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Sumidagawa Fireworks Festival 2013

Sumidagawa Fireworks Festival

Sumidagawa Fireworks Festival (隅田川花火大会) is one of the biggest fireworks event in Japan, if not the biggest.
This year the fireworks were dwarfed by the Tokyo Sky Tree. It was very nice seeing how "small" the fireworks looked compared to the 634 meter tall tower.

Do you see the helicopter? 

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.

Sumida river fireworks festival - 隅田川花火大会

Sumidagawa Hanabi taikai (隅田川花火大会) is th most traditinal Hanabi taikai in Tokyo. But it use under 5 inches shell only for safety.

In this case, I took the picture from the terrace of the parents of a friend of a friend of mine, in Kanda. Not the best place to see the fireworks, but for sure one a good dinner ^_^