tohokumiyagi
Sendai
Sendai is the largest city in the Tohoku region of northern Honshu and the capital of Miyagi Prefecture, a city of about a million people founded in 1600 by the lord Date Masamune, ninety minutes from Tokyo by Shinkansen.
- Prefecture
- Miyagi
- Region
- Tohoku
- Journeys
- The Custom Tour of Japan
overview
The city of the one-eyed lord, its avenues under trees, with the mountains and the sea close at hand.
Date Masamune was one of the great lords of the age of unification, brilliant and ambitious, who lost an eye to smallpox as a child and is still called the One-Eyed Dragon. In 1600 he chose Mount Aoba, above the Hirose River, for his castle and laid out a new capital below it, and for more than two and a half centuries Sendai was the seat of the Date, one of the richest domains in Japan. Masamune looked far beyond it: in 1613 he sent his retainer Hasekura Tsunenaga across the Pacific to Mexico and on to Spain and Rome, where the embassy was received by the Pope.
The castle was lost in the reforms of the Meiji era and much of the old city in the air raids of 1945, and modern Sendai rose in their place with wide avenues planted with zelkova trees, which give it its name, Mori no Miyako, the City of Trees. It is a university town and the commercial centre of the north, easy and green, with the Hirose River running clear through it. What survives of the Date age has been restored with care: Masamune's mausoleum on its wooded hill, the lacquered shrine he built for the clan, and the treasures of the family in the city museum.
Sendai's great value to a traveller lies in what surrounds it. Matsushima Bay is forty minutes away, Hiraizumi half an hour by Shinkansen, and the mountain temple of Yamadera an hour by train; in the hills to the west are the onsen of Akiu and Sakunami and the Miyagikyo distillery of Nikka. It makes a natural base for southern Tohoku.
The table alone is worth the journey. Sendai is the home of gyutan, beef tongue cut thick and grilled over charcoal, and the Sanriku coast to the north sends its oysters, scallops, sea urchin and salmon roe to the city's counters. Zunda, a sweet paste of young green soybeans, is the city's favourite flavour, and the sake of Miyagi, clean and dry and made to go with fish, is among the most admired in Japan.
see and do
What to see in Sendai
Zuihoden
The mausoleum of Date Masamune, built in 1637 on a cedar-covered hill above the Hirose River in the ornate Momoyama style of black lacquer, gold and brightly painted carving. Destroyed in 1945, it was faithfully rebuilt in 1979, and the mausoleums of the second and third lords stand beside it.
Osaki Hachimangu
A shrine built by Masamune in 1607, its halls lacquered black and worked with gold and brilliant colour, one of the oldest surviving buildings in the gongen style and a National Treasure.
The site of Aoba Castle
The site of Masamune's castle on Mount Aoba, where the stone walls, a rebuilt turret and the equestrian statue of the lord look out over the city to the Pacific.
Sendai City Museum
The museum at the foot of the castle hill holds the treasures of the Date family, among them Masamune's black armour with its crescent-moon crest, and the portrait of Hasekura Tsunenaga painted in Rome, part of a collection that is a National Treasure and on UNESCO's Memory of the World register.
Jozenji-dori
An avenue through the centre of the city under four rows of tall zelkova trees that meet overhead, with a promenade of sculpture down the middle; it is hung with great paper streamers at the Tanabata festival.
Sendai Mediatheque
A library and arts centre of 2001 by Toyo Ito, its floors held up by thirteen lattice tubes of white steel, seen through a wall of glass on Jozenji-dori, and one of the most influential buildings of its time.
Rinno-ji
A Zen temple of the Date clan in the north of the city, with a strolling garden of ponds, irises and moss beneath a three-storey pagoda.
Sendai Asaichi
A market street a few minutes from the station, where the fish, vegetables, pickles and fruit of Miyagi are sold from open stalls.
Akiu Onsen
An onsen town in the valley of the Natori River, half an hour west of the centre, with more than a thousand years of history and a long association with the Date lords, who came here to take the waters.
Akiu Otaki and Rairaikyo
A waterfall of some fifty metres at the head of the Akiu valley, falling into a gorge of maples, and nearer the onsen, Rairaikyo, a narrow gorge of the Natori River with a level path along the water.
