Worshippers in colorful attire paraded giant phallus-shaped shrines through streets near Tokyo during Japan's annual Kanamara fertility festival on Sunday. The event drew tourists, couples, families and LGBTQ supporters, aiming to destigmatize sex. Chief priest Hiroyuki Nakamura told AFP he hopes it dispels the notion that sex is a bad, dirty thing.
The Kanamara festival, held at Kanayama Shrine near Tokyo, featured worshippers carrying a trio of giant phallic objects through the streets amid pink penis-shaped candies and souvenirs. A one-meter black steel phallus stands in the shrine's courtyard, dedicated to Shinto deities of fertility, childbirth and protection from sexually transmitted infections.
According to legend, the event honors an Edo Period (1603-1868) blacksmith who forged an iron dildo to break the teeth of a demon that lived in a woman's vagina and castrated grooms on wedding nights. Over centuries, sex workers visited for protection, evolving into a broader rite to destigmatize sex.
Japan's health ministry reported in February that 2025 births totaled 705,809, down 2.1 percent from 2024—the tenth straight annual decline. The data covers births to Japanese nationals in Japan, foreign births there and Japanese babies born overseas.
Jimmy Hsu, 32, from San Francisco, told AFP, "It feels like it's more than just ha-ha sex. There's a whole understanding behind it," adding, "By American standards, this is so wholesome."
Julie Ibach, 58, from San Diego, described a boy with penis stickers: "Everyone is embracing it and making fun of it. You don't see that anywhere else."