This past weekend we took a trip to the Fertility Festival. Due to the nature of the trip, we decided it would make an excellent girls trip. WARNING: SOME PICTURES MAY BE A BIT OFFENSIVE!
Background: Each year, a new giant wooden phallus is carved from a large hinoki (cypress) tree. In Japan newly made objects are thought to express more purity and vitality. The tree is brought to the shrine for purification rituals during the coldest part of the winter, before a master craftsman begins to shape it. The craftsman uses only traditional tools and wears clothing that has also been purified through rituals at the shrine. It is this phallus that will be the central focus of the procession, and then be placed into the Shinmeisha shrine as the principal phallus after the festival. For more info, go to http://www.yamasa.org/japan/english/destinations/aichi/tagata_jinja.html
Okay, here are the pics:
This guy leads the parade.
These are wishes
Women carry phalic symbols like babies.
Yes, it really was this big!
These are prayers for good fertility and healthy babies/
Here are three of the six of us that took the trip. We didn't get lost at all on the 10hr trip. It was great!
4 comments:
I didn't ever make it to this festival while we lived there. Now I need to go, what a riot!
Did you make any wishes??
Hehe - Yep, I wished for a happy and healthy baby :)
I'm glad we went, but it's a "check off the list" kinda thing - don't think we'll go back. It was a really long drive!
I'll make a comment so you keep updating your blog. :) Thanks for sharing your pictures! I can live vicariously through you when you go on "adventures" I can't! See you Monday!
Abby,
I went to the Kanamura Fertility festival in the Kawasaki prefecture...what a hoot! I've never experienced anything quite like it :-)
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