History and Details for enjoying Sendai Tanabata Festival

Sendai Tanabata Festival

In the Tohoku region, there are three major festivals: the Nebuta Festival in Aomori Prefecture, the Kanto Festival in Akita Prefecture, and the Tanabata Festival in Sendai City. I’ll introduce you to my experience at the Tanabata Festival. The atmosphere is very different from the other two festivals, but there are other differences in meaning as well. By seeing this before you go, you can enjoy the festival even more.

Click here to find out more about the remaining two of the three biggest festivals in Tohoku, the Aomori Nebuta Festival and the Aomori Nebuta Festival.



What is the Sendai Tanabata Festival?

Sendai Tanabata Decorations

First, let me give you an overview of the festival.

Location: Shopping streets in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture

Date: 8/6 – 8/8

Content: Viewing Tanabata decorations

Participation fee: Free

Sendai City, the capital of Miyagi Prefecture, is famous as the town ruled by Date Masamune, and the bronze statue at the castle ruins is still famous today. It is also a popular tourist city with many specialty dishes such as beef tongue and Zunda mochi.

For more detailed tourist information, please click here.

The Tanabata Festival is mainly held in the shopping arcade. I will introduce the exact location and what it looks like later, but the straight arcade is decorated with Tanabata decorations. The Nebuta Festival in Aomori Prefecture and the Kanto Festival in Akita Prefecture are festivals with performances and are mainly held at night, but the Tanabata Festival is different from the other three major Tohoku festivals in that it is about looking at the exhibits, so you can look around at your own pace regardless of time. For this reason, there are no paid seats, so you can view it freely for free. A fireworks display is held on August 5th as a pre-festival event.


History of the Tanabata Festival

The Tanabata Festival has a long history, and is said to have been started by Date Masamune, who ruled this area, with the aim of improving the culture and arts of his children. In the past, Tanabata was celebrated on the 7th of the seventh month of the lunar calendar (currently August), with Tanabata decorations being floated down the river on the morning of the 8th. During the time of Date Shigemura, the 7th feudal lord, the date was brought forward by one day, with decorations being put up on the 6th of July and floated down the river on the 7th. It then declined during the Meiji period, but in 1927, merchants in Sendai revived the Tanabata decorations and held the following year from the 6th to the 8th of August. It was canceled during World War II, but resumed after the war and continues to this day. This Tanabata Festival is an event to welcome the rice field god and pray for a good harvest, and is different from the other two in that it has the opposite meaning to the Nebuta Festival and Kanto Festival, which are events to send off the gods.


About Tanabata decorations

Now, let’s talk about the main decorations of the Tanabata Festival. There are seven Tanabata decorations.

Tanabata Decorations Explanation ①

The largest and most eye-catching decoration at the Tanabata Festival is the streamer. It looks like a paper string hanging from a paper ball, and it varies in size from 5 to 10 meters. It represents the shape of an old weaving thread hanging down, and is the symbol of Tanabata’s Orihime. It wishes for the improvement of handicrafts and weaving, and is also related to the wish of Date Masamune, who is the origin of the name.

The paper ball is meant to comfort the spirits of the deceased, and the shape was changed to this way when a merchant in Sendai wanted it to look like the dahlias blooming in his garden.

At the Sendai Tanabata Festival, about 3,000 of these streamers are displayed, and one set consists of five streamers. Each store makes their own streamer, and each one has a different design, so you can look at them without getting bored.

Their creations take place several months in advance, and each one can cost anywhere from hundreds of thousands to millions of yen. Decorations begin at 8 am on August 6th, and in the afternoon of that day, a judging session is held for each shopping district, with the gold, silver and bronze award winners announced, and the winners are given a plaque commemorating their award. It’s fun to walk through the shopping district looking for the winning entries, and it’s nice to see that a streamer you think is wonderful has won an award.


Writing wishes on strips of paper and hanging them up is a Tanabata staple, but in the past people would write waka poems to pray for improvement in their academic studies and calligraphy.


Tanabata Decorations Explanation ②

Wearing a kimono made of washi paper is a prayer for improvement in sewing skills. It also symbolizes a substitute for illness and disaster.


It is a classic origami technique in which paper is folded into the shape of a crane, but it is also one of the Tanabata decorations. As in the Senbazuru decoration, which features a thousand cranes, people fold them in hopes of good health, longevity, and safety in the home. At the Sendai Tanabata Festival, local students display approximately 78,000 origami cranes in hopes of recovery from the Great East Japan Earthquake.


Pouches are also displayed in hopes of prosperous business.


