Japan’s thousand-year-old Soma Nomaoi festival, featuring armoured horseriders carrying out a ritual charge across the countryside, continues despite centuries of upheavals, including wars, earthquakes and the 2011 nuclear disaster. Multiple outlets report that in recent years the event faces a newer threat: extreme summer heat linked to climate change.
According to France 24, organisers say temperatures that have risen in recent years put both riders and horses at risk, and the festival was increasingly difficult to run under the traditional summer schedule. France 24 also reports that the organisers have begun adapting by moving the festival to spring. Other coverage from Daily Sabah frames the same development as a response to the modern challenge of extreme heat, describing how the festival’s long history of survival is being tested again.
Overall, sources agree that the festival remains active and that organisers are changing the timing to reduce exposure to high temperatures.
