A Shinto priest performs a ceremony before a wooden phallus during Honen-sai, a fertility festival at Tagata Shrine in Komaki, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. (All photos by Ben Weller/AFLO)
Men carry a large wooden phallus on a portable shrine during the festival. Each year a craftsman carves a new phallus from a Japanese cypress tree. It measures almost 2.4 meters (13 feet) long and weights 280kg (620 pounds).
The traditional Shinto festival celebrates fertility and a bountiful harvest. The principal offering during the festival is the large wooden phallus.
Women make chocolate covered bananas shaped as phalluses for sale at the festival.
Women carry wooden phalluses during Honen-sai.