Encyclopedia of Shinto

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カテゴリー1： 5. Rites and Festivals
カテゴリー2： Individual Shrine Observances
Title
Haya-uma matsuri
Text
Fast Horse Festival. A festival held in the hope of ensuring an abundance of livestock. Held on the vernal equinox at Ukemochi Shrine, on the grounds of Nitta Shrine (Nitta jinja) in Miyauchi Town, Sendai City, Kagoshima Prefecture. Ritual wands (gohei) and papier-mache drums (dendendaiko) are mounted on horses which have been colorfully adorned cloth, rope, and bells. The procession sets off in the early morning. After the ritual service, the horses, pulled by ten or so youths, prance and jump to the accompaniment of shamisen music surrounded by the people gathered on the shrine grounds (keidai) by more than ten young people prance and leap about to the rhythms of shamisen music in the middle of a circle formed by the crowd on the shrine grounds (keidai). The festival is also known as the Horse Dance.
On February 18, at Kagoshima Shrine (Kagoshima jingū) in Hayato Town, Aira District, Kagoshima Prefecture, there is a Horse Dance called the Festival of the Bell-Adorned Horses.
— Mogi Sakae

Pronunciation in Japanese/用語音声

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