[Soma City, Fukushima Prefecture] A brave festival where cavalry warriors compete. “Soma Nomaoi” has a history of over 1000 years

In the Soma region of Fukushima Prefecture, there is a heroic festival called ``Soma Nomaoi,'' which is said to have a history of more than 1,000 years, and where mounted warriors wearing armor compete. Festivals held over three days on the last Saturday, Sunday, and Monday of July each year include ``Kacchu Keiba'', ``Shinki Sodatsusen'', and ``Nomakake''. The audience of 200,000 people goes wild. ``Soma Nomaoi'' has been designated as a national important intangible folk cultural property.

400 cavalry warriors fight to the death

"Soma Nomaoi" is a festival that was held on the territory of the Soma Nakamura domain (Oshu Nakamura domain, Nakamura domain, Soma domain, Mutsu Nakamura domain, Oshu Soma Nakamura domain), which ruled this area during the Edo period. Northern Hamadori, Fukushima Prefecture

• Soma City
• Minamisoma City
• Namie Town
• Futaba Town
• Okuma Town
• Iitate Village
• Katsurao Village

It almost overlaps with 2 cities, 3 towns, and 2 villages.

The Soma Nakamura domain divided its territory into districts (villages), and horseback warriors from each district participated in festivals as companions to the mikoshi of the shrine that was the guardian deity. Even today, most of the village has been inherited.

• Udago (Soma City)
• Kitago (Kitago/Kashima Ward, Minamisoma City)
• Nakanogo (Haramachi Ward, Minamisoma City, Iitate Village)
• Odaka-go (Odaka-ku, Minamisoma City)
• Shinehago (Namie Town, Futaba Town, Okuma Town, Katsurao Village)

Five townships compete for supremacy.

The shrine of the ujigami

• Soma Nakamura Shrine (guardian deity of Udago and Kitago)
• Soma Ota Shrine (guardian deity of Nakanosato)
• Soma Odaka Shrine (guardian deity of Odaka-go and Shibeha-go)

The festival begins with a total of over 400 mounted warriors gathered at the shrine of the guardian deity of the three shrines known as Soma Myoken Sansha.

“Soma Nomaoi” schedule

Soma Nomaoi is held every year over a three-day schedule, with the following content:

• Day 1 Departure/Evening ride
• Second day main festival
• Day 3 Nomagake

We will introduce an excerpt of the highlights of the first, second, and third days.

Day 1: Departure/evening ride

[Departure]

From a little after 8 a.m. until noon, the participants gathered at the local shrine and set out for the festival's main venue, Hibarigahara Festival Grounds (Haramachi Ward, Minamisoma City).

The commander-in-chief is the head of the Soma Nakamura clan for generations, and the marching ceremony is held at Soma Nakamura Shrine.

[Evening ride]

The cavalry procession arrives at the Hibarigahara Festival Ground, undergoes a Baba Kiyome ceremony, and then the evening horse racing is held as a prelude to the next day's Armored Horse Racing.

Day 2: Main Festival

[Line]

Once the cavalry warriors gather in Minamisoma City's Ogawamachi area in the morning, they walk through the town towards Hibarigahara Festival Grounds.

The procession, in which armored warriors ride decorated horses and parade in formation with the Nakanogo group in the lead, is truly a gorgeous period picture scroll.

[Armor horse racing]

The cavalry warriors gather at the Hibarigahara festival grounds, and at 12:00 noon, the ``Kacchu Horse Racing'' begins with the sound of a conch shell.

Warriors in armor and white headbands ride horses, waving their ancestral flags as they gallop around the 1,000m long stadium. The competition depends on the number of horses participating, but it is contested approximately 10 times, with approximately 10 horses competing in each race.

[Battle for Divine Flag]

While the excitement of the ``Kacchu Horse Racing'' cannot be contained, another highlight, the ``Kami Flag Battle,'' begins.

Hundreds of cavalry warriors fight for the two sacred flags that are launched high by fireworks. The festival reaches its climax with a total of 40 divine flags and 20 ``divine flag battles.''

Day 3: Nomagake

On the third day, an important Shinto ritual called ``Nomakake'' will be held at Soma Odaka Shrine. The origin is that wild horses were captured and offered to the gods. After the ceremony and dedication dance, "Nomagake" begins at around 10am.

Young men in white costumes and headbands, called kobito, capture naked horses driven into the grounds of the former Odaka Castle by dozens of mounted warriors with their bare hands and offer them to the shrine. ``Nomagake'' has been held since ancient times, and is the event that led to ``Soma Nomaoi'' being designated as a national important intangible folk cultural property.

The wild horses are successfully dedicated at Nomagake, and the regular festival ceremony is held, and the three-day Soma Nomaoi comes to an end before noon.

The history of "Soma Nomaoi" dating back to the Heian period

The origins of ``Soma Nomaoi'' date back approximately 1,000 years to the end of the Heian period. Taira no Masakado (903?-940), a powerful samurai family who ruled the Kanto region at the time, lived in Shimousa Province, Koganehara, and Matsudo, Kamagaya City, Chiba Prefecture. Military exercises (Nomaoi) were conducted using wild horses, which were abundant in the areas around Nagareyama City, Kashiwa City, and Nagareyama City, as enemy soldiers. The horses captured at that time were dedicated to the guardian god Myoken (a faith whose principal image was Myoken Bodhisattva, which spread throughout Chiba Prefecture). After that, Nomaoi was inherited by the Soma clan (Shimosa Soma clan) whose territory was Soma District, Shimousa Province, and part of the Shimousa Soma clan moved to Oshu Namekata District (around Minami Soma City, Fukushima Prefecture). Since then, it has been held in Oshu.

