The story
Sendai Tanabata Festival in Sendai
Sendai Tanabata Festival decorates the city's shopping arcades each August 6 through 8 with more than three thousand handcrafted paper ornaments, most notably the four-meter fukinagashi streamers hung from bamboo poles. Tracing back some 400 years to the era of Date Masamune, it ranks among Tohoku's three great summer festivals alongside Nebuta and Akita's Kanto Festival.
Sendai Tanabata Festival is said to date back some 400 years to the era of Date Masamune, the first lord of the Sendai domain, who is credited with encouraging local interest in refined arts, including poetry and needlework, among the women and children of his growing castle town.