The Horse-running Ritual of Honmoku Shrine

Overview

For four hundred years, the Honmoku Shrine in Yokohama’s Naka Ward has hosted the Oumanagashi Horse Running Festival to ward off evil. The day before the festival, ouma horse figures made from sedge grass and placed on boards are passed overhead by shrine parishioners dressed in formal costume until they enter the shrine. On the day of the festival, the ouma are paraded through the streets, then transferred to festival boats, floated out, and abandoned to the sea.