However, in the Edo period, military training by feudal domains across the country was prohibited by the Shogunate. Although Nomaoi had a strong military training aspect, it was exempted from regulations and continued until the Meiji Restoration under the guise of ``a ritual to dedicate sacred horses to Myoken.''

``Soma Nomaoi'' has overcome the threat of extinction and has been revived in a new form.

After the Meiji Restoration, Nomaoi temporarily disappeared, but in 1878 (Meiji 11) it was revived as a joint Shinto ritual of Soma Nakamura Shrine, Soma Ota Shrine, and Soma Odaka Shrine as an event sponsored by the Oshu Nakamura Domain. The ``Divine Flag Battle'' is an event that began around that time, and instead of chasing and capturing wild horses, people compete for the Divine Flag by pretending it to be a horse.

"Kacchu Horse Racing" is a sport that was born after World War II. Nomaoi originally had a strong military element, but it was started after the war to weaken the military flavor. The symbol of the peace festival was the Armored Horse Race. The first one was held in 1948 (Showa 23).

``Soma Nomaoi'' has been in danger of being canceled many times in its history of over 1,000 years. Recently, the event has been forced to be canceled or scaled back many times due to the Great East Japan Earthquake and the global pandemic of the new coronavirus.

Soma Nomaoi INFORMATION

• Date: Last Saturday, Sunday, Monday of July
• Venues: Soma Nakamura Shrine, Soma Ota Shrine, Soma Odaka Shrine, Hibarigahara Festival Ground, and other areas in Minamisoma, Soma City, Iitate Village, Namie Town, Futaba Town, Okuma Town, Katsurao, which belong to the Sosou region of Fukushima Prefecture. Village and various places in Shinchi-cho, Soma-gun
• Contact: Soma Nomaoi Executive Committee
• Phone number: 0244-22-3064/0244-24-5263
• Official URL: https://soma-nomaoi.jp/

Three shrines called Soma Myoken Sansha and Hibarigahara festival grounds

Soma Nomaoi begins with everyone gathering at the Soma Myoken Sansha shrines, which are the guardian deities of each town, and heading out to Hibarigahara Festival Grounds, the main venue of the festival. What kind of places are the three shrines and Hibarigahara festival grounds involved in Nomaoi?

Soma Ota Shrine

It is said that it began in 1321 when Soma Maggoro Shigetane, the founder of the Mutsu Soma clan, who moved to this area from Shimousa Province, built a shrine to enshrine Myoken, whom he revered as his guardian deity. Masu.

It has been worshiped as the guardian deity of the Soma clan of the Nakamura domain for generations. Even today, he is worshiped as the guardian deity of cattle, horses, and livestock.

INFORMATION

• Name: Soma Ota Shrine
• Address: 143 Nakaota Tatekoshi, Haramachi Ward, Minamisoma City, Fukushima Prefecture
• Phone number: 0244-23-2058

GOOGLE MAP

Soma Odaka Shrine

This shrine is located on the site of Odaka Castle, the former home base of the Soma clan. It is said that the Soma clan, who moved to this area, built a castle in Odaka in 1332, and when they moved there, they also moved the Myoken deity that was enshrined in Ota to the castle grounds.

Even after the castle was abandoned in 1611, it was enshrined as Myoken Shrine, but after the war it was renamed Soma Odaka Shrine.

This is the place where the most important ritual of Soma Nomaoi, ``Nomagake,'' is held.

INFORMATION

• Name: Soma Odaka Shrine
• Address: 13 Kojo, Odaka, Odaka-ku, Minamisoma City, Fukushima Prefecture
• Phone number: 0244-44-2323

GOOGLE MAP

Soma Nakamura Shrine

It all began when the Soma clan, who had been based at Odaka Castle, moved the castle to Soma Nakamura in 1611, and the Myoken Shrine, which had been enshrined within Odaka Castle, was also moved to Soma Nakamura Castle.

Not only has it been revered as the guardian deity of the Soma family for generations, but it also stands on the west side of the Nakamura Castle ruins as the general guardian of the Soma region.

INFORMATION

• Name: Soma Nakamura Shrine
• Address: 140 Kitamachi, Nakamura, Soma City, Fukushima Prefecture
• Phone number: 0244-35-3363

GOOGLE MAP

Hibarigahara festival ground

Hibarigahara Festival Grounds is the main venue for the festival, where the Soma Nomaoi ritual, armored horse racing, and divine flag contest are held.

At first glance, it looks like a vast playground, but there are also horse stalls and a box for horse manure, so you can tell that it is a land dedicated to the Nomaoi festival.

It is managed as an enclave for Soma Nakamura Shrine, Soma Ota Shrine, and Soma Odaka Shrine, and you can sometimes see Nomaoi practicing outside of the festival period.

INFORMATION

• Name: Hibarigahara Festival Ground
• Address: 4-13-27 Hashimoto-cho, Haramachi-ku, Minamisoma City, Fukushima Prefecture
• Contact: Soma Nomaoi Executive Committee
• Phone number: 0244-22-3064/0244-24-5263

GOOGLE MAP