31 Aug 2008
Thousands flocked to a small shrine here Sunday to take part in the Kanamara Festival, an event with roots dating back centuries and known for its huge consecrated phallus portable shrine carried mostly by transvestites.
Duration : 0:5:5
19 Aug 2008
This is a Fertility Festival held each year in Kamakura, at the Wakamiya Hachimangu Shrine held on the first Sunday in April of every year.
This festival began in the 1600s and is a link to the times when the area used to be more of a port city and the role local prostitutes played in society at that time. Due to the high risk of contracting STDs this festival was created to help induce the gods to protect them from the diseases of the day. Today the festival also seems to represent families wanting to conceive. It’s an interesting festival and a side of the Japanese rarely seen via their ancestral ties to festivities like this.
Duration : 0:2:32