Although the image has never actually been shown to the public, it forms the basis of many festivities. Grab some soy-beans and join the fun. Apr 8 Hana Matsuri Hana Matsuri or Flower Festival celebrates Buddha's birthday. A small statue of Buddha standing in the middle of a lotus flower is sprinkled with perfume, although nowadays sweet tea is used. During this world-famous fertility festival, locals extol the joys of sex and reproduction by parading giant phalluses around the streets.
Participants pray for plentiful offspring and, of course, bountiful rice harvests.
Women dressed in traditional farmer's costumes sing rice-planting songs while sowing rice seedlings in paddy fields.