Every March 15th is the famous Hounen Matsuri, 豊年祭 (Japanese Harvest Festival) celebrated at Tagata shrine (田県神社) of Aichi Prefecture. Hounen means rich harvest in Japanese, while a matsuri is a festival or holiday. The Hounen festival and ceremony celebrate the blessings of a bountiful harvest and all manner of prosperity and fertility. The Tagata shrine which is frequently referred as the “penis shrine” holds the Hounen Matsuri annually. It’s a festival that celebrates fertility and renewal. It’s a famous festival amongst foreigners visiting Aichi Prefecture.
Tagata Jinja is believed to be about 1500 years old, due to discoveries in 1935 of an ancient sword and extensive pottery fragments. These days the shrine is surrounded by suburbia, but until recently it was surrounded by a forest called “Agata”, a name believed to have derived from the name of one of the rulers of the local area during the end of the Yamato period (approx 3rd-5th century AD). These rulers were warriors who settled the area from Nara as the emerging feudal Japanese state defeated and displaced indigenous Ainu tribes and pushed its frontiers to the east. According to the official history of the shrine, the daughter of the feudal lord was called Tamahime, and was bethrothed to Takeinadane. The tradition holds that Takeinadane was killed in a distant battle and that his wife and children (and powerful father in law) developed the area. Tagata Jinja stands on the site of Tamahime’s residence, and she is the principal deity (called kami in Japanese) enshrined here.
Enshrined as Tamahime-no-mikoto, she is worshipped in the main sanctuary of the building called the honden. This is the main shrine building. Behind and to the left of this structure, you can find another building called the Shinmeisha which contains a large number of natural and man-made objects, almost all of which are either shaped like a penis or have some phallic theme. It is important to understand that the worship is not of the phalli, but instead a worship of the earth, of the power that nature has through renewal and regeneration. It is this context that provides the phallus with its significance.
How to get there
Komaki is both easy and cheap to get to from Nagoya. From Shin Nagoya station (beside JR Nagoya station) take the Meitestu Inuyama line to Inuyama station (30 minutes). At Inuyama station, change to the Komaki line (platform 3) and catch any train south. Tagata Jingu Mae is the third station. Come out of the station and walk south (left) down the main road. On March 15th, however, it will just be a matter of following the crowd.
* For more photos, please checkout my flickr photo album
can’t believe… speechless