“I gave a horse sake once; she went crazy! Pahahah!”

The Umattobakashi Festival takes place in Shimoyoshida every year from September 18th through the 19th. In Shimoyoshida they say that horses, or “Uma” in Japanese, “fly” instead of run. “Flying” in Japanese is “tobu,” and that is where the name “Umattobakashi” originated.

Its official name is the “Yabusame Festival”. It’s a festival that’s common in various regions, where people engage in horseback archery. However, the horseback archery practices here at Shimosengen feel a little different.

Unlike regular horseback archery, which evokes a cool image of sleek bows and arrows bulls eyeing targets from atop a galloping steed, this festival isn’t about any of that. That’s because the horses picked for this festival actually belong to farmers. Being selected as an archery horse is a great honor, one that every farmer vied for.

They’re docile work hands at the best of times. But there have been times where they’ve become violent during the festivals.

One time, a horse went berserk after being fed sake. Those who saw it run roughshod through the Gekkoji shopping district talk about it feverishly; some people even got trampled by it. Others talk about the time a horse ran all the way to Shimoyoshida station with a child atop a saddle that had rotated upside down, to the horse’s belly.

The land across the road used for horseback archery used to be prosperous. It was used to prevent the town from being flooded by snowmelt runoff from Mt. Fuji. Nowadays that risk is reduced, and it’s used for a rental storehouse.

However, the road itself hasn’t changed after all these years. It has never once been paved.
The main draw of the Umattobakashi Festival isn’t the archery. What people actually pay attention to is the hoofprints left in the horses’ wake. Temple soothsayers track the hoofprints to prognosticate the year ahead for the town.

“This year there will be a fire in this region, as well as strife. Take caution.”

Such predictions would be made based on the horses’ hoofprints, get passed around the neighborhood, and the region in question would take precautions against fires. The people of this region continue to set great stock by these predictions to this day.