More than 100 horses suffer sunstroke during Japanese samurai festival

Organisers of historical event are now contemplating altering dates for next year’s event

People wearing samurai armour race horses during the annual Soma Nomaoi Festival in Minamisoma, Fukushima prefecture on 29 July 2012 (AFP via Getty Images)

At least 111 horses suffered sunstrokes and two of them died during this year’s samurai festival in Japan, prompting organisers to contemplate altering dates for next year’s event.

During the Soma Nomaoi festival in Fukushima prefecture in Japan, which took place on 29-31 July, temperatures reached 35C, the highest in five years.

The sunstrokes at this year’s event led to Yoshichika Hirata, a member of the festival’s executive committee, to tell local media that a discussion about shifting next year’s event to a cooler season would take place during a meeting on Thursday.

“We sprinkled water on the track for the first time, as extreme heat was expected. We used three water-sprinkler cars, but it dried up quickly,” Mr Hirata was quoted as saying by AFP.

As a result, over 111 horses and numerous individuals required treatment for sunstroke.

Two of the horses died, the organisers said.

Japan experienced its highest average July temperatures in more than a century this year.

On Tuesday, heatstroke warnings were active in 26 of the country’s 47 prefectures, with temperatures projected to reach 38C in certain areas.

For the three-day festival, more than 400 mounted samurai, adorned with ancestral flags and wearing armour, portray a captivating portrayal of Japan’s Age of Warring States from the 15th and 16th centuries.

Over the course of three days, attendees have the opportunity to immerse themselves in a journey back in time, experiencing activities that transport them a millennium into the past.

The annual event attracted more than 120,000 people, reports said.

Following the death of a horse during the previous year’s festival, a survey conducted last December revealed a majority of riders endorsed a proposal to alter the event’s date.