Naniwa Yodogawa Fireworks Festival Osaka

It's been a long 3 years waited for the people of Osaka to reunite again on the bank of the Yodo River. On the night of a New Moon, where the sky is pitch black and the fireworks outshine the star with their bright and colorful flowers for the entire hour of display of lights against the city skyline backdrop. The food and game stalls line up on the street of the river bank, it's a truly magical event especially a meaningful one to Japanese way of life.

Hanabi Festival (花火, Hanabi - direct translation is flower fire, or firework) has been part of Japanese summer for more than 30o years, back in the Edo era. It used to be a thing to enjoy among the shoguns as a form of prayer and celebration but since around 1732 in the Tokukawa Shogun period when the country suffered a massive hit from an epidemic of cholera and starvation due to crop failures, these two events had taken a vast sum of Japanese lives. The Shogun Tokukawa Yoshimune decided that the people of Japan needed to have a grand ritual to hold a memorial to pray for the lost souls and heal the spirit of the folks who were left behind.

In these modern-day Japan, fireworks still hold cultural significance in Japan both in physical displays and metaphorically as a symbol of ephemeral beauty that correlates with the Japanese philosophy of the impermanence of life and ephemeral beauty.

All conditioned things are impermanent. When one sees this with wisdom, one turns away from the suffering. This is the path to purification. - Buddha.

Japanese don't celebrate New Year with fireworks as it's only a tradition to celebrate the time of summer. Some spectators would turn up at the viewing spots wearing yukata (summer kimono) and a folding fan in their hands. Enjoy the time with family and loved ones, shouting “Tamaya!” and “Kagiya!” to glorify the name of the famous Edo-era fireworks artisans as a way of appreciation for these rumbling fireball beauties.