is the capital city of Miyagi Prefecture and the largest city in the Tōhoku region. , the city had a population of 1,098,335 in 539,698 households, making it the twelfth most populated city in Japan.
The modern city was founded in 1600 by the daimyō Date Masamune. It is nicknamed the ; there are Japanese zelkova trees lining many of the main thoroughfares such as and . In the summer, the Sendai Tanabata Festival, the largest Tanabata festival in Japan, is held. In winter, the trees are decorated with thousands of lights for the , lasting through most of December. The city is also home to Tohoku University, one of the former Imperial Universities. On 11 March 2011, coastal areas of the city suffered catastrophic damage from a magnitude 9.0 offshore earthquake,] which triggered a destructive tsunami.
History Edo period Although the Sendai area was inhabited as early as 20,000 years ago, the history of Sendai as a city begins from 1600, when the daimyō Date Masamune relocated. Masamune was not happy with his previous stronghold, Iwadeyama, which was located in the northern portion of his territories and was difficult to access from Edo (modern-day Tokyo). Sendai was an ideal location, being in the centre of Masamune's newly defined territories, upon the major road from Edo. Tokugawa Ieyasu gave Masamune permission to build a new castle in Aobayama after the Battle of Sekigahara. The previous ruler of the Sendai area had used a castle located on Aobayama. At this time Sendai was written as ("a thousand generations" or "eternity"). Masamune changed the kanji to "", which later became "" (literally: "hermit/wizard" plus "platform/plateau" or figuratively, "hermit on a platform/high ground"). The character came from a Chinese poem that praised a palace created by the Emperor Wen of Han China (reigned 180–157 BCE), comparing it to a mythical palace in the Kunlun Mountains. Tradition says that Masamune chose this kanji so that the castle would prosper as long as a mountain inhabited by an immortal hermit.
Masamune ordered the construction of Sendai Castle in December 1600 and the construction of the surrounding castle town in 1601. The grid plan roads in modern-day central Sendai are based upon his plans.
Modern era The first railway line between Sendai and Tokyo, now the Tōhoku Main Line, opened in 1887, bringing the area within a day's travel from Tokyo for the first time in history. Tohoku Imperial University, the region's first university, was founded in Sendai in 1907 and became the first Japanese university to admit female students in 1913.
Sendai was incorporated as a city on 1 April 1889, with the post-Meiji restoration creation of the modern municipalities system following the abolition of the han system. At the time of incorporation, the city's area was and its population was 86,000. The city grew, however, through seven annexations that occurred between 1928 and 1988. The city became a designated city on 1 April 1989; the city's population exceeded one million in 1999.
Sendai was considered to be one of Japan's greenest cities, mostly because of its great numbers of trees and plants. Sendai became known as The City of Trees before the Meiji Restoration, after the feudal Sendai Domain encouraged residents to plant trees in their gardens. As a result, many houses, temples, and shrines in central Sendai had , which were used as resources for wood and other everyday materials.
In 1925, the Senseki Line to Sendai Station became the first underground railway segment in Japan, preceding the opening of the Tokyo Metro Ginza Line (Asia's first subway line) by two years.
The 2nd Infantry Division was known as the "Sendai Division" as it was based in Sendai, and recruited locally. During the Second World War it was involved in many different campaigns, but one of the most important was the Battle of Guadalcanal. During the bombing of Sendai during World War II by the United States on 10 July 1945, much of the historic center of the city was burned, with 2,755 inhabitants killed and 11,933 houses destroyed in the city.
Postwar development Following World War II, the city was rebuilt, and Sendai became a vital transportation and logistics hub for the Tōhoku region with the construction of major arteries such as the Tōhoku Expressway and Tōhoku Shinkansen.
In the early 1950s, the United States Army, Japan operated Camp Schimmelpfennig and Camp Sendai in the city.
Sendai has been subject to several major earthquakes in recent history, including the 1978 Miyagi earthquake, which was a catalyst for the development of Japan's current earthquake resistance standards, and the 2005 Miyagi earthquake. Most recently, the coastal area of Sendai, including Sendai Airport, was severely damaged in the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. The tsunami reportedly reached as far as Wakabayashi Ward Office, from the coastline. Thousands were killed, and countless more were injured and/or made homeless. Sendai's port was heavily damaged and temporarily closed, reopening on 16 April 2011.
Geography Sendai is located at lat. 38°16'05" north, long. 140°52'11" east. The city's area is , and stretches from the Pacific Ocean to the Ōu Mountains, which are the east and west borders of Miyagi Prefecture. As a result, the city's geography is quite diverse. Eastern Sendai is a plains area, the center of the city is hilly, and western areas are mountainous. The highest point in the city is Mount Funagata which stands above sea level. Unique among Japan's large coastal cities, Sendai's city core is built on a terrace at elevation.
The Sendai basin area is (the mountainous area is , the plain area is and the water body is ). The basin consists of urban areas, paddy fields and forests. The mid and upstream areas have forests. The Natori River flows through the area and reaches Sendai Bay after .
The flows through Sendai. The river is well known as a symbol of Sendai, especially because it appears in the lyrics of Aoba-jō Koi-uta (青葉城恋唄; literally, The Aoba Castle Love Song), a popular song sung by Muneyuki Satō. Aoba Castle was built close to the river to use the river as a natural moat. The river frequently flooded until the 1950s, but dams and levees constructed in the 1960s and 1970s have made such floods rare.
