Introduction
Our last look into phallic shrines introduced us to six shrines and their attendant festivals celebrating the procreative powers of the penis. Where the festivals have been carried out for hundreds of years, they were historically linked not only to human fertility but also agricultural fertility, an expression of desires for abundance in all forms. This is less likely to be the case in our day. More of them have been decoupled from the seedtime and harvest cycles over time, and some well-known festivals, such as the Kanamara Festival, have originated only in the last few decades.
One common factor between all phallic shrines is that they are specific to their localities. Idiosyncratic and highly individual, each one is associated with the folk histories and local traditions of the area in which they are found, having been valued and preserved by their respective communities for decades if not centuries.
This, I think, is part of the charm of penis shrines: no two are completely alike. Unlike, say, over 2,000 Sumiyoshi shrines, no phallic shrine has a “branch” shrine. While shrines are apt to blur into one another for the average person, it’s safe to say that shrine fatigue is unlikely to happen at the following places.
Yuge Shrine, Kumamoto
Yuge Shrine is located in a crook of the Shirakawa River on the outskirts of Kumamoto City. It forms a pair with Kami-Yuge Shrine on the opposite bank; both are sometimes collectively referred to as Yuge Shrine. One legend suggests that each was dedicated to a male and female deity respectively, and that when dusk fell he would cross the river to visit her for their nightly trysts.
The female deity is Empress Kōken (known as Empress Shōtoku during her second reign), while the male deity is thought to be Dōkyō, a monk who rose through the ranks in her court and attempted to seize control of the government. While the empress regarded him as healer, spiritual advisor, and political advisor, some accounts suggest that he became her lover as well, which fits in quite nicely with the legend above.
There are a few notable elements at Yuge Shrine. One is a large wooden penis which worshippers are meant to straddle, moving across it from back to front while caressing it. This act is meant to bring marital bliss and also improve a man’s performance in the bedroom. At the very least, it’s a great bonding activity if you’re visiting the shrine with your significant other.
There’s a mini torii gate that visitors are meant to crawl through (after removing your shoes). Doing this supposedly helps with lower back pain and also improves your prowess in bed for vigorous sex. Then there’s the trio of bright red phalluses to the left of the shrine building. Visitors hoping to conceive a child are meant to bring a home-made phallus as an offering to this altar. Or they can purchase a little penis-shaped charm to bring luck and ward off misfortune.
But it’s not all about improving sexy times — at the back of one of the altars is a stack of wood pounded through with nails. Hammering nails into wood is a means of pre-empting and preventing infidelity from one’s partner. Who needs healthy communication when you can take out your fears and frustrations on a piece of wood?
Mara Kannon, Yamaguchi
Dedicated to the bodhisattva Kannon, Maro Kannon is a Buddhist temple located in the mountains of Nagato City, a little ways into a forest off route 281 near Tawarayama Onsen. Most worshippers visit this temple to pray for fertility, safe childbirth, increased sexual vitality, harmonious marriages and relationships, and relief from sexually-transmitted diseases and bedwetting.
The supposed origin story of this temple is rather grim. A military uprising in September 1551 during forced former feudal lord Yoshitaka Ouchi to commit ritual suicide. His five year-old son, Kanjūmaru, disguised himself as a girl and survived in the mountains for a time. However, he was captured by enemy troops in 1552 and killed, his penis cut off as proof that he was a boy. Feeling pity for his tragic end, the villagers in the area built Kannon Hall; it is speculated that the phallic structures are offerings to appease Kanjūmaru’s spirit.
The phallic component can be seen mostly in and around the small wooden hokora (miniature Shinto shrine) to the side of the main building. Here and there are phallic structures of various sizes and girths protruding from the ground like bollards — one is meant to rub the head to ensure the efficacy of the blessings — and inside the hall are shelves of ceramic dick figurines (each around 15cm tall) with names, wishes, and prayers written on them.
The Maro Kannon Festival is held every May, attended by the mayor, local officials, and townspeople. Of particular note is the mochi-maki or rice-cake throwing event, much like the one held at Takasai Shrine in Ibaraki. Folk music enthusiasts may enjoy the song-and-dance performance of ‘Ouchi Aishi - Maro Kannon no Uta’ (lit. The Tragic History of Ouchi - The Song of Maro Kannon), penned by the owner of a ryokan in the nearby onsen town.
Yamagami Shrine, Shimane
Yamagami Shrine is an auxiliary shrine on the precincts of Yaegaki Shrine in Matsue City. The origin of the latter is steeped in myth: Susanoo-no-mikoto, brother of the sun goddess Amatarasu-ōmikami, slew a fierce eight-headed serpent terrorising the land, saving the beautiful princess and taking her as his bride. Before the battle, he built an eight-layer fence around a giant cedar tree to conceal her from the serpent’s sight. This fence is supposedly the site where Yaegaki Shrine now stands.
