Soma Nomaoi is a traditional event featuring samurai and horses, held mainly in Minamisoma City in the coastal area of Fukushima Prefecture. It originates from military training conducted by Taira no Masakado over 1,000 years ago, in which wild horses were treated as enemy soldiers and chased. Although it was once banned by the Kamakura Shogunate, the Soma clan, who were his descendants, continued the practice by taking on the guise of a religious ritual (shinji), thereby evading the Shogunate's order to ban military training. It was maintained even after the Soma clan relocated to Fukushima. Following the end of the samurai society brought about by the Meiji government, the tradition came close to dying out, but it was kept alive as a traditional event by former samurai and local residents.
In modern times, it is held for three days at the end of May, with the main events being a parade, armored horse racing, and a battle for the sacred flags, all of which began after the Meiji period. Unlike other festivals that pray for bountiful harvests and the like, it takes the guise of a religious ritual but has few religious restrictions because its roots lie in military training. Perhaps for this reason, it is characterized by its flexible adjustments to change with the times, such as moving the event from July to May to cope with the intense summer heat, and relaxing the criteria for female participation.
by SUBARU2012BMG