Tado Festival Participants Face Animal Cruelty Charges
Five people who participated in the 2009 Tado Festival have been charged with animal cruelty:
The five men were suspected of beating the bellies and backsides of horses with sticks and kicking them in the ribs on May 5, 2009, during a Shinto festival that dates back to the 14th century. According to Kuwana police, the five men admitted to the charges. Police had been investigating the case after receiving complaints from animal rights groups in May 2010.
The Shinto festival called “Ageuma-Shinji” (Horse-riding Shinto ritual), held every May to predict whether there will be a good rice harvest for the year, involves young men riding horses up a steep slope along the stone stairway leading to the Tado Shrine. The festival is designated by the prefecture as an intangible folklore cultural asset. It has long been pointed out that animals were abused and minors were drinking and smoking during the festival.
Some of the footage in the news report includes what appears to be people slapping the backside of horses that are running up the hill.
When the horses reach the top of the steep hill, they are expected to leap over a 3-meter embankment. It is not easy and many of the horses fall. Injuries occur: earlier this year, one horse had to be euthanized after breaking its leg during a similar festival in another part of Mie prefecture.
The charges against the 5 people represent the latest battle in a war that animal welfare groups have been waging against the festival:
One of the most vocal groups opposing the Age-Uma, the Equine Protection and Management Research Project (EPMRP), has been looking out for the welfare of horses in Japan since 2000 and started the Age-Uma Shinji campaign in 2003. Its efforts have forced changes such as halting the use of ropes to pull the horses over the wall, eliminating the beating, teasing and abuse of the horses during the event and ending the use of stimulants and other doping—at least in view of the public—to excite the horses.
The changes made to the Age-Uma in the last couple years were significant enough for the EPMRP to call off their formal campaign. But some spectators still wince at the treatment of the horses during the festival, indicating that certain issues have yet to be addressed to everyone’s satisfaction.
On the other side of the coin are the traditionalists. The Age-Uma festival dates back hundreds of years and is important enough for the government to declare it an Intangible Cultural Property of Mie Prefecture. If traditions are altered to accommodate every new wave of political correctness, are they really being maintained in their true form? Are they in danger of becoming sterilized versions of the past, cleaned up and made palatable for the modern world and thereby losing any real authenticity? It’s certainly something to ponder while watching the drunken revelry of the event.
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