This design shows a warrior on top of a straw “Hassaku” horse, with a “hatasashi-mono” emblazed with “Ashiya” attached to his back. In Ashiya-machi, there is a custom stretching back over 300 years when the Hassaku Festival (“Hassaku” means August 1st in Japan’s old lunar calendar) rolls around, neighbors make “hassaku no uma” (the decorative straw item depicted in the manhole cover above) to celebrate the birth of newborn baby boys in the local area. Meanwhile “Dagobina (dolls made with rice flour)” are made in order to pray for the growth of newborn baby girls.

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