In ancient Japanese defloration rites, the girl was obligated to present herself willingly, with a gift, to the Shinto priest or his substitute. The gift, traditionally rice wrapped in red "fundoshi" or trousers, was the symbol of the sacred defloration.
To this day, traces of these defloration practices remain. Mothers bring their daughters to the temple of Fuchioka near Nagasaki prior to marriage and present them to a priest.
He places between the girl's legs a ritual phallus and symbolically re-enacts the gesture of sacred deflowering. In a ceremonial sense, the religious implications of virginity are still being re-enacted.
