Sendai Tanabata Festival

Tanabata is celebrated across Japan in July or August, but Sendai's version is the largest and is held in August rather than July, which the city traces to Date Masamune's encouragement of the observance in the seventeenth century. What makes it distinctive is the material: about three thousand kazari, streamers of washi paper and bamboo, are made by hand each year by the shops and neighbourhoods that hang them, some five metres long, and they fill the covered shopping arcades so densely that walking through is walking through paper. They are made new annually and judged competitively, and the effort of a good one runs to months. Seven traditional decorations accompany each - paper cranes, a purse, a net, a kimono and others, each with a meaning. The evening before, on 5 August, fireworks are fired over the Hirose river.

What to look for

• Three thousand paper streamers - hand-made in washi and bamboo, some five metres long.
• Filled arcades - covered shopping streets packed with hanging decorations.
• Annual remaking - every kazari built new each year and judged competitively.
• Seven attached ornaments - cranes, purse, net, kimono and others, each with a meaning.

When to go

6 to 8 August; 5 August evening for the fireworks. A day.

Practical notes

The arcades become extremely crowded and moving through them is slow. Accommodation in Sendai is booked out well ahead for these dates. The decorations are indoors in arcades, so photographs of them in daylight are difficult. Rain closes some outdoor sections.

Nearby

Zuihoden is south-west; Matsushima Bay is north-east.