Sendai's history runs deeper than its castle. Follow the one-eyed daimyo who sent samurai to Rome in 1613, the Jomon villagers who lived here 4,000 years ago, and the twice-rebuilt city that rose from firebombing and tsunami.
A 20,000-year-old Paleolithic camp preserved in situ beneath the museum floor — footprints, hearths and worked stone found during 1988 school construction. The domed hall recreates the Ice Age conifer forest that stood here. Open 09:00–16:45, closed Mondays.
Site of the 8th-century provincial temple ordered by Emperor Shomu, the northernmost of Japan's kokubunji network. The current Yakushidō hall was rebuilt by Date Masamune in 1607 in Momoyama style; foundation stones of the original pagoda remain in the grass.
The Nara-period military headquarters that governed all of northern Japan from 724, with excavated administrative halls and reconstructed South Gate. The stone stele, carved in 762 and rediscovered in the 1600s, is one of Japan's three great ancient inscriptions.
The guardian shrine of Mutsu province, worshipped since at least the 9th century and rebuilt in 1704 by the fourth Date lord Tsunamura. Climb the 202-step stone stairway to vermilion halls holding salt-making rites tied to the deity who taught the craft.
Holds Masamune's crescent-moon helmet and the Keichō Mission artefacts registered as UNESCO Memory of the World — Hasekura Tsunenaga's 1615 Roman citizenship scroll and his portrait painted in Italy. Built on the castle's third bailey.
Marks the 1613 galleon built by Date shipwrights with Spanish guidance that carried Hasekura Tsunenaga to Acapulco, Madrid and Rome. The full-scale replica was dismantled in 2021 after tsunami damage; the museum now tells the voyage through original documents.
On 10 July 1945 over 100 B-29s burned out Sendai's centre, killing 1,399 people and destroying 57% of the city. The Tsutsujigaoka memorial and the town museum's collection document the raid and the postwar reconstruction that widened Jozenji-dori.
The gutted four-storey school where 320 people survived the 11 March 2011 tsunami on the roof; the water reached the second floor and the district's 800 homes were erased. Interior left as found, with a wall clock stopped at the moment of impact.
Japan's oldest surviving Gongen-zukuri structure, completed 1607 by Masamune using Kyoto craftsmen; the black-lacquered hall with gold and vermilion detail is a National Treasure. The Donto-sai fire festival on 14 January draws 100,000 people here.
The hot-spring village where Date lords held bathing rights from 1601, still lined with ryokan on the old Nishiki road. The 55-metre Otaki waterfall was a Shugendo training site and the gorge path passes stone Buddhas carved by Edo-period pilgrims.
Nine workshops keeping Date-era crafts alive: iron-fitted Sendai tansu chests lacquered in kijiro finish, Tsutsumi-yaki pottery from a kiln founded in 1694, and kokeshi turning. Watch artisans work the same lathe forms used for four centuries.
The 1924 villa of poet Doi Bansui, who wrote 'Kōjō no Tsuki' after the ruined Aoba Castle, standing on a street that was the Edo merchant district. The house survived the firebombing and shows Taisho-era wood joinery inside.