Discovering Horses in Japan
Six years ago, I took a journey to Japan to teach English and to learn what I could about horses in this country. I am quite passionate about researching and learning about horses in different cultures and time periods. When people think of Japan, they normally don’t think of horses, but horses have played a huge part in both historical and modern day Japan.
Horses in Religion
In Japan’s native religion, Shinto, horses have been known to be the mount of the kami (gods). In modern day Japan, visitors can buy Ema boards with different artwork where you write your prayer on the back of the board and leave it a the shrine. While in Japan, I bought one with a white horse on it, but I kept it instead of offering it back in prayer.
White horses are seen as sacred in Japan, and this tradition stems from when one of the first Emperor’s gifted a white horse to a shrine in prayer. These days, statues of horses take place of the horses that once resided at shrines and ema boards can be found with a white horse on it. There is one shrine, Toshougu Shrine in Nikko, that still houses one sacred white horse, who was a gift from New Zealand to Japan.
Horses are also used in traditional festivals and Shinto religion practices. Yabusame (mounted archery) is a religious ceremony held at different shrines throughout Japan. Horses are dressed in traditional tack and riders in ceremonial and traditional garb shoot arrows at targets. In very rural areas of Japan, such as Iwate prefecture, horses are still brought to shrines on certain festival days to pray for the horses’ health and well being after rice planting season.
Horses in History
For centuries, horses have been used as a food source, means of transportation, and as an advantage in war. Consuming horse meat is a tradition stemming back to when consumption meant survival, but in modern day Japan horse meat is seen as a delicacy, and as a traditional food in some regions. This issue is a source of contention between the western world and horse lovers around the world as Western horses are shipped to Japan for slaughter.
Horses were a means for transportation and farming in ancient times. I learned when I visited the Nihon Minkaen Open Air Museum in Kawasaki, that horses stalls were attached some of the houses, usually by the entryway of the house. This ensured the safety of the horse and protected farming families from losing a valuable farming animal.
Japanese samurai for centuries were the only warriors allowed to ride horses into battle. A native breed, the Kiso, was the chosen mount for Samurai because of this breed’s quickness and hardiness. Samurai fought with swords, spears, and arrows from horseback in battles. The tradition of using horses in war continued into the 1940’s in Japan. After WWII, the native horse breeds suffered and the breeds continued to decline in modern day Japan.
Horses in Modern Japan
Keeping a horse in Japan is a luxury that only wealthy individuals or those with farmland are able to maintain. Western influence has brought sports such as horse racing, jumping, and dressage to the country and riding schools and clubs are maintained throughout the country. The Museum of the Horse is maintained in Yokohama and can be accessed by public transportation.
Hokkaido island is the main island where Thoroughbred breeding farms are located, but horse racetracks can be found in Tokyo, Chiba, and Kawasaki and other major cities on Honshu island. Horse racing is popular in Japan and products including key chains, stuffed animals, mugs, pens, folders of popular racehorses can be found in the gift shops.
Horses are still kept by organizations for traditional ceremonies and festivals, but the native breeds of Japan are in decline and listed as endangered or critical. Many people in Japan now prefer the larger western breeds that are either bred or imported to Japan.
I can only hope the efforts of some people will help to maintain the eight native horse breeds of Japan. I feel it would be a great cultural loss if the native breeds went extinct.