Most mountains in Sendai are dormant volcanoes, much older than the more famous Mount Zaō and Naruko volcanoes in nearby municipalities. However, many hot springs can be found in the city, indicating hydrothermal activity. The Miyagi Oki earthquake occurs offshore Sendai once every 25 to 40 years. The 7.2 magnitude 2005 Miyagi earthquake, which occurred on August 16, 2005, had an epicenter close to the Miyagi Oki earthquake area. However, the Headquarters for Earthquake Research Promotion concluded that it was not the Miyagi Oki earthquake, saying "...the recent event is not thought to be this earthquake. This is because the magnitude of the earthquake was small, and the source area, which was estimated from the aftershock distribution and seismic waves, didn't cover the whole expected source region. Although, the recent event ruptured a part of the focal region of the expected earthquake." In 2011, the 9.0 magnitude 2011 Tōhoku earthquake occurred offshore Sendai, resulting in a devastating tsunami.
Wards Sendai has five wards ("ku"), which were created when it became a designated city in 1989. The city consciously avoided names that included directions (e.g., north , center ) when it chose names for the new wards. Wards of Sendai Place NameMap of SendaiRōmajiKanjiColorPopulationLand area in km2Pop. density per km2 1Aoba-ku - (administrative center)青葉区 blue296,551302.278981 2Izumi-ku 泉区 red215,048146.61 1,470 3Miyagino-ku 宮城野区 yellow196,08658,193,370 4Taihaku-ku 太白区 orange226,069228.39997 5Wakabayashi-ku 若林区 light green137,49450.86 2,700
Cityscape
Climate Sendai has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa), which features warm and wet summers, and cool and dry winters. Sendai summers are not as hot as Tokyo to the south, while the winters are much milder than Sapporo to the north, but retains significant seasonal differences in temperature and rainfall. Extremes range from . Of Japan's prefectural capitals, Sendai experiences the fewest days of extreme temperatures (highs outside ) at 19.6 per year, compared to Tokyo's average of 49.
Winters are cool and relatively dry, with January temperatures averaging . Snowfall is much lower than cities on the Sea of Japan coast, such as Niigata and Tottori. Summers are very warm and much of the year's precipitation is delivered at this time, with an August average of . The city is rarely hit by typhoons, and experiences only 6 days with more than of rainfall on average. Sendai's monsoon season usually begins in late April to early October, which is later than in most cities in Japan. During this season, cold winds from the Okhotsk air mass, called "Yamase", blow in and depress daytime highs.
Demographics
, the city had an estimated population of 1,097,407 and a population density of 1,397 persons per km2. The city's total area was 786.35 km2.
The 2000 National Census revealed that 88.5% of the city's population (892,252 people) lived in a 129.69 km2 area, which is 16.6% of the city's total area. The population density in this area was 6,879.9 persons per km2, more than 5 times higher than the city's average population density at that time, 1,286.6 persons per km2. Approximately 10,000 people in Sendai were non-Japanese citizens.
Sendai had 525,828 households in 2020. The average household had approximately 2.07 members. The average household was becoming smaller every year, because single-member households were increasing. At this time Sendai had more people in their early 50s and in their 20s and early 30s than in other age groups. This is a result of the first and second baby booms in Japan, and university students. The average age in Sendai is 38.4, which makes the city one of the youngest major cities in Japan.
Governance
Sendai's political system is similar to other cities in Japan, because the Local Autonomy Law makes all municipalities uniform in terms of organization and power. However, Sendai is a designated city, so it has the same jurisdiction as prefectures in some areas.
Sendai has a mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a unicameral city legislature. The Sendai City Assembly members are elected from 5 elective districts, which correspond to the city's 5 wards. The number of assembly members allocated to each ward is based upon population. As of May 2005, the city has 60 assembly members; 17 from Aoba Ward, 11 from Miyagino, 8 from Wakabayashi, 13 from Taihaku, and 11 from Izumi. The City Assembly elects an Assembly Chairperson and Vice Chairperson. Sendai has two vice mayors, who are not elected by the populace. Miyagi contributes 24 seats to the Miyagi Prefectural legislature. In terms of national politics, the city is divided between the Miyagi 1st district and the Miyagi 2nd district of the lower house of the Diet of Japan.
List of mayors of Sendai (1889 to present)
#NameTook officeLeft office1–2Yoji Endo(遠藤庸治)12 April 18897 March 18983Yoshiaki Satomi(里見良顕)8 April 189813 March 19034Tomohiro Hayakawa(早川智寛)2 April 19031 July 19075Takayoshi Wadachi(和達孚嘉)2 July 19072 July 19106Yoji Endo11 December 19104 November 19147Kiichi Yamada(山田揆一)25 May 191524 May 1919
#NameTook officeLeft office8–9Takesaburo Kanomata(鹿又武三郎)17 July 191926 July 192710Ryunosuke Yamaguchi(山口龍之助)13 August 19277 June 193011–13Tokusaburo Shibuya(渋谷徳三郎)31 August 193030 August 194214Takeshi Imamura(今村武志)23 September 194214 May 194615–18Eimatsu Okazaki(岡崎栄松)17 June 194617 December 195720–25Takeshi Shimano(島野 武)2 February 19586 November 1984