T
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 22:14:26 GMT


Saw this bit on the TV show last Saturday, so I posted the below
question in the soc.culture.japan newsgroup.  The below is a 
collection of followup postings (along with my posting).

the below was my orginal posting in soc.culture.japan:
Article: 14966 of soc.culture.japan
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan

I was watching the _Howard Stern  Show_ last night (July 18, WWOR TV,
channel 9).  One of the things they showed was some footage of some
sort of festival for sexual fertility.  Showing various phallic symbols.
In Japan.  There was various carvings made to resemble a penis.  Anyone
familiar with Howard Stern knows that there is a good chance that 
this was made up as a joke.  But the footage of this event seemed to
show a real festival.  
So my question is if there are such festivals in Japan.  Or was Howard
Stern just making this up (as a joke in poor taste)?

below are posted responses (in the soc.culture.japan newsgroup)

From: bss+@cs.cmu.edu (Bruce S. Siegell)
Subject: Re: Sexual fertility festival in Japan (for real?)

When I was living in Japan in 1987, I intended such a festival.  Below
is the description from the Daily Yomiuri (4/11/87):

 April 11, 12:  Kanamara Matsuri, a fertility festival, is held annually in
 honor of a male and female fertility deity at Wakamiyama Hachimangu Shrine,
 near Kawasaki Daishi Station.  On the 12th, flintstones are used to light a
 sacred fire at 11:15 a.m.  A parade of masked and costumed participants
 takes place from 1 p.m., including a huge terra-cotta phallus borne on a
 palanquin.  There is an award for the best costume, and a ritual forging of
 steel phalluses.  This is a festival not to be missed.

Most of the people there were gaijin, including some of the people carrying
the terra-cotta phallus.  In my opinion, this was a festival to be missed.

					Bruce Siegell
					bss@cs.cmu.edu


From cbfsb!att!pacbell.com!mips!sdd.hp.com!wupost!uunet!munnari.oz.au!metro!socs.uts.edu.au!utsmips!ricko Mon Jul 20 10:14:59 EDT 1992
Article: 14991 of soc.culture.japan
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
bss+@cs.cmu.edu (Bruce S. Siegell) writes:


>When I was living in Japan in 1987, I intended such a festival.  Below
>is the description from the Daily Yomiuri (4/11/87):

> April 11, 12:  Kanamara Matsuri, a fertility festival, is held annually in
(rest deleted, redundant with above)

I saw the TV report here in Australia with Japanese friends, who denied that 
this could be true (despite the fact that we were watching it): they found 
it just as amusing/astounding a thing as I did. But I saw film of it on 
Japanese TV once, so I think its real.

Isn't there a famous US obstetrics hospital with a phallic statue out front?
(Was that in Reader's Digest?)

-ricko



Article: 15013 of soc.culture.japan
From: yoshi@hpjsdo.kobe.hp.com (Kazuo Yoshizaki)
Date: Mon, 20 Jul 1992 10:11:25 GMT
Subject: Re: Sexual fertility festival in Japan (for real?)

I heard before that 'kadomatsu' which is displayed in January also symbolizes
penis. In the ancient times, survival rate of babies was so low that people
had to make as many babies as possible and sexual organs were considered to be 
divine.

K. Yoshizaki (yoshi@hpjsdo.kobe.hp.com)