Sendai's culture runs from Toyo Ito's seaweed-columned Mediatheque to the Date clan's gilded Momoyama carving. Between them sit a prefectural art museum with a Katsuhiko Sato sculpture garden, a working Noh theatre, and the kokeshi workshops of Akiu gorge.
Toyo Ito's 2001 glass box on Jozenji-dori, held up by 13 hollow seaweed-like steel tubes carrying light, lifts and cables. Open 09:00–22:00, closed 4th Thursday. Galleries on floors 5–6, free architecture leaflets at the 1F desk.
Maekawa Kunio's 1981 brick-and-tile museum holds Kandinsky, Klee and a deep collection of Tōhoku painters including Shotaro Sasaki. The Aiko Miyawaki wing and Sato Chuyo sculpture garden sit behind it. 09:30–17:00, closed Mondays.
The civic gallery in the Sendai City Auditorium complex rotates roughly weekly: calligraphy societies, Tōhoku photography collectives, ceramics guilds and student degree shows. Free entry, 09:00–17:00, schedule posted in the lobby.
The wooden 1949 house where poet Doi Bansui, who wrote the lyrics to 'Kojo no Tsuki', spent his final years. Original desk, manuscripts and a small garden survive amid the downtown blocks. 09:00–17:00, closed Mondays.
Built on the third bailey of the castle grounds, it holds Date Masamune's black crescent-moon helmet and the Keicho Mission relics — Hasekura Tsunenaga's Rome documents, a UNESCO Memory of the World listing. 09:00–16:45, closed Mondays.
A 70-metre covered lane of about 60 stalls two minutes west of Sendai Station, running since the postwar black market days. Fishmongers, Miyagi pickles, hoya sea squirt and cheap standing sushi counters. Roughly 08:00–18:00, closed Sundays.
Sendai's classical stage tradition centres on the Date-patronised Tōshōgū shrine, an Important Cultural Property of 1654, where Noh and kagura are still performed on the open-air stage at seasonal festivals. Grounds open dawn to dusk.
Home stage of the Sendai Philharmonic and the venue for the Sendai International Music Competition, held every three years for violin and piano. Two halls, 1,300 and 300 seats, with frequent weeknight recitals.
Nine artisan workshops in a wooded hollow near Akiu Onsen: kokeshi woodturners, Tōhoku indigo dyers, lacquerers and a Sendai tansu chest maker. Each studio doubles as a shop; watching the lathe work costs nothing. 09:00–17:00.
Above a craft shop on Ichibancho arcade, this free display shows how the giant washi-and-bamboo Tanabata streamers are made — the seven traditional decorations, each with a distinct meaning, hung citywide every 6–8 August since 1928.
A National Treasure of 1607, the oldest surviving Momoyama-style building in Tōhoku: black lacquer, gold leaf and polychrome carving under a single sweeping roof, built by the same craftsmen Date Masamune brought from Kyoto. Open dawn–dusk.
A single-lane alley of about 20 postwar wooden bars off Ichibancho, nicknamed 'Bunyoko'. Six-seat counters serving Miyagi sake, hoya and grilled skewers, several run by the same families for three generations. Most open from 17:00.