I love Japanese festivals, for a photographer, theres always lots to shoot at each one.. Every area had it`s own lord...sometimes more than one which kept them very busy fighting each other. In Sendai, it was Date Masamune...who murdered his own younger brother because their mother favored the younger one and wanted him to be lord so she tried to poison the elder brother, didn`t work so he killed off the competition...must have been hard just staying alive back then. When the shogun ordered Japan closed to outsiders, nobody was supposed to leave Japan either, but Masamune secretly send an envoy to Europe and when he went to Tokyo he was considered very stylish because of the European fabric that was brought back...just how the shogun didn`t put two and two together is a mystery to me but the one eyed devil. as Masamune was known, died later than most people in his position did at the time so maybe everybody was scared of him...he only had one eye and wore a patch over the bad one...and he had a huge crescent moon on his helmet which is still a symbol in Sendai today. There is a pro Japanese tennis player by the name of Date, she is a descendent.
My favorite Sendai festival is back on this year...cancelled last year `cause of the quake and tsunami...good music, good food, dancing in the streets and so colorful...usually first week-end in May, really looking forward to it, I missed it last year but folks just weren`t feeling it. Blossoms should open up this week-end here...hope to get out and snap some pics.