Dedicated to Ooyamatsumi-no-mikoto, the kami of mountains and agriculture, Yamagami Shrine is a surprisingly understated phallic shrine compared to some of the others we’ve seen on this list. To the left of the main shrine building is a small hokora with a long stone todger underneath, and a large, erect stone phallus standing next to it. (The little protective roof is a fantastic touch.) Making offerings of handmade phalluses (or phallic-shaped objects) is a common practice for worshippers who hope to conceive.
Original photograph by ogajud.
Konsei Daimyōjin, Chiba
Avoiding BBC jokes might prove difficult at this shrine, and we’re not speaking of the British broadcasting network here. Owashi Shrine in Chiba is home to Konsei Daimyōjin, a sub-shrine on its precincts housing a shiny black tallywhacker measuring 2.5 metres tall and 2.3 metres in circumference. Its sheer size makes all the other wooden phallic ornaments in the hall look positively pedestrian by comparison.
While there would normally be more to say about such shrines, its own information board was so charming enough as to warrant recording here. I have reproduced the text here in its entirety, spelling and all.
Konsei Grand Gracious Deity
This god presides over abundant crops, marriage, fertility and smooth delivery and conjugal harmony. As a worshipped god, a big stone phallus is enshrined, which is the biggest in Japan, approximately 2.5 metres in height and 2.3 metres in circumference.
In the epoch of Engi (900 AD0 about 1,000 years ago, the ingenous [sic] faith of the common people for a sexual religion took place everywhere in Japan. They prayed to gods symbolised in phalli or vulvae giving their whole minds. It is said that whenever a person makes a petition to the god, he/she would secretly borrow a “small phallus” dedicated to the shrine. Upon attainment of his/her desire, he/she made a similar phallus to the borrowed one, and made an offering to the shrine of two phalli with a deep sense of gratitude.
At the “Tori-no-Ichi” Fair, held every December, they parade through the streets of this town with wooden objects of worship.
Also, the candles here sold as a queer souvenir are famous for their phullus-like [uh, sic] shapes made in connection with the object of worship.
The Tori-no-Ichi festival, held on the first rooster day of December, is indeed a major attraction of this shrine. On this day, women dressed in bright pink happi coats also pull a hikimawashi float carrying a large wooden penis — for a rich harvest, of course. One can purchase wooden phallic sculptures and write wishes on them — for another rich harvest, of course.
On the same day, an elementary school in the town also hosts the Shoshika Kokufuku Nabematsuri, or ‘Countermeasures Against Declining Birth Rates Festival.’ The town really said to go big or go home.
Dontsuku Shrine, Shizuoka
This shrine has a fairly onomatopoeic name. It derives from the phrase ‘don to tsuku’ meaning to strike, hit, or push in hard — no prizes for guessing what that means. Dontsuku Shrine hosts the Dontsuku Festival, which sees a sizable wooden phallus on a portable shrine paraded around Inatori Onsen. Traditionally, one man would wear a Tengu mask and walk through the village, poking or striking people with a penis-shaped stick to bless them with children.
Dating back to over 2,000 years ago (or so it’s claimed) it is one of the country’s oldest festivals, although its current incarnation has only been held since 1966. Dontsuku Shrine’s location also makes it fairly accessible from Tokyo, so those who missed the Kanamara Festival in April can aim for a visit down to the Izu Peninsula instead.
As we’ve established, most penis festivals tend to have their origins in fertility and agricultural rituals. However, this one is dedicated to marital harmony. The aforementioned masked man practice dates back to a story where a young man in the village would do exactly that to couples in the village. This was supposed to keep them from quarrelling, presumably by making them laugh so hard that they’d stop fighting. They might possibly also make it up in bed, which would have the potential bonus of being blessed with children.
Original photo by Marten Heerlien.
Taga Shrine, Ehime
Taga Shrine is located along the Suka River north of Uwajima City. While it does have at least one two metre-long wooden penis knocking around the main building, any phallic ornaments on-site pale in comparison to the contents of the three-storey building next to the shrine.
This building is Dekoboko Shindo (also known as Dekoboko-dera), a three-storey sex museum packed to the gills with former priest Morimaru Kubo’s personal collection of sex-related objects. Now, his son has taken over the shrine and museum operation.
Much like a conventional museum, the staff rotate the artefacts on display — there are apparently enough items in the collection for 10 years worth of exhibitions if not more. The maxim guiding this museum is that “sex is religion, sex is philosophy, sex is morality, sex is science, sex is both life itself and human life.”
The adults-only collection doesn’t just contain Japanese sex paraphernalia — ukiyo-e and illustrations alone take up the entire third floor — but also extends to documents, tchotchkes, and curiosities from all over the world. There are hundreds of dick figurines, yes, but also anthropologically interesting exhibits, such as photographs of sexual Shinto festivals; an entire section on bestial sex, including swans and octopi; thousands of pubic hair samples (which one Google review seems to refer to as ‘way too much hair’); figurines of Hindu deities having sex; statues having sex; illustrations; magazines; and more. Filthy? Yes, but educational, too.
Written by Florentyna Leow