Jozenji Street Jazz Festival

Every September, Jozenji-dori Avenue transforms into the main stage of Sendai's Jazz Festival. Hundreds of bands perform across the tree-lined avenue, in building entranceways, covered arcades, parks, and plazas over a single weekend. The festival started in 1991 as a community collaboration between local musicians and business owners, and has since expanded to include choral music and taiko drumming alongside jazz. Professional and amateur bands travel from around the country to participate. The avenue takes its name from Jozenji Temple, built during the era when Date Masamune founded Sendai in the early seventeenth century. The temple no longer stands, but its name lives on through the street that hosts the city's most lively annual gathering.