It represents prayers for a good catch and harvest, and also represents the idea of ​​attracting a lot of happiness with the net.


Trash cans represent cleanliness and thrift, and can also be used to store waste generated when making decorations.


What it was like when I actually went

From here, I will introduce the situation when I actually went there. I went there in the afternoon of August 8th, the last day. As it is an event that is visited by more than 2 million people a year, there were quite a lot of people.


Tanabata decorations in Hapina Nakakecho and Clisroad Shopping Street

First, there is Hapina Nakakecho and Clis Road Shopping Street, which extend from JR Sendai Station. These two are connected in a straight line, and five streamers were lined up at equal intervals. Also, the long ones have something that hits your head, which is a big difference from the other places.

Streamers hanging down overhead

As it is a shopping street that extends from the station, it was the busiest with people.


Also, at the end of Cliss Road, there were folded paper cranes as a symbol of hope for the recovery from the Great East Japan Earthquake mentioned earlier.

Sendai Tanabata Festival Origami Cranes
A folded paper crane seen from below


Tanabata decoration in Sunmall Ichibancho and Vlandome Ichibancho

If you turn left from this origami crane, you will enter the Sunmall Ichibancho shopping street. If you go right, you will enter Vlandome Ichibancho. Many of the streamers on this street are hung from bamboo, so they are lined up diagonally. Some are immediately recognizable as businesses such as McDonald’s,

McDonald's Streamers


This place also had the largest number of streamers featuring Tamagotchi and other characters.

Tamagotchi Streamers


Streamers at the Fourth Street Shopping District

Cross the crosswalk from Vlandome Ichibancho and you’ll enter the 4th Street Shopping Street. This is the only street without a roof, so if the weather is nice you can see the Tanabata decorations against the blue sky. Many of the decorations are hung from bamboo here as well, so they are lined up diagonally, and the open arcade part has other decorations, which is quite distinctive.


Tanabata-only event

The main purpose of the Sendai Tanabata Festival is to walk around looking at these Tanabata decorations, but there are other events held as well. These are held at night, so we recommend looking at the Tanabata decorations in the shopping district during the day, and then going to the events after dark.

For detailed sightseeing information, please see this model itinerary.


Zuihoji Temple

First, there is Zuihoji Temple, where the Sengoku warlord Date Masamune rests. For a detailed introduction, please see the Sendai model itinerary, but as a special Tanabata event, the temple is lit up at night. The Tanabata decorations at Masamune’s mausoleum were particularly impressive, and walking through an atmosphere that is different from when it is light out was a valuable experience. One might imagine walking through a temple at night as being scary, but there were plenty of lights and people around so that wasn’t the case at all, and the lights were rather magical.

Illumination of the Zuihoji Temple staircase


There was also a concert, and the soothing sounds of Japanese flutes and drums matched the atmosphere perfectly.

Concert at Zuihoji Temple


Illuminated statue of Date Masamune

The Sendai Castle ruins, where the statue of Date Masamune is located, is lit up at night all year round. The night view from here is beautiful, so I recommend it.

Sendai cityscape at night


On the day I went, musicians MONKEY MAJIK were performing an acoustic live show.

Monkey Majik concert

Apparently the band members have been living in Sendai for over 10 years, so it’s fair to say it was a local concert. They performed acoustic versions of songs that became theme songs for TV dramas, and it was a luxurious experience.

There are also projection mappings on the torii gates and stone walls.

Torii projection mapping


Along the mountain path leading to Sendai Castle, there were small items such as umbrellas and rabbits.

Illumination of the umbrella

As an aside, it’s quite a challenge to climb Sendai Castle, so it’s easier to take a bus to the top and walk down on the way back. For detailed directions, please see the model itinerary.


SENDAI Luminact

This event was held at night in Aobayama Park, located down the mountain from the Sendai Castle ruins. It was an event that offered a variety of experiences, such as a night balloon ride overlooking the town and a tuk-tuk ride, so it was fun even for families with children. A unique feature of this event is that you need to use a special currency called Lumina. 5000 Lumina = 1000 yen, and you can exchange it for Lumina at the cash counter before using the attractions and stalls. As it was an event held at night, the theme was light, and you could enjoy the beauty of the night with colorful lights.

Illumination of Aobayama Park


Summary

This concludes my introduction to the Sendai Tanabata Festival and my experience experiencing it. Before going, I thought it was just an event to look at the decorations, but each decoration has its own unique character, and learning about their history and significance made it even more enjoyable. There were also events in the evening, so you could enjoy yourself from morning to night. If you’re going to Sendai in August, be sure to go during the Tanabata Festival!!


For more travel information, click here!

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