No.23 Visit to the Soma Nomaoi

(Inagi Newsletter September 15, 2013 issue)

Inagi City continues to send staff on long-term assignments to support the reconstruction of Soma City in Fukushima Prefecture, and since April 2013, new staff have been dispatched to replace their predecessors.
As I had received an invitation to the Soma Nomaoi from Mayor Tachiya, I visited Soma City from July 27 to 28, 2013, to encourage the dispatched staff.
The founder of the Soma family, Taira no Kojiro Masakado, about 1,000 years ago, while holding an official position in Soma Mikuriya (a vast estate that spans present-day Toride City and Moriya City in Ibaraki Prefecture, as well as Kashiwa City, Nagareyama City, and Abiko City in Chiba Prefecture), considered the use of horses as a new military force. He pastured wild horses in Koganehara, Katsushika District, Shimousa Province (near present-day Nagareyama City in Chiba Prefecture), gathered soldiers from eight provinces in northern Kanto, and conducted military training by chasing the wild horses, treating them as enemy soldiers. It is said that the beginning of this practice was to offer the captured horses before the gods and hold it as the Myoken festival.
After that, in the 3rd year of Genkyo (1323), the Soma clan moved to Okushu Namegata District (currently Minamisoma City), and it is said that the successive lords of Soma continued to rule until the Meiji Restoration.
On the morning of the second day of the festival, approximately 500 mounted warriors will enter the Hibari-gahara Festival Grounds via public roads in a procession. The sight of each participant clad in ancestral armor is breathtaking and truly worthy of being designated as an important intangible folk cultural asset by the country.
After entering, the "Armored Horse Racing" and "Divine Flag Battle" took place, both of which were wonderful festivals reminiscent of the Sengoku period.
It was a visit that not only surprised me that a descendant of the Soma family still serves as the commander, continuing an event that has lasted over 1,000 years, but also allowed me to experience the depth of Japanese traditional culture.
This festival was canceled in the year of the Great East Japan Earthquake, and after a scaled-down implementation last year, it has been fully resumed this year. We are proud that Inagi City can support the historically rich Soma City, and we would like to express our gratitude to the citizens who are backing us and to the staff.