Sendai Tanabata Matsuri

What to know

Tanabata festivals, also known as star festivals, are held across Japan on the seventh day of the seventh month, when the stars Altair and Vega are said to meet according to Chinese legend. Because of differences between the lunar and solar calendars, modern Tanabata celebrations may occur in July or August.

The Sendai Tanabata Matsuri (仙台七夕まつり) takes place every year from August 6 to 8 and is one of Japan's largest and most renowned Tanabata festivals. Along with Akita's Kanto Matsuri and Aomori's Nebuta Matsuri, it forms the Tohoku Sandai Matsuri (Three Great Festivals of the Tohoku Region).

While festivities spread across downtown Sendai, the festival's highlight is the thousands of colorful streamers that transform the city's shopping arcades into vibrant, forest-like canopies. Each set of streamers, measuring 3 to 5 meters long, is handcrafted by local shops, schools, and community groups using washi paper and bamboo. They are hung from ten-meter bamboo poles along the arcades.

In addition to the streamers, which symbolize loom threads, smaller paper decorations include kimono shapes to ward off illness and accidents; nets for good harvests; cranes for longevity, health, and safety; purses for business prosperity; trash bags for cleanliness; and paper strips for good handwriting, on which people often write wishes and hang from bamboo branches. These items are either attached to the bamboo poles or incorporated into the streamer designs.

A variety of food and drink vendors offer popular local specialties at Shimin Hiroba Square in Kotodai Park. Additionally, a fireworks display is held on the evening before the festival (August 5) near Nishi Park.

The decorations line the Ichibancho and Chuo shopping arcades, which start a few minutes' walk from JR Sendai Station. Shimin Hiroba Square and Kotodai Park are at the end of the Ichibancho Shopping Arcade, just above Kotodaikoen Subway Station. Jozenji Dori connects Shimin Hiroba Square to the Hirosegawa River.