Sendai is the largest city in the Tōhoku region of Japan, the capital of Miyagi Prefecture, with a population of 1.1 million — known as the "City of Trees" (Mori no Miyako) for the densely tree-lined boulevards and forested hills throughout the urban area. Sendai was founded as a castle town by Date Masamune (1567-1636), the most powerful daimyo of the Sengoku period outside the Tokugawa clan — the "One-eyed Dragon of Ōu" (he lost his right eye to smallpox at age 5; he grew it out so the eye socket did not bother him, then had the eye removed by a surgeon when the empty socket was staring at an enemy commander — the historical accounts are disputed but the image of the black eyepatch is inseparable from Date Masamune's identity); Masamune built the Sendai Castle (Aoba Castle) on the forested hilltop above the Hirose River in 1601 and created the grid city below it that still forms the basis of modern Sendai. The Tanabata Matsuri (the Sendai Tanabata Festival, August 6-8 — the largest Tanabata festival in Japan, drawing 2 million visitors; the festival celebrates the Chinese legend of the separated star-lovers Orihime and Hikoboshi; the Sendai version features enormous ornate paper streamers in 7 traditional decorations hung from bamboo poles throughout the shopping arcades; the Sendai version became dominant after the post-WWII reconstruction when the city decided to revive the festival as a morale booster) and the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami (March 11, 2011 — the most powerful earthquake in Japan's recorded history, 9.0 magnitude; the tsunami that followed reached heights of 38 m at the Sanriku coast; Sendai's coastal areas of Arahama and Nakahama were destroyed; 19,747 people confirmed dead or missing in the Tōhoku region; the Sendai region has extensive memorial sites and the Yuriage fishing village reconstruction are major reasons visitors come to the coast) make Sendai one of the most significant destinations in northern Japan.
Aoba Castle (Sendai Castle — the castle built by Date Masamune in 1601 on the forested hilltop above the Hirose River; the main keep (tenshu) was destroyed in 1882 and the remaining structures were damaged by WWII bombing in 1945; only the stone walls and the Otemon Gate remain of the original castle; the famous equestrian bronze statue of Date Masamune (in full armour with the crescent moon helmet — the mikazuki helmet that is the most recognisable symbol of the Date clan and of the One-eyed Dragon) by the sculptor Osamu Irie (erected 1935, moved after bomb damage, returned 1964) faces northeast toward the Pacific Ocean; the view from the castle hill (Aoba-yama, 132 m) encompasses the entire city grid that Masamune designed in 1601).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideZuihōden (the mausoleum of Date Masamune, built 1637 one year after his death — the ornately lacquered wooden shrine in the zelkova forest on Kyogamine Hill, 1 km from Sendai Castle; the original Zuihōden was burned during the 1945 air raids and the present structure is a faithful 1979 reconstruction using the original designs; the mausoleum is in the Momoyama style (the flamboyant decorative style of the Azuchi-Momoyama period, associated with Toyotomi Hideyoshi — intricate painted lacquerwork, gold leaf detailing, carved wooden panels with cranes, tigers and flowers); the excavation in 1974 revealed Date Masamune's skull with the right eye socket clearly deformed by childhood disease, confirming the historical accounts; also buried in adjacent mausoleums: his son Mitsumune and grandson Tsunamune).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideGyutan (牛タン — the grilled beef tongue that is Sendai's most famous culinary invention and the dish most associated with the city; gyutan was invented in Sendai in 1948 by Sano Keishiro, the founder of the Tasuke restaurant, who was inspired by the Western (specifically French) use of beef tongue that had been discarded by the US military stationed in Sendai after WWII; the Sendai gyutan style: the tongue is thick-sliced (8-10 mm, much thicker than the thin-slice style found elsewhere), salted, and grilled over charcoal until the outside is charred and the inside is still tender; served with mugimeshi (barley and rice mixed), toro-jiru (oxtail soup) and pickled cabbage — the fixed set that has not changed since 1948; the Gyutan-dori (Gyutan Street) in the underground arcade beneath Sendai Station has the main specialist restaurants).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideJozenji-dori (the 1 km boulevard running from Sendai Station to the Hirose River — lined on both sides with zelkova (keyaki) trees planted in the 1960s as part of Sendai's post-war urban reconstruction; the boulevard is now the finest urban tree canopy in Japan outside Kyoto's philosopher's path; in autumn (late October-November) the zelkova leaves turn gold and orange; the annual Sendai International Music Competition and the Jazz Festival (late August) use the boulevard as an outdoor venue; the boulevard connects the Sendai Mediatheque (the Toyo Ito-designed 2001 cultural centre, one of the most architecturally significant public buildings in Japan — the structure consists of 13 steel tube columns and flat floor plates, with no internal walls: the most open and transparent public building in Japan) and the Ichibancho shopping district.
