Namari Momote is an archery festival held on a Sunday near the first day of the second month of the lunar calendar. The festival is held at Sanpokojingu Shrine in Namari, Takumacho, a town near the tip of the Shonai Peninsula. It is unclear when the festival started, but it is mentioned in historical records from the latter half of the 18th century. Young archers from the area shoot their arrows to pray for bountiful fishing, good harvest, and the safety of the area, as well as to ward off evil. The making of targets is called matofumi and is done within the shrine grounds. The targets are made by pasting paper onto an oval-shaped woven bamboo object nearly two meters in size, then drawing a black circle in the center.
The archery position is Ogasawara Style, where the bow is shot from a slightly crouched posture. The preparation and running of the festival is done mainly by ten families called toya. Both the main family (hondo), representing the families, and the archers undergo a shiogori, a saltwater purification ceremony at the beach. Furthermore, the series of events leading up to the day of the festival follows the old customs almost exactly, and the events' defining characteristic is strict adherence to tradition.
Also, in Namari there is something called kenka momote, where people in the viewing space (yama) hoot and jeer at the archers. It is said that the more the audience does so, the more bountiful the fishing will be.