Today is the Sumida River Fireworks Festival, probably the biggest of the many fireworks festivals held in the Tokyo area during the summer. Certainly it’s also one of the oldest, dating back to 1733. In advance of the festival, Japan real estate giant Mitsui Fudosan published a full-page ad in yesterday’s Yomiuri Shinbun, featuring 16 different postcards in an ukiyo-e iroha-karuta style, all in one way of another exemplifying the sort of “manners” revelers should mind when they go to the festival. (Trivia about Mitsui Fudosan: their investment helped open Tokyo Disneyland in the early 80’s, and they were behind the now-closed Ski Dome in Chiba, the largest indoor ski facility in the world).
Examples of good manners include taking public transportation, taking one’s trash with them, and using the bathroom before you go to the festival, etc. The one I’ve scanned above I thought was particularly cute. It says (roughly) “Be sure to praise equally both the fireworks and your lover as ‘beautiful’.”
Below is Hiroshige’s oft-reproduced but still dazzling woodblock print of the fireworks festival, circa 1856:
SSAWS is no more ? Say it isn’t so !
Awesome iroha card!!!
Thanks Yuki for letting me know what the ad was a play on. I’ve updated the post. I knew they must’ve been a take on something traditional, but Naoko was asleep when I wrote the post. By the way, since I didn’t scan the whole page, if you took the highlighted syllable on each card (in the one I scanned, “ki”), the ad spelled out “sumidagawa hanabi ni ikimashou ne” (let’s go to the Sumida River Fireworks festival, shall we?).
Thanks for letting me know about the MIJ post. I didn’t check back on that! The cards are luring you into coming to a mess of crowds! Haha. Awesome!
I went to the Sumidagawa fireworks. Even bought a yukata for the event. They were beautiful but there was no ideal location to watch them and there were TOO MANY people.
Manhattan did some awesome fireworks for July 4th, 2000, with 4 barges on the East River all launching fireworks into the sky. The lower section of the FDR Drive was closed so we all watched from the East River (unobstructed view) or from the highway itself.
All the Japanese were telling me how Japan’s was the best in the world but I didnt have the heart to tell them that we do as nice of a job in the New York City, with a much better view for all and multiple locations for launching, (vs. one in Sumidagawa.)
Gen-
this was my second time at the Sumidagawa fest, and although I can’t compare it to NY, I do have to say that I too was disappointed with the viewing options. Unless you happen to know someone who owns or rents space in one of the buildings fronting the river, and can therefore be invited to one of the many parties in such spots, visability is on the whole poor. For some reason I thought perhaps this year I’d be able to sneak onto one of the bridges, or find some vantage point that was unobstructed, but in the end I didn’t, and had to endure not only a large tree in front of me, but a very bright street lamp which all but insured that no good photos would come from the event.
I haven’t been to very many fireworks fests in Tokyo, but in terms of visability, the Sumidagawa fest can’t compare to the Toda-Itabashii dual fireworks display over the Arakawa river on the border of Tokyo-Saitama. You can view on either bank of the river, and have an unimpeded view. This year’s fest, for anyone interested, is this Saturday (August 2). (Ukima-Funado station or Toda Koen station on the JR Saikyou Line). Because of Kaika, we sadly won’t be able to go this year, though we’ll be able to hear it from where we live.
Just to corrrect Gen, there are actually two launching sites for the Sumidagawa fireworks. But I agree that it is very difficult to get a good ground viewing spot of the festival. I love fireworks, but gave up going to Sumidagawa this year after three or four successive years of trees, power lines, buildings, streetlamps, and even traffic lights blocking the view, to say nothing of the seethig masses of people. Tokyo Bay or Yokohama are much better.