Fireworks - 隅田川花火大会

隅田川花火大会, i.e. Sumidagawa Fireworks Festival is one of the biggest fireworks festival in Japan. In 2004 there were about 1'000'000 people watching it.

The first public fireworks festival was held in 1733. The previous year, Japan suffered a great famine, during which more than 900,000 people starved to death. Cholera victims were dying in the street. To "comfort the souls of the dead and drive away pestilence," Shogun Yoshimune organized a fireworks display by the pyrotechnic Tamaya family, who duly set off 20 rockets along Sumida River and caused a sensation.

The competitive element was introduced when a splinter group of the Tamaya family, the Kagiya clan, set up a rival company in 1810 and used the Ryogoku Fireworks Festival as an opportunity to vie for supremacy. To this day, some spectators continue the practice of crying "Tamaya" or "Kagiya" with each fireworks burst.

In 1978 the name changed to the Sumidagawa Fireworks Festival and today ten companies-seven local, three from other parts of Japan-compete on national television for the best display.