Soma Nomaoi

Little knownBarely documented in English. This is the kind of place the site exists for.

Investigado y escrito por Hinato

Soma Nomaoisamuraihorse racingMinamisomafolk cultural property

Photo: Hajime NAKANO from Tokyo, Japan / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0) · original

Soma Nomaoi is a thousand-year-old military exercise that never stopped being one. Several hundred riders in genuine family armour, carrying their own ancestral banners, ride through the towns of the Soma coast over three days.

The centre of it is Hibarigahara, where two events take place: kacchu keiba, armoured horse racing over a flat course with the riders in full harness, and shinki sodatsusen, in which sacred flags are fired into the air by fireworks and the horsemen fight for them as they fall. On the third day, at a shrine, unarmed men in white drive loose horses into a pen and catch them barehanded. The dates moved from July to the last weekend of May from 2024, because of the summer heat.

Información esencial

Horario

Three days from the last Saturday of May

Cerrado: Held once a year

Entrada

Free to watch from public areas | Paid grandstand seating at Hibarigahara sold in advance

Mejor temporada

Last weekend of May

Duración de la visita

A full day for the main day

Cómo llegar

Información de acceso

Hibarigahara festival ground, Haramachi-ku, Minamisoma, with events also in Soma and Namie. Held over three days from the last Saturday of May, having moved from July from 2024. Day one has the departure ceremonies and evening horse racing, day two the procession, armoured horse racing and sacred flag competition at Hibarigahara, and day three the horse-catching ritual at the shrine. Paid grandstand seating at Hibarigahara is sold in advance; confirm the current year's dates and ticketing with the organising committee.

Guía privilegiada

**The dates moved to May.** From 2024 it runs on the last weekend of May rather than in July, because of heat risk to horses and riders. A lot of older material still says July. **Day two at Hibarigahara is the main event.** Armoured racing and the sacred flag competition. Grandstand seats are sold in advance and the ground is exposed with very little shade. **The armour is real and family-owned.** These are not costumes hired for a festival. The banners are ancestral and the riders are descendants, which is what separates this from a reconstruction. **Day three is the oldest part.** The horse-catching ritual, with unarmed men in white driving loose horses into a shrine pen, is the ritual the whole thing grew out of and is much less watched. **Book accommodation early.** The Soma coast has limited lodging and it fills for the festival weekend months ahead.

Ver en Google Maps