People look up at the vibrant Tanabata decorations, taken on the afternoon of August 6 in Aoba Ward, Sendai City. (©Sankei by Kanata Iwasaki)
The Sendai Tanabata Festival, one of the three major festivals in the Tohoku region, was held from August 6 to 8. A shopping street was decorated with vibrant streamers and bamboo ornaments, and tanzaku wish strips written by residents were displayed throughout the area.
Many of this year's wishes focused on supporting recovery efforts for the Noto Peninsula earthquake, drawing visitors who stopped to admire them. The Sendai area itself experienced severe devastation from the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011.
Following the Lunisolar Calendar
The annual festival is celebrated around the seventh day of the seventh month according to the Japanese lunisolar calendar. This year, approximately 3,000 streamers in colors like blue and pink were on display, with more than 250 of them exceeding 3 meters in length. Bamboo decorations, embellished with wish strips and folded cranes, lined the street in dense arrays.
Wishes for Reconstruction
Among the wish strips written by elementary and junior high school students were messages such as "Unite our hearts toward reconstruction" and "Let's keep raising awareness [of the earthquake] among future generations to protect lives."
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(Read the article in Japanese.)
Author: The Sankei Shimbun
