Home Front cover PHOTO ESSAYS LIFE FORCE
The magazine of the art-form of the photo-essay “A free, really high quality photo-essay magazine.  Fabulous!” Stephen Fry. British actor, writer and film & documentary maker
Nov2015 back issue
Nuclear Samurai
by Thom Davies
Nuclear Samurai is a photography project about masculinity and disaster. The 2011 Fukushima accident not only permanently displaced thousands of people in Japan, but also challenged the role that men hold in society.  Thom explores this theme photographically in this project, focussing on the Soma Nomaoi Horse Festival, situated on the northern edge of Fukushima’s nuclear Exclusion Zone.  This ancient festival involves three days of pageantry and competition, where men take centre stage. The festival had to be cancelled in 2011 due to fears of nuclear contamination, and only recently have numbers of attendees been increasing. Many people who participate have been personally impacted by the tsunami, earthquake and nuclear accident that afflicted this region. As with other catastrophic events, nuclear disasters have often been portrayed as landscapes where women are vulnerable and men are stoic in the face of adversity. ‘Chernobyl babushkas’ and ‘Fukushima mothers’ embody the icon of the nuclear victim, leaving men out the picture: hidden behind hazmat suits or memorialised in stone as the brave ‘Liquidators’ of these technological accidents. After Fukushima however, some post-atomic men became stripped of their gender-normative roles as ‘protector’ and ‘provider’, facing unemployment, invisible health risks, alcoholism and a disrupted relationship with their physical environment. Nuclear Samurai takes a look at the expression of gender after Fukushima, where a traditional horse festival that has been taking place for over a thousand years, is performed in a landscape tarnished by a modern nuclear hazard. The performance of gender at the horse festival becomes a dialogue between tradition and technological risk, where masculinity becomes reclaimed, reaffirmed and celebrated through ritual, heroism and horseplay. In 2011 Thom received funding from the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) to research communities impacted by the Fukushima nuclear accident. He has previously spent several years researching and photographing the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine for his doctoral research.
A man in Odaka waters the plants next to a radiation monitoring station that measures background levels of nuclear radiation. After the Fukushima nuclear accident, the town of Odaka was evacuated and remains largely abandoned. In 2011 the town was hit by the earthquake, tsunami and the invisible threats of nuclear contamination.
A young samurai in traditional dress sits on his horse at the Fukushima horse festival in Minamisōma, Japan. The festival called Soma Nomaoi was cancelled in 2011 due to the nuclear accident.
An elderly man sits on the ground near a horse at the ancient horse festival in Fukushima prefecture.
A horse, being ridden by a Samurai, eats grass at the Soma Nomaoi Horse Festival in Minamisoma. Many areas near the festival are still impacted by the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident.
Men on horseback compete and jostle for position, waiting for their chance to capture the flag that will be launched by firework and be carried by the wind across the large playing field.
The trope of masculinity is a repeated theme at the Soma Nomaoi festival, where riders compete to win during several traditional events. Injury from falls is not uncommon.
Mounted samurai with flags of their family crest gallop across a field as they participate in the Soma Nomaoi horse festival near the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station. The festival has taken place for over 1000 years.
With the large crowd behind him, a mounted samurai looks out towards the playing field where several hundred samurai are competing in the Soma Nomaoi horse festival.
A wooden prayer tablet at a Shito shrine dedicated to the Horse. Horses are culturally and historically important to the Fukushima region and are celebrated each year at the Soma Nomaoi festival in Odaka.
A Samurai on horseback during a solemn procession at the Soma Nomaoi festival in Fukushima, Japan.
A mounted Shinto priest overlooks the ancient horse festival.
A young girl in traditional Japanese clothing sits on top of a horse at the Soma Nomaoi festival. In the background samurai horsemen compete in various tournaments.
A young boy in a traditional horsehair hat stands at the temple in Odaka, on the edge of the Fukushima Exclusion Zone during the three-day horse festival. The festival has continued for over 1000 years, though was cancelled in 2011 due to the risk of nuclear radiation
A samurai rides his horse across the playing field at the ancient Soma Nomaoi horse festival near the Fukushima Exclusion Zone.
Two Shinto priests stand outside the temple in Odaka. The town of Odaka was evacuated after the Fukushima nuclear accident, and today there are still restrictions of living permanently in this semi-abandoned town.
Young men share a joke and some beers as they wait to perform a ritual competition where they attempt to tame wild horses outside the temple in Odaka. Horses are historically and culturally very important to the region of Fukushima.
A wild and unbroken horse runs frantically around the arena at the Odaka temple during the Soma Nomaoi festival. The town of Odaka is in the 'Yellow Zone' of the Fukushima nuclear landscape, meaning there are restrictions on living permanently in this abandoned and earthquake-damaged town.
A young lady plays on a rope swing in a play park in Minamisōma, a town north of the Fukushima Exclusion Zone. The radiation monitor in the background indicates the level of nuclear contamination still present in the area. Many people who were evacuated after the 2011 triple disaster are still living in ‘temporary’ accommodation.
Back to menu Back to current issue