MINAMI-SOMA, Fukushima Prefecture--Hundreds of horseback riders in samurai armor recreated the splendor of feudal Japan at the Soma Nomaoi festival here July 27.
MINAMI-SOMA, Fukushima Prefecture--Hundreds of horseback riders in samurai armor recreated the splendor of feudal Japan at the Soma Nomaoi festival here July 27.
The highlight of the festivities was the equestrian competition in which the riders thundered around the Hibarigahara track in the Haramachi district before thousands of spectators.
The festival, which dates back 1,000 years or so, has been designated by the government as an important intangible folk-cultural property.
It has been held four times since the nuclear disaster triggered by the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami to encourage recovery efforts.
Just months after the catastrophe, local residents organized a drastically scaled down version of the festival.
But this year, the scale of the festival was back to pre-disaster levels, although not without some difficulties. Some 1,000 participants were decked out in samurai attire. They paraded with 450 horses in the manner depicted in centuries-old scrolls, drawing exclamations of delight from spectators.
The festival site is located close to the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. Some of the participants are living as evacuees in temporary housing or rented homes and apartments.
Many former residents of the mandatory evacuation zone were unable to attend or unable to procure horses to ride.