Nikka's Miyagikyo distillery
The second distillery of Nikka Whisky, founded in 1969 by Masataka Taketsuru at the meeting of two rivers in the hills west of Sendai, its red-brick buildings set among the trees.
Naruko Onsen
An onsen town about an hour to the north west, with springs of many different kinds, where kokeshi dolls are turned on the lathe and painted, and the deep Naruko Gorge lies close by.
experiences
The best of Sendai
Gyutan, as Sendai makes it
Beef tongue grilled over charcoal, cut thick and served with barley rice and a clear oxtail soup, the way Sendai has eaten it since the years after the war.
Whisky at Miyagikyo
A tour of the stills and warehouses of Nikka's distillery in the hills, followed by a tasting of single malts that seldom leave Japan.
A night at Akiu
An evening at an onsen ryokan of Akiu, half an hour from the city, an open-air onsen above the river and a kaiseki of Miyagi beef and the seafood of the coast.
The sake of Miyagi
A tasting with a brewer of the prefecture, its sake clean, dry and made for the oysters, sea urchin and white fish of the Sanriku coast.
Kokeshi and craft
A morning at the craft village of Akiu, where kokeshi dolls are turned and painted and the lacquered chests of Sendai, the tansu, are made with their heavy iron fittings.
plan your visit
Sendai on a journey through Japan
- How long to stay
- Two nights let Sendai serve as a base for Matsushima and Hiraizumi, and a third adds Yamadera or a night at an onsen ryokan in Akiu.
- Getting there
- By the Tohoku Shinkansen from Tokyo in about an hour and a half on the fastest trains. Sendai Airport is about twenty-five minutes from the centre by train, with flights from Sapporo, Osaka and Fukuoka, and Yamagata is about an hour away by train or car.
- Pairs well with
- Sendai is the hub of southern Tohoku: Matsushima and Hiraizumi are easy days out, Yamadera and Ginzan Onsen lie across the mountains in Yamagata, and Tokyo and Nikko are a short journey south.MatsushimaHiraizumiYamaderaGinzan OnsenMiyagiTokyoNikko
journeys
Sendai on a private journey
We shape a journey to Sendai as a Custom Tour of Japan: created around your party alone, on your dates, with a Tour Director beside you.
questions
Sendai: questions answered
Is Sendai worth visiting?
Yes. It is the gateway to southern Tohoku, with Date Masamune's mausoleum and shrine, a fine table of beef tongue and seafood, and Matsushima, Hiraizumi, Yamadera and the onsen of Akiu all within an hour.
How do you get from Tokyo to Sendai?
By the Tohoku Shinkansen from Tokyo station, about ninety minutes on the fastest Hayabusa trains. On our journeys a private car meets you at Sendai Station.
How many days do you need in Sendai?
Two nights, with a day for Matsushima and a day for Hiraizumi; three if you add Yamadera or a night at Akiu Onsen.
What food is Sendai famous for?
Gyutan, beef tongue grilled over charcoal, above all; then zunda, a sweet paste of young soybeans, sasa kamaboko fish cakes shaped like bamboo leaves, the oysters of Matsushima and the sake of Miyagi.
Who was Date Masamune?
The lord who founded Sendai in 1600, a warlord of the age of unification known as the One-Eyed Dragon, who built the city's castle, its great shrine and the temple of Zuigan-ji at Matsushima, and sent an embassy to Rome in 1613.
What is there to see near Sendai?
Matsushima Bay, forty minutes away; Hiraizumi and its golden hall, half an hour by Shinkansen; the cliff temple of Yamadera, an hour by train; and the onsen of Akiu and the Nikka distillery at Miyagikyo in the hills to the west.
Where is the best area to stay in Sendai?
Near Sendai Station for the trains and day trips, or around Jozenji-dori for the tree-lined avenues and the restaurants of Kokubuncho; Akiu Onsen for a ryokan with open-air onsen.
Can Sendai be part of a private tour of Japan?
Yes. The Custom Tour of Japan is created around your party alone, on your dates, with a Tour Director beside you, and it can include Sendai. For independent travel, the Expert Japan Itinerary plans every day for you.
tohoku
More in Tohoku
Sendai, planned for you.
Tell us when you would like to travel and what draws you to Sendai. We will answer with a journey shaped around it: one of our tours, a journey of The Private Collection, or a Custom Tour of Japan created around your party alone.