The hanabi, or fireworks, of Japan, which produce perfectly rounded blossoms spreading layer on layer of colour against the evening sky, are regarded by most pyrotechnic enthusiasts as the best in the world. And summertime is fireworks-showcasing time in Japan.
The Sumida River Fireworks Festival
In July and August of every year, there are hundreds of fireworks displays throughout Japan, but the biggest and longest-running is Tokyo’s Sumida River Fireworks Festival. A million people line the streets and hotel balconies of the Sumida district, gathering the night before to get the best possible vantage points, and hotel rooms for the spectacle are booked a year in advance.
The Sumida River Fireworks festival began as the Ryogoku River Festival in 1733. Even today, festival spectators will call out “Tamaya!” and “Kagiya!” in appreciation of an especially beautiful display. Those were the names of the foremost fireworks-producing families in Japan during the Edo Period, and their talents were what first established the pre-eminence of the Ryogoku Fireworks Festival, which the Sumida River Firework Festival retains to this day.
Each year over twenty thousand individual rockets are launched from barges on the Sumida River, which passes through eastern Tokyo and the Ryogoku district. The Fireworks Festival, roadcast on live television, is shared by all of Tokyo. Many Japanese will dress in kimonos and happi, the traditional festival outerwear, giving the Festival an Edo Period flavour.
The Fireworks Street Festival and Museum
A street festival adds daytime excitement for the massive crowds awaiting the evening spectacular, but many thousands of people come prepared to find a viewing place and not move from it. There’s also the Ryogoku Fireworks Museum for those who want to get a better picture of the history of the Sumida Fireworks festival and of the history of fireworks in Japan.
Accommodations near the Sumida Fireworks Festival
The modern four-star Grand Palace Hotel Tokyo in the Sumida district is a mere four and a half kilometers east of the Tokyo train station, close to all the city’s major sightseeing, and only one train stop away from Ryogoku.
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