Kazari-uma, also called Hana-uma, are decorated horses which liven up the Myoken festival with a brave horse chase. In the Edo period, there were twelve horses from the vassals at Yatsushiro Castle (vassals of Lord Hosokawa dispatched from Kumamoto to guard Yatsushiro Castle) and from the vassals of the Matsui family. When there were not enough horses, Yatsushiro County was assigned to make up for the rest. From the Meiji era to the prewar period, Yatsushiro Shrine's parishioner villages dedicated the horses, but now volunteers such as high school alumni associations do. The order of the horses is decided, in the early morning of the festival day, by lottery at Shioya Hachimangu, the resting point in the middle of the procession.