Japanese Phallic Festival - Yokote's Bonden Matsuri
Japanese Phallic Festival - Bonden Matsuri Sexual Innuendo Festiva l Festivals participants struggle uphill to deliver a gift, a decorative Bonden pole, to the god of a local shrine in return for a bountiful harvest At first glance, Yokote's Bondon Matsuri in Northern Japan may seem rather innocuous. Tall decorative pools are paraded through the streets where later they are taken up a mountain and offered to a Shrine for the sake of a good harvest. Bonden Poles with topped with decorations Anpan Man: hero to children and bread everywhere However, if one probes a little deeper they will discover that the 4-meter tall Bonden poles are actually suppose to represent the penis and only men can participate in carrying it up the mountain. When the Bondon poles are brought to the shrine on the mountain, the whole phallic symbolism becomes very clear. A Bonden Pole is thrust through the Shrine's Gates Men lower their Bonden poles to a horizontal position before vigorously "enterin