Title: Kanamara Matsuri (“Festival of the Steel Phallus,” known colloquially as the “Penis Festival”.)

Date: The First Sunday of April every year

Venue: The Kanayama Shrine

The Kanamara Festival is known as a very rare festival involving a parade of penis-shaped portable shrines. The origin of this festival dates back to the Edo period. Nowadays it is popular as an occasion to wish for happy marriage, safe child birth, good matchmaking, as well as prosperity of descendants, success in business, and so forth.

During the festival, portable shrines featuring the form of phallus parade the local shopping streets and the neighborhood. Within the shrine property, there will be numerous open-air stalls which sell charms, key-holders and bibelots of different sizes, in the form of male and female genitals, as well as rice cakes and candies.