Honen Matsuri (Penis Festival) 豊年祭

In the ordinary suburb of Komaki, every year a quite extra-ordinary festival takes place: the Honen Matsuri. Colloquially, it's known as the penis festival.

Tagata-jinja is located north of Nagoya City, which can be easily accessed by train.

From Meitetsu Nagoya Station, head to Inuyama and then transfer to the Meitetsu Komaki Line. Tagata-jinja is just a five-minute walk from Tagata-jinja-mae Station.

Make sure to have your camera at hand when the two-meter-long wooden phallus comes into view, as it is certainly a sight to behold. Tagata-jinja Shrine is filled with many other phallus-shaped stones and statues, and celebrants at Honen Matsuri line up to rub them, praying for a good harvest and fertility for the coming year.

It starts at 10 a.m., from when you can wander around the festival site shopping for phallic souvenirs to surprise your friends. As you do so, nibble on incredibly detailed phallus candies, cakes, cookies and chocolate-covered bananas.

As the procession starts at around 2 p.m., find a spot on the route and indulge in the free glasses of sake handed out. Then be amazed as the 400-kilogram male appendage, carved from the trunk of a single cypress tree, is carried through the streets, and also spun around.

On the Sunday closest to the Honen Matsuri, nearby Oagata Shrine holds a harvest festival celebrating female genitalia.

When in Komaki you should visit Komaki Castle. While small, the castle has great historical significance as it was built by Oda Nobunaga and was later the scene of a standoff between Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu.

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