Qualla: Minamisoma: The City That Refused to Disappear https://qualla.com/minamis-ma en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:40 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Minamisoma: The City That Refused to Disappear https://qualla.com/minamis-ma Minamisoma: The City That Refused to Disappear: Introduction https://qualla.com/minamis-ma/ Every July, approximately 400 riders in samurai armor thunder across the fields of Minamisoma, chasing sacred flags while conch horns bellow from the hillsides. The Soma Nomaoi -- a thousand-year-old festival of mounted warriors and wild horse captures -- has survived wars, earthquakes, and the worst nuclear disaster of the twenty-first century. In 2011, the Pacific Ocean surged inland and the Fukushima Daiichi reactors melted down just twenty-five kilometers to the south, emptying this city of most of its roughly 71,000 residents. But the horses came back. The riders came back. Minamisoma came back.

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]]> Tue, 17 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/s/n/minamis-ma-wp/xnsn-minamisoma-the-city-that-refused-to-disappear-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Minamisoma: The City That Refused to Disappear: Layers Beneath the Soil https://qualla.com/minamis-ma/ The land that became Minamisoma has been inhabited since the Jomon period, thousands of years before the first castle wall rose here. Burial mounds from the Kofun era dot the surrounding hills -- the Mano Kofun Cluster, the Sakurai Kofun, the Urajiri Shell Mound -- each one a rem...

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]]> Tue, 17 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/s/n/minamis-ma-wp/xnsn-minamisoma-the-city-that-refused-to-disappear-layers-beneath-the-soil.mp3 0:06 2 full Minamisoma: The City That Refused to Disappear: March 11, 2011 https://qualla.com/minamis-ma/ The magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck at 2:46 p.m. on March 11, 2011, and the tsunami that followed inundated Minamisoma's coastal districts with devastating force. Four hundred residents were confirmed dead. Over a thousand more were missing. But the wave was only the first catast...

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]]> Tue, 17 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/s/n/minamis-ma-wp/xnsn-minamisoma-the-city-that-refused-to-disappear-march-11-2011.mp3 0:06 3 full Minamisoma: The City That Refused to Disappear: The Long Road Home https://qualla.com/minamis-ma/ The return happened in stages, each one hard-won. On April 15, 2012, the evacuation zone was reduced from thirty to twenty kilometers, allowing some residents back -- though they returned to a city still scattered with ruins, without electricity or running water, its schools and ...

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]]> Tue, 17 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/s/n/minamis-ma-wp/xnsn-minamisoma-the-city-that-refused-to-disappear-the-long-road-home.mp3 0:06 4 full Minamisoma: The City That Refused to Disappear: The Riders Return https://qualla.com/minamis-ma/ The Soma Nomaoi festival, designated an Important National Intangible Folk Cultural Asset, traces its origins to the tenth century when Taira no Masakado, ancestor of the Soma clan, released wild horses as training for his mounted warriors. Participants still don the armor of the...

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]]> Tue, 17 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/s/n/minamis-ma-wp/xnsn-minamisoma-the-city-that-refused-to-disappear-the-riders-return.mp3 0:06 5 full Minamisoma: The City That Refused to Disappear: Stone Buddhas and Ancient Forges https://qualla.com/minamis-ma/ Beyond the headlines of disaster and recovery, Minamisoma holds quieter treasures. The Daihisan Stone Buddhas, carved into cliffside rock, are designated a National Historic Site. The Hayama Cave Tomb and the Izumi Kanga ruins speak to centuries of habitation that predate any wri...

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]]> Tue, 17 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/s/n/minamis-ma-wp/xnsn-minamisoma-the-city-that-refused-to-disappear-stone-buddhas-and-ancient-forges.mp3 0:06 6 full