Review questions from the real quiz with answers, explanations and sources. Think it through first, then reveal the correct answer.
This is a selection from the question pool — the real quiz also draws questions you won’t find here.
Begin with ten questions that serve as Sendai's business card: bamboo streamers filling the August shopping arcades, a grilled delicacy born in the postwar years, a bright green paste made from young soybeans. These are the fixtures every visitor meets first, asked with one extra degree of precision. Answer all ten and you could guide a friend around the city. The why behind each fact waits in the sourced explanations.
Correct answerGyutan
Sendai's grilled beef tongue is credited to Keishiro Sano of Tasuke, a restaurant opened in 1948. Salted, rested and grilled over charcoal, it anchors a set meal with barley rice, oxtail soup and pickles, and specialty shops now line the station and downtown.
Source:仙台牛タン焼き（Wikipedia）
Correct answerSendai Tanabata Festival
The Sendai Tanabata Festival, with Aomori's Nebuta and Akita's Kanto, is one of Tohoku's three great festivals. Held in early August each year, it draws over two million visitors to shopping streets hung with lavish bamboo decorations, handmade anew every summer on customs passed down since the domain era.
Source:仙台七夕（Wikipedia）
Correct answerDate Masamune
Date Masamune, the first lord of the Sendai Domain, began building Sendai Castle and its castle town after the Battle of Sekigahara, laying the foundation of the 620,000-koku Sendai domain. Sendai's food and festivals still carry many traditions tied to Masamune.
Source:伊達政宗（Wikipedia）
Correct answerCity of Trees
Mori no Miyako, 'City of Trees,' is Sendai's poetic byname, rooted in the estate woods and street greenery nurtured since the Edo period. 'Forest capital' appears in print by 1909, and the current spelling became the city's official usage in 1970.
Source:杜の都（Wikipedia）
Correct answerTohoku Shinkansen
The Tohoku Shinkansen opened between Omiya and Morioka in 1982, making Sendai Station its keystone. Tokyo and Sendai are now about an hour and a half apart at the fastest, and the station bundles JR lines with two subway lines as Tohoku's largest terminal.
Source:東北新幹線（Wikipedia）
Correct answerZunda
Zunda is a vivid green paste of boiled edamame ground with sugar, a taste of southern Tohoku centered on Miyagi, where a slightly coarse texture is preferred. Zunda mochi is the classic form, though shakes and sweets have carried the flavor far beyond.
Source:ずんだ餅（Wikipedia）
Correct answerTohoku University
Tohoku University was founded in 1907 as Tohoku Imperial University, Japan's third imperial university after Tokyo and Kyoto, with headquarters in Aoba Ward. True to its founding open-doors spirit, it admitted Japan's first female university students, anchoring Sendai's identity as a city of students.
Source:東北大学（Wikipedia）
Correct answerHirose River
The Hirose River, a tributary in the Natori River system, threads from the mountains straight through central Sendai. Masamune used its meanders as a natural moat for Sendai Castle, and the castle town grew on the river terraces. Sung about in 'Aoba-jo Koi Uta,' it remains the city's beloved waterfront.
Source:広瀬川_(宮城県)（Wikipedia）
Correct answerMatsushima
Matsushima scatters some 260 pine-clad islands across its bay, forming one of Japan's Three Great Views alongside Amanohashidate and Miyajima. Famed from Basho's Narrow Road to the Deep North, it pairs bay cruises with storied temples tied to the Date family.
Source:松島（Wikipedia）
Correct answerFalse
Eastern Sendai faces the Pacific on Sendai Bay, and Miyagino Ward holds the Port of Sendai, opened as a trading port in 1971. The city stretches from the Ou Mountains to the coast, fitting both mountains and sea within a single municipality.
Source:仙台港（Wikipedia）
From here, fifteen questions that make even residents hesitate: the mausoleum where Masamune rests, an envoy who crossed two oceans in the domain's name, a winter hot pot eaten roots and all. History and daily life share the stage. When a date appears, first ask whether it belongs to Masamune's era or after — that alone narrows most choices. The tier closes with the city's famously extravagant New Year custom.
Correct answerZuihoden
Zuihoden is Masamune's mausoleum, built by his dying wish on the Kyogamine hill in resplendent Momoyama style. The original, once a National Treasure, burned in the July 1945 air raid; the present hall dates from 1979. Nearby stand his successors' mausoleums, including Kansenden.
Source:瑞鳳殿（Wikipedia）
Correct answerOsaki Hachimangu
The shrine buildings of Osaki Hachimangu, erected through Masamune's patronage and completed in 1607, are held to be the oldest surviving example of gongen-zukuri architecture. Named a National Treasure in 1952, the Momoyama masterpiece is beloved as Sendai's guardian shrine.
Source:大崎八幡宮（Wikipedia）
Correct answerAkiu Onsen
Akiu Onsen, on the Natori River in Taihaku Ward, is an ancient spa once called 'the bath of Natori' and counted among the three famous springs of Oshu with Naruko and Iizaka. Edo-founded inns survive, and with Sakunami it is known as Sendai's inner parlor.
Source:秋保温泉（Wikipedia）
Correct answerSendai Mediatheque
Sendai Mediatheque opened in January 2001, housing the city library, galleries, and a studio theater. Architect Toyo Ito's design, with steel tubes supporting the floor plates, is famous worldwide, and the building is used daily by locals as a public facility.
Source:せんだいメディアテーク（Wikipedia）
Correct answerSuzume Odori
Suzume odