Tanabata - Sendai Tanabata Festival

Sendai Tanabata Festival

The Sendai Tanabata festival began shortly after the city was founded in the early Edo Period. The Tanabata festival gradually developed and became larger over the years. Although the festival's popularity started to dwindle after the Meiji Restoration, and almost disappeared during the economic depression that occurred after World War I, volunteers in Sendai revived the festival in 1928 and established the tradition of holding the festival from August 6 to August 8.

During World War II it was impossible to hold the festival, and almost no decorations were seen in the city from 1943 to 1945, but after the war, the first major Tanabata festival in Sendai was held in 1946, and featured 52 decorations. In 1947, the Showa Emperor Hirohito visited Sendai and was greeted by 5,000 Tanabata decorations. The festival subsequently developed into one of the three major summer festivals in the Tohoku region and became a major tourist attraction. The festival now includes a fireworks show that is held on August 5.

At the Sendai Tanabata festival, people traditionally use seven different kinds of decorations, which each represent different meanings. The seven decorations and their symbolic meanings are:

• Paper strips (短冊; Tanzaku) : Wishes for good handwriting and studies

• Paper Kimono (紙衣; Kamigoromo) : Wishes for good sewing. Wards off accidents and bad health.

• Paper Crane (折り鶴; Orizuru) : Family safety, health, and long life

• Purse (巾着; Kinchaku) : Good business

• Net (投網; Toami) : Good fishing and harvests

• Trash Bag (くずかご; Kuzukago) : Cleanliness and thriftyness

• Streamers (吹き流し; Fukinagashi) : The strings that Orihime uses to weave

The ornamental ball (くす玉; Kusudama) often decorated above streamers in present-day Tanabata decorations was originally conceived in 1946 by the owner of a shop in downtown Sendai. The ball was originally modelled after the Dahlia flower. In recent years, box-shaped ornaments have become popular alternatives to the ornamental ball.