Tokyo – Sumida River Fireworks Display

The Sumidagawa Fireworks Festival is an annual fireworks display held on the last Saturday in July, by the Sumida River near Asakusa.

Like many displays in Japan, it follows the tradition of being a competition between rival pyrotechnic groups. Each group tries to out-do the last, and the result is an incredible variety of fireworks, not just in different colors and patterns, but also by forming complicated shapes.

It is a revival of celebrations held in the Edo period, and annually attracts close to a million people.