Chagu Chagu Umakko

Chagu Chagu Umakko is a festival offering thanks to farm horses, held from Takizawa to Morioka in Iwate Prefecture on the second Saturday of June each year. Known as a heartwarming early-summer tradition in which around 100 horses dressed in vividly colored attire march while their bells ring out, it is designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Japan.

The endearing name "Chagu Chagu" derives from the cool sound—"chagu chagu"—made by the many bells attached to the horses' bodies as they move in step with the horses' gait. It has long been handed down as an event to console horses, once indispensable workers for cultivation and transport, and to pray for their health and safety. Iwate has been known since ancient times as a famous horse-producing region for the "Nanbu koma," with a regional culture in which people and horses are deeply connected as its backdrop.

On the day of the festival, horses clad in colorful and gorgeous "hana-gura" attire depart from Onikoshi Sōzen Shrine in Takizawa and march the roughly 13-kilometer route to Morioka Hachimangū in Morioka. The sight of the procession of horses carrying children, advancing leisurely along the early-summer roads of Iwate, is pastoral and soothes the people along the route. The procession of horses advancing to the sound of bells is a precious folk event of which Iwate is proud, conveying to this day the history of the Tōhoku region where people and horses have coexisted, and the spirit of gratitude toward animals.