Sumida River Fireworks Festival

The Sumida River Fireworks Festival is a summer fireworks display on the Sumida River in eastern Tokyo, between Asakusa and Ryogoku. Shells go up from two launch sites on the river, each run by a different fireworks company, with tall buildings lining both banks.

History

The festival traces its origins to the Ryogoku Kawabiraki (両国の川開き), the river opening at Ryogoku. In 1732 a great famine struck, many people starved and an epidemic spread. The eighth shogun, Tokugawa Yoshimune, held a festival for the water deity (suijinsai, 水神祭) to console the dead and pray for the disease to end. The following year, restaurants around Ryogoku Bridge set off fireworks with the shogunate's permission, and this is held to be the start of the Ryogoku Kawabiraki. The organizers describe the Ryogoku fireworks as the oldest fireworks on record.

Fireworks were launched upstream of Ryogoku Bridge until 1961. From 1962 the display stopped, as traffic in the area had become too heavy. It returned in 1978 under its present name, with the launch sites moved further upstream and split in two.

What happens

Thunder shells, fired as a signal, mark the start. Each launch site then fires its own program of themed shows, ending in a grand finale. The first site also hosts a contest: ten fireworks makers from around Japan, chosen for their results at national competitions, each fire a set of 20 shells built around a theme of their own.

The 2026 edition

The 2026 festival was the 49th. The first launch site fired 9,507 shells and the second 10,650, with programs that included a show marking the 49th festival and a Pokemon-themed set. Contest entries took themes such as soap bubbles, snowflakes, a field of rapeseed blossom, and cherry and peach blossoms side by side.