Hanabi Taikai 花火大会

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Published on 26/07/2012 - Edition 2013

Every year on the last Saturday of July, fireworks enlighten Tokyo bay on the evening. Discover Hanabi Taikai festival, a great fireworks tournament rooted in traditional Japan.

One of the major fireworks displays of Tokyo. On the last Saturday of July, the oldtown evening sky turns into a spectacle of dazzling colors from several tens of thousands of fireworks. This annual event is said to have originated in the custom of the common people of Edo viewing fireworks while enjoying the cool of the summer evening. According to other explanations, its roots are said to lie in the Suijin Festival dedicated to the water deity held to appease the souls of those who had died of starvation or of plague and to drive away pestilence during the reign of Tokugawa Yoshimune, the eighth Tokugawa Shogun (1684-1751).

In the late Edo period, the festival was called Ryogoku Kawarabiraki and attracted many Edo townspeople. Traditional shouts of "Kagiya!" and "Tamaya!" voiced when the fireworks are set off, originate in Ryogoku Kawarabiraki when spectators yelled out the names of the leading fireworks manufacturers (Kagiya and Tamaya) at the time. The festival survived the Meiji Restoration, and in the latter half of the 19^th Century (Meiji - Taisho - early Showa eras), it was held almost every year. Although suspended because of too much traffic or too many buildings in the neighborhood, from 1978 onwards it was revived under a new name, Sumidagawa Hanabi Taikai (Sumida River Fireworks Display). This has now taken root as one of the delightful scenes of the summer season in Tokyo.

This year, Sumidagawa Hanabi Taikai takes place on July 28^th, but other smaller fireworks happen during this period in Tokyo and all over Japan. These events are much appreciated by tourists and Japanese citizens, who better have to go there early to enjoy the show!