Kirk here with a follow-up to the “abareuma” (pissed off horse) feature of the Fujisakigu festival. As I wrote in a previous post about how horses are made to kick up their hind legs and act wild, I’ve come to the conclusion that “pissed-off horses” (that is, abareuma) are not an “unfortunate side effect” but, rather, a primary feature of the festival:
When I searched for “暴れ馬” (abareuma), the Roasso football (soccer) logo kept coming up. That lead me to the following page which explains that the horse you see in the Roasso emblem is indeed a reference to the “pissed-off horses” in the local festival.
https://football-emblem.com/roasso-kumamoto/
Personally, there’s a part of me that can understand the attractiveness of a majestic, powerful horse rearing up. The word “virile” comes to mind. And, it’s not hard to understand why festival goers would enjoy something they see as an expression of virility. The problem I’ve come to recognize is that lots of revelers wanting to see “virile” horses tends to lead handlers to treat their horses badly.
Conclusion: The point of this post about the Roasso emblem is that “pissed-off horses” is not a side effect but a feature and therefore not an easy problem to fix.