There's something decidedly queer about the port city's Yasaka Jinja on the
afternoon of the festival.
All the middle-aged women decked out in traditional garb are also caked thick
in white face make-up adorned with lashings of eye-liner, lipstick and mascara
and many top off the look with a wig mimicking the coiffures of the feudal era.
Cyzo describes the average middle-aged woman at the festival as closely
resembling typical performers at countryside strip joints who probably should
have retired decades earlier.
There's a reason the dozens of women look a little untoward - they're actually
all men dressed up as members of the opposite sex.
Once the festival starts, the cross-dressing men form a large circle and begin
dancing, which actually means simply thrusting their hips back and forth. Their
jig is accompanied by ribald songs with lurid lyrics such as how women have
suddenly discovered hair on their bodies that wasn't there before, or a little
boy playing in temple grounds who is stung on his family jewels by a bee.
Following the songs, the "women" begin handing out bills to festival-goers. The
rush to get the bills is incredible as they are said to promise good health to
those who receive them.
Though it's probably not the classiest of Japan's festivals, Yasaka Shrine's
Ofuda-maki festival maintains a deep and rich respect for cross-dressers
throughout this country's history.
Cyzo points out that transvestism and homosexuality have long been regarded as
acceptable to Japanese society, dating back to the Edo Period (1603-1868) when
it was regarded as perfectly natural for samurai warriors to sodomize little
boys, for kabuki's onnagata show (male actors performing as females) and even
through to today when cross-dressers like Kenichi Mikawa, Ikko and Yakkun
Sakurazuka make daily appearances on TV.
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