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The one penis not welcome at Japan’s Kanamara Matsuri.

Every spring, thousands of tourists from Japan and overseas descend on a shrine in Tokyo’s neighbouring prefecture of Kanagawa to celebrate one thing — the penis.

This symbol of fertility is at the centre of the Kanamara Matsuri (“Festival of the Steel Phallus”), which ranks as one of Japan’s “kisai” or “bizarre festivals“, and the story behind it is just as bizarre as the festival itself.

According to legend, a demon once sought revenge on a woman who rejected him by taking up residence inside her vagina and biting down on her husband’s penis so she was unable to procreate. In order to solve the problem, the woman paid a blacksmith to create a steel phallus to break the demon’s teeth, which he did, ultimately restoring her fertility.

▼ Today, a replica of that phallus, and the spirit of the blacksmith, are preserved at the shrine, called Kanayama.

Every spring, the venerated items are taken out on mikoshi floats and paraded on the shoulders of worshippers during the Kanamara Matsuri.

With more than 50,000 people usually attending the festival, it’s easy for things to pop up within the crowd, and it appears that at least one person dressed in a penis costume so impressive that it confused people into thinking it was an official mascot related to the shrine.

The penis costume has been appearing since at least 2015, when the shrine sent out a similar tweet, alerting people to the fact that the character is in no way related to them. Part of the problem is the fact that the character bears a striking resemblance to Gachapin, a famous character from a children’s TV program on Fuji TV.

The name “Gachachin” is a play on “Gachapin”, with “pin” being replaced by” chin“, a slang word for penis.

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