Honen Matsuri

The Honen Matsuri (豊年祭 – actually spelled Hounen with an “u” in there)  is a fertility  festival  celebrated each year on March 15th for the blessings of a bountiful harvest and all manner of prosperity and fertility. It’s probably one of the most famously known festivals outside of Japan and draws a lot of foreigners to see it each year.

The main feature of the festival is a 2.5m long wooden phallus weighting up to 280kg. The object  is carried from a shrine called Shinmei Sha (in even-numbered years) or from Kumano-sha Shrine (in odd-numbered years), to Tagata Jinja. Tagata Jinja is a shrine dedicated to fertility and has a large collection of interesting objects (female and male ones).

The festival starts with celebration and preparation at 10am at Tagata Jinja. At about 2pm the main parade starts and makes its way to the Tagata Jinja. Free Sake is passed out from large wooden barrels during the procession. The festival ends at about 4.30pm with mochi-rice-cakes being thrown at you.

I am not sure what i really should think about this festival. The main attraction certainly is the fertility theme of the festival, but other than that there isn’t much interesting going on in this festival. Most of the time is being spend waiting in line for the procession to pass. If you are visiting Japan then i recommend you to also go see other festivals held during that time (for example the Sagicho matsuri) and not only the Honen Matsuri.

Transport: Tagata-Jinja is at Tagata-Jinja-mae station, one stop further south of Gakuden  station on the Meitetsu Komaki line. There is also plenty of car parking in the area.

Website: None that i can find. There are heaps of travel blogs mentioning it, but Tagata Jinja doesn’t seem to have a website and the Komaki city website doesn’t have a page dedicated to the event.