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Festival of the Steel Phallus deity gets a steel lid in a rural city.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n For all its staid traditions and formal etiquette, Japanese culture can be surprisingly uninhibited in ways that can leave visitors from abroad clutching their pearls<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Take, for example, a new manhole lid that\u2019s just been installed in front of Kobunoki Shrine<\/strong> in Ninohe City, Iwate Prefecture. This sacred place of worship is in full support of the new manhole cover, which features\u2026 a colourful and playful phallic design<\/strong>.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n While large, glistening penises aren\u2019t something you\u2019re likely to find on a city-endorsed road cover in other parts of the world, here in Japan they don\u2019t shy away from images of male genitalia, seeing them as symbols of the fertility deity Kanamara Daimyojin<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Kanamara Daimyojin, which literally translates as \u201cGreat Deity of the Metal Phallus<\/strong>\u201d, is a Shinto deity associated with fertility, safe childbirth, marriage, and protection from sexually transmitted diseases. Commonly represented by a phallus symbol, Kanamara Daimyojin is most famously worshiped at the annual Kanamara Matsuri<\/strong><\/a> held at Kanayama Shrine in Tokyo\u2019s neighbouring Kawasaki Prefecture.<\/p>\n \u25bc The festival, which was held on 5 April this year, features phallic floats, foods and souvenirs.<\/p>\n It was the parishioners\u2019 association<\/strong> at Kobunoki Shrine<\/strong> who donated the manhole cover to the city, in the hopes that it will encourage passersby to stop and take notice of the image, which has been in the hands of a specialist designer since June last year. With its bright, neon-like colours, this manhole lid stands out on the path right in front of the shrine\u2019s vermilion torii gate, and it\u2019s been drawing attention since it was installed on 24 March.<\/p>\n The attention is a welcome draw for the rural city, which is facing<\/strong>\u00a0economic challenges<\/strong> as younger residents move to big cities. The shrine itself is seen as an important asset for the community, so much so that it received overwhelming support for the crowdfunding campaign held to fund its recent relocation, surpassing its 10 million yen (US$63,085.71) goal.<\/p>\n \u25bc Despite the recent relocation (the below image shows the pre-construction phase in late 2024), Kobunoki Shrine has a history that can be traced back to 1854.<\/p>\n The shrine is now just a two-minute walk from Ninohe Station, which is a stop on the Tohoku Shinkansen line, making it easy to access from Tokyo. The trip from Japan\u2019s capital takes about three hours, but it\u2019ll make for a memorable destination\u2026 and the fertility god will smile on you when you get there.<\/p>\n Shrine Information<\/strong><\/p>\n Kobunoki Shrine \/ \u678b\u30ce\u6728\u795e\u793e Sources: Iwate Nippo<\/a>, Kobunoki Shrine<\/a>, Ready For\/Ninohe Station Area Neighbourhood Association<\/a> Festival of the Steel Phallus deity gets a steel lid in a rural city.\u00a0 For all its staid traditions and formal etiquette, Japanese culture can be surprisingly uninhibited in ways…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5493\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nAddress: Iwate-ken, Ninohe-shi, Ishikiridokoro, Kobunoki 50-7
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