Aoba Matsuri 2010

During the Meiji period, in 1874, Aoba Shrine was built to commemorate Date Masamune (1567-1636), a samurai, clan leader and founder of Sendai. The original festival started that next year, on the anniversary of his death--May 24th. At some point it quit being observed but has been revived in recent years.

On Saturday we headed down to the park and walked through the festival booths. Lots of festival food and live events going on.

Sendai Suzume Odori (Sendai Sparrow Dance) is a folk dance that had been lost for a long time. It is believed the original dance was done by the stone masons building Sendai Castle and performed for Date at a feast. His clan crest has sparrows on it and the dance was named because the movements resembled sparrows dancing about on the ground picking up food. It has become a major part of the festival. The music is the same (each group has their own musicians following the dancers) but each interprets the dance a little differently. In the afternoon, one of the main streets, Johzenji-dori, was closed to traffic and the groups paraded down the street dancing as they went. This went on until around 9pm although we didn't stay that long.