相馬野馬追 Soumanomaoi Soma-Nomaoi Festival (Soma Wild Horse Chase)
|
Soma-Nomaoi is a Shinto ritual annually held for 3 days from July 23 to 25 in Minami Soma City, Fukushima Pref. In this historical event, 500 mounted horsemen in traditional samurai armor ride through the towns and head for the open field, where they scramble for shrine flags of the three Myoken Shrines in this region and pursue unsaddled horses to capture as offerings to a Shinto deity. Soma-Nomaoi has its origin in a military exercise done more than 1,000 years ago by General Taira no Masakado, the ancestor of the later holders of the Soma clan, in which he released wild horses on to the plain for his cavalry to pursue and capture. The residents of ancient “Go (an administrative territory)” act as samurai horsemen, and each “Go” belongs to one of the three shrines of Nakamura Shrine, Ota Shrine, and Odaka Shrine. Soma-Nomaoi was nationally designated as an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property in 1978.
- address
- 2-27 Moto-machiHaramachi-kuMinamisouma-shiFukushimaJapan 975-0008
- name
- Minamisoumashi-kankoukouryuuka
- phone
- 0244-22-3064
- hp
- http://www6.ocn.ne.jp/~nomaoi/