The Marmot’s Hole

The Joongang did carry something useful, however:

It’s the first pic I’ve seen from the inside of the Asia Eros Museum in Seoul. And boy, harabeoji over there better be careful - wouldn’t want to tax the guy’s ticker too much.

Coincidentally, for those planning a weekend excursion out of town, you might want to take a look at this June piece from the Travel Chosun (part of the Chosun Ilbo family) which I ran into looking for info on the museum. Anyway, a couple of towns in Korea have age-old stone and/or “wood” penises and vaginas either on display or in their original locations. Strangely enough, the piece makes no mention of the area around Jeongju, North Cholla Province, which is a veritable cornucopia of stone dicks - I know this, because I’ve been in the area looking for them, and have pictures of both me and an ex-girlfriend standing next to quite large and relatively anatomically correct rock penises. Anyways, the best part of these things are the stories connected to them. Concerning a pair of rocks shaped like vaginas found in Jeongseon County, Kangwon Province, the Chosun writes:

Originally, only the two rocks [shaped like vaginas], which were discovered while building the railroad, were put on display. But villagers covered them back up again with dirt, fearing that they might spark wantoness in married women who touched them thoughtlessly. After this, car accidents occured on nearby roads, and people continuously fell ill, so the villagers dug them back up again [Note to Kevin at IA - I figured you'd get a kick out of that].

My favorite, however, is this one behind the wood penises of Weondeok-myeon, Samcheok City, Kangwon Province:

Long ago, a young virgin [I'm assuming she was young] was collecting seaweed on a nearby rock at the seashore when she was swept away by the waves and died. Afterwords, no fish could be caught. To placate the dead virgin’s soul, villagers carved several life-sized wood penises and held a sacrificial ceremony. After that, the villagers began catching fish again.

Since then, the villagers have preserved the “penis worship ceremony” [best translation I can come up with], in which they carve penises, hang them on a shrine, and perform a sacrificial ceremony on the 15th day of the first lunar month and the 5th day of the tenth lunar month of every year.

Driving all the way out to Samcheok to see wood dicks hanging on a shrine might seem a little bothersome, but you can’t spend every weekend getting smashed in Itaewon, now can you?