Soma-Nomaoi is a festival that recreates a battle scene from more than 1,000 years ago. It is annually held for 4 days from July 22 to 25 in Haramachi City, Fukushima Prefecture, in the eastern part of Japan. In this historical event, 600 mounted samurai in traditional Japanese armor, with long swords at their side and ancestral flagstaffs streaming from their backs, ride across open fields. Soma-Nomaoi has been designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property.

Photo: A young woman (C) clad in samurai costume leads other local poeple as she rides her horse during a parade at the annual Soma Nomaoi festival in Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture, on July 28, 2012. The traditional full-scale festival kicked off for the first time after the accident of the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant following the massive earthquake and the tsunami on March 11, 2011. (Photo by Toru Yamanaka/AFP Photo)

A man dressed in traditional clothes tries to pull his opponent over the table at the 40th Alpine Country Championships in Fingerhakeln_finger wrestling_ in Woernsmuehl, Germany, Thursday, May 25, 2017. Competitors battled for the title in this traditional rural sport where the winner has to pull his opponent over a marked line on the table. (Photo by Matthias Schrader/AP Photo)

A photographer could bear-ly believe his eyes when a bear started waving at him. The friendly animal wandered to the front of his enclosure before sitting back in full view of zoo guests. He then lifts his powerful paw and excitedly waves in an almost human-like way at his new audience. The hilarious encounter was captured by keen photographer Andrey Slepnev, 31, while on a trip to Madrid Zoo, Spain on March 24, 2016. (Photo by Andrey Slepnev/Caters News)

Hindu devotees perform rituals during the Bol Bom pilgrimage, on the outskirts of Kathmandu, Nepal, Monday, August 8, 2016. During this pilgrimage, devotees walk miles barefooted before offering water collected from Bagmati river, at the Pashupatinath temple in Katmandu. Shravan Somwar or Monday of Hindu calendar month of Shravan is considered auspicious for offering prayers to Lord Shiva, the god of destruction. (Photo by Niranjan Shrestha/AP Photo)

Girls take a selfie at the haze shrouded Batanghari River bridge in Jambi, Indonesia Sumatra island, September 14, 2015. Indonesian islands are blanketed in the so-called “haze”, caused by slash-and-burn clearances on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo, which makes thousands sick, delays flights and pushes air quality to unhealthy levels in neighboring Singapore and Malaysia. (Photo by Reuters/Beawiharta)

A lone male cheetah is set upon by a pack of African wild dogs. Peter Haygarth had been following the dogs as they hunted in Zimanga Private Game Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. On first encountering the cheetah, the dogs were wary, but as the rest of the pack arrived, their confidence grew and they began to encircle the cat. Peter kept his focus on the cat’s face. In a few minutes the spat was over as the cheetah fled. (Behaviour: mammals category). (Photo by Peter Haygarth)

Alexandra Mazo, 12, with her cellphone on her way down the mountain after finishing school. The remote mountain village of Pueblo Nuevo has been highly affected by the armed conflict and direct combat between the national army and Farc guerrillas due to its strategic location and the intensive production on coca crops on the surrounding hillsides. (Photo by Mads Nissen/Politiken/The Guardian/Panos Pictures/The Nobel Peace Center)

Mark Dill and Brit Thacker practice acro-yoga as approximately 70,000 people from all over the world gather for the 30th annual Burning Man arts and music festival in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada, U.S. August 29, 2016. (Photo by Jim Urquhart/Reuters)