The fertility/harvest festival held annually at Tagata Shrine in Komaki, Aichi, isn't as famous as the Kanamara festival, held near Tokyo, but is another example of an ancient Shinto event in which phallic objects abound. Like with Kanamara, the Tagata Shrine honen festival makes for some very photogenic moments where a giant phallus newly carved from cypress is paraded around on March 15. This is led by the Shinto shrine's priests in all their finery. Women in robes also walk around holding smaller phallus objects. Festivals are also about making money for the shrine, and Tagata Shrine, ...

The annual Honen (or Hounen) Matsuri was held recently, confirming once again what a horny religion Shinto is. The festival in Aichi is Japan's second most famous fertility festival, after the now insanely popular Kanamara Festival in Kawasaki, which takes place next month. Honen Matsuri takes place on March 15th, appropriately the day after White Day (when men give women chocolate). As always, the Shinto rite featured parades of ceremonially dressed people and a giant phallus being taken to Tagata Jinja shrine. Plus there were lots of phallic merchandise for sale, (if the web is to be ...

You can rely on the Japanese to celebrate what's best about the world. In Komaki, Aichi prefecture in central Japan, there exists the Honen Matsuri, a fertility festival held at Tagata Shrine in mid-March. A festival that asks for a good harvest, the highlight is certainly the massive phallus that processes around the shrine. Unfortunately, despite the multitude of gods in the Shinto universe, in fact the cock is not worshipped as a deity in its own right. Even more famous is the Kanamara festival at Kanayama shrine in Kawasaki, that features a massive pink cock and apparently grow ...