The thousand-year-old Japanese festival of Soma Nomaoi began as a way to train mounted warriors. Photo: AFP <\/p>\n
<\/strong><\/p>\n
Japan’s thousand-year-old samurai horse festival has survived wars, earthquakes and a nuclear disaster. Now it’s battling a new challenge — climate change.<\/p>\n
The Soma\u00a0Nomaoi\u00a0began as a way to train mounted warriors and it still looks the same a millennium later, with riders dressed in samurai\u00a0armour\u00a0competing in horseback events.<\/p>\n
Until 2024, the festival took place at the height of Japan’s\u00a0gruelling\u00a0summers, which had become so hot that riders and spectators were collapsing and horses dying of heatstroke.<\/p>\n
That prompted\u00a0organisers\u00a0to switch the festival to the cooler temperatures of late May.<\/p>\n
Mitsukiyo\u00a0Monma, who has been taking part in the event for 54 years, told AFP that the change had given the festival a new lease of life.<\/p>\n
“You have to wear a kimono under the\u00a0armour, which is not like going out in just a T-shirt in the summer,” said the 69-year-old, adding that he needed medical attention on a day when the mercury was close to 40C.<\/p>\n
“Your clothes would be so soaked that you could wring out the sweat,” he said.<\/p>\n
“When the festival moved to May, it was the first time I could drink hot coffee before going out.”<\/p>\n
Scientists say climate change is making extreme weather events more frequent and severe, and temperatures around the world have soared in recent years.<\/p>\n
Japan is no exception. Last year, the country had its hottest summer since records began in 1898.<\/p>\n
Temperatures rising to 40C and above have become so common that Japan’s weather agency recently created an official designation for them, labelling them “cruelly hot” days.<\/p>\n
‘Truly a samurai’\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Such conditions are hardly ideal for the Soma\u00a0Nomaoi, where participants compete on horseback in samurai\u00a0armour\u00a0weighing around 25 kg.<\/p>\n The main event starts with races around a flat, oval track, with riders carrying giant flags on their backs.<\/p>\n Hundreds of riders then gather in a large grass field and compete to grab\u00a0coloured\u00a0flags that drift to the ground after being fired high into the air.<\/p>\n On the last of the festival’s three days, participants try to grab wild horses with their bare hands and offer them to the gods.<\/p>\n The action is fast and furious, and\u00a0Monma\u00a0says it is serious business for the riders taking part.<\/p>\n “I feel like I’ve truly become a samurai,” he said.<\/p>\n “I feel more courageous, and on the day itself, my whole body and mind tighten.”<\/p>\n The Soma\u00a0Nomaoi\u00a0takes place around\u00a0Minamisoma, almost 300\u00a0kilometres\u00a0(190 miles) north of Tokyo.<\/p>\n It started around 1,000 years ago and records suggest it has been held uninterrupted for at least the last 400 years.<\/p>\n The festivities kept going even in the aftermath of a 2011 earthquake and tsunami that left over 18,000 people dead or missing and caused a devastating meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant.<\/p>\n Fumihiko\u00a0Futakami, director of the\u00a0Minamisoma\u00a0City Museum, says the Soma\u00a0Nomaoi\u00a0was a source of comfort when he was evacuated to Tokyo after the disaster.<\/p>\n “Even for people who have left here and now live elsewhere, when they think of their hometown, they think of mounted warriors,” he said.<\/p>\n “It’s the identity of our town.”<\/p>\n Uncertain future\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The festival’s warrior roots meant only samurai could take part until the feudal system was abolished in the late 19th century.<\/p>\n Women were admitted after World War II, and festival veteran\u00a0Monma\u00a0fulfilled a lifelong dream when his two granddaughters joined him for this year’s event.<\/p>\n It took place under cloudy skies, with the temperature hovering around a pleasant 18C.<\/p>\n There was little chance of a repeat of the 2023 Soma\u00a0Nomaoi, when more than 100 horses and dozens of people needed treatment for heatstroke, and two animals died.<\/p>\n “There isn’t much shade anywhere, so I think this is the most comfortable temperature for everyone,” said 25-year-old\u00a0HarutoInoue, who was visiting from nearby Tochigi to watch the festival for the first time.<\/p>\n “They look so cool in their samurai gear, racing through the mud and giving it everything they’ve got.”<\/p>\n Anyone can participate in the Soma\u00a0Nomaoi, but owning or hiring a horse is not cheap.<\/p>\n The number of participants is steadily declining, and Japan’s ageing population is a major factor.<\/p>\n Monma\u00a0worries that the festival might not survive another 100 years unless\u00a0organisers\u00a0can come up with solutions.<\/p>\n Museum director\u00a0Futakami\u00a0believes moving it away from the punishing summer heat has been a good start.<\/p>\n “The horses are livelier and the participants aren’t so exhausted that they can barely move the next day,” he said.<\/p>\n “I think most people would say it’s been a good thing.”<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The thousand-year-old Japanese festival of Soma Nomaoi began as a way to train mounted warriors. Photo: AFP TOKYO: Japan’s thousand-year-old samurai horse festival has survived wars, earthquakes and a nuclear disaster. Now it’s battling a new challenge — climate change. The Soma\u00a0Nomaoi\u00a0began as a way to train mounted warriors and it still looks the same […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.tribune.com.pk\/media\/images\/img-64811780500199-0\/img-64811780500199-0-640x480.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}