Honen Matsuri

Each year, thousands of Japanese gather at the Tagata Jinja shrine in the southern town of Komaki to pray for a good harvest, and for increased fertility in human beings. A large wooden phallus is paraded through the streets. Ceremonies are performed to curry the favor of the shrine’s spirit. But in Japan today the birth rate has dropped precipitously, and the older generation complains that few young people are interested in having families anymore.

This film is a standalone short put together from footage shot during the making of ‘The Dickumentary’.  We had great access at the shrine where the event took place, thanks to our friend and awesome field producer Tadashi Mitsui, and it felt like too much good stuff to just keep it as a four minute segment.  So, after the release of ‘The Dickumentary’, we put this together, and it went on to do a festival run of its own throughout 2015-2016.

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