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Tsuchiura Fireworks Competition in Tsuchiura
Tsuchiura All Japan Fireworks Competition, founded in 1925 by a Buddhist priest to support local businesses after the Great Kanto Earthquake and to honor fallen naval aviators, became a formal juried contest in 1947 under pyrotechnician Giichi Kitajima. Held each November along the Sakura River in Ibaraki Prefecture, it ranks among Japan's three major fireworks tournaments, judged on technical pyrotechnic criteria.
Tsuchiura All Japan Fireworks Competition began in 1925, established by the Buddhist priest Reverend Baiho Akimoto of Jinryuji Temple, who funded the first competition using his own money as an act of civic support for local business owners struggling through the economic recession that followed the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923.