Experience games and activities from the Edo period, delicious local dishes, and enjoy the float parade and Suzume Odori performances that color the streets of downtown Sendai.
After a long three year break, the streets of Sendai will once again be filled with (light up) celebration with the return of the 38th edition of the Sendai Aoba Matsuri festivities!
Held every year on the weekend of the third Sunday of May —around the anniversary of Lord Date Masamune’s death on May 24th— Aoba Festival celebrates the sophisticated aesthetics inherited from the Date clan and is thought of by many as an annual event that represents the city.
But what exactly is Aoba Matsuri and what does it celebrate? To understand this a bit more, we need to take a look into Sendai’s very rich history.
The Origins of Sendai Aoba Festival
The Sendai Aoba Festival can be traced back 360 years to the Edo Period, when it was known as the Sendai Festival. In 1655, a year after the construction of the Sendai Toshogu Shrine —which, as all Toshogu Shrines, enshrines Tokugawa Ieyasu, the leader who united Japan— the Sendai Festival began as an annual festival of the Toshogu Shrine. However, the festival was only held when the feudal lord was actually in the domain. Merchants were ordered to parade the Yamaboko floats to lead the portable shrine (mikoshi) procession.