Matsushima (30 min by JR Senseki Line from Sendai — one of the Nihon Sankei (三景, the Three Views of Japan: Matsushima, Miyajima and Amanohashidate — the three landscapes selected by the Confucian scholar Hayashi Gaho in 1643 as the most beautiful in Japan; Matsushima Bay contains 260 small islands covered in black pine trees rising from the calm bay water; the bay is sheltered from the Pacific by the outer ring of islands which also reduced the severity of the 2011 tsunami impact on the inner bay (though Matsushima town still suffered damage)); the best view of Matsushima is from the Four Outlook Pavilions — Saigantō, Tomiyama, Tamonzan and Ogidani — set at different angles around the bay; the morning light on the black pines over the water is the definitive Matsushima experience.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideZuiganji Temple (828 AD foundation, rebuilt by Date Masamune 1604-1609 — the largest temple in the Tōhoku region and one of the finest Zen temple complexes in Japan; the approach through the cedar forest past the rock caves carved by medieval monks (the Oku-no-in cave corridors carved by 9th-century monks as meditation chambers — the cliff faces pockmarked with hundreds of small niches with stone Buddha images) leads to the Karamon (Chinese-style ornate gate, designated Important Cultural Property) and the main hall (Hondō, National Treasure — the painted sliding door panels with tigers, peacocks and pine trees by the Kano school painter Tobun-Nichiun Shōkei are the finest Momoyama-period interior in the Tōhoku region).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Matsushima Bay sightseeing cruise (the 50-min boat tour of the inner bay from Matsushima Pier, operating multiple times daily — the cruise passes through the named islands (Nishiki-no-ura, Futtoi-jima) and the tidal inlets between the pine-covered rocks; the cormorant islands (Matsushima Bay has the finest cormorant fishing (ukai) tradition in the Tōhoku region, performed in the evening on the bay from July to October — the trained cormorants dive for trout, their necks ringed to prevent swallowing, as the fisherman controls 8-12 birds simultaneously from the lantern-lit boat); the oyster farming in the inner bay (Matsushima Bay produces 30% of all Japanese oysters — the pine island landscape with oyster cages visible between the islands is the characteristic Matsushima seascape).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideShiogama (10 min by train from Matsushima toward Sendai — the fishing port town with the Shiogama Jinja (one of the most important Shinto shrines in the Tōhoku region, with 300 stone lanterns lining the approach; the Shogitai Museum adjacent covers the 1868 Boshin War samurai resistance); the Shiogama fish market (the largest fresh tuna market in the Tōhoku region — Shiogama handles a significant share of Japan's Pacific bluefin tuna (hon-maguro) landed at small ports; the sushi restaurants around the fish market serve the freshest bluefin tuna at prices 30-40% lower than equivalent quality in Tokyo; Shiogama is the best sushi value in northern Japan).
The Sendai 3.11 Memorial Museum (opened 2021, in the former Arahama Elementary School near the Sendai coast — one of the schools that survived the tsunami as a refuge for 320 people; the tsunami inundated the entire coastal plain of Sendai's Wakabayashi ward to a depth of 3-8 m on March 11, 2011; the museum uses the preserved school, the photographs, the survivor testimonies and the mapping of where tsunami waters reached to convey what happened in the 25-40 minutes between the earthquake and the tsunami arrival; the coastal area has been left largely unrestored as a memorial landscape, with the distinctive remains of the coastal pine belt destroyed by the wave visible from the road).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideRisshakuji Temple (Yamadera — "Mountain Temple", 860 AD, 1h by train from Sendai on the JR Senzan Line — the most dramatic Buddhist temple complex in the Tōhoku region, built into a granite cliff face on Mount Hōju; the 1,015 stone steps carved into the cliff lead past the Konponchūdō (the main hall, 860 AD, housing the flame that has burned continuously since the temple was founded), the Jōdoin (1320, with the oldest Yamadera bell), and the Godaidō (the vermilion-painted platform jutting from the cliff face at the summit — the view from Godaidō over the Tateyama valley and river is the definitive Yamadera panorama; the autumn foliage in October surrounding the red wooden structures on the grey granite cliff is the most photographed image in Tōhoku).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideSakunami Onsen (40 min by JR Senzan Line from Sendai — the hot spring resort in the Hirose River gorge, 20 km upstream from Sendai; the mineral springs have been used since the Heian period and the ryokan (Japanese inn) culture of Sakunami is one of the finest in the Tōhoku region; the gorge is designated a national monument for the autumn foliage (the maple and zelkova forest of the Hirose River gorge turns the canyon walls red and orange from late October); the Iwamatsuro (the name of the Sakunami mineral water type: mildly sulphurous, bicarbonate, effective for skin conditions — the traditional claim of the water is that it softens and brightens skin); the kakenagashi (free-flow) onsen where the water flows directly from the source without recirculation.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Sendai Tanabata Festival (August 6-8 — the largest Tanabata festival in Japan, 2 million visitors; the ornate paper streamers (kazaritsuke) in seven traditional forms (tanzaku, fukinagashi, kamigoromo, tobishino, kuzukazari, kinchaku, origamikazari) are hung from bamboo poles through the shopping arcades; the festival decoration is the most elaborate in Japan; in non-festival months, the Ichibancho shopping arcade still has its regular atmosphere with the sake shops and the Miyagi no sake (Miyagi Prefecture produces some of Japan's finest sake — the cold Tōhoku temperatures and the pure Zao mountain water create ideal conditions; the brands Urakasumi, Itō and Ichinokura are the most distinguished Sendai area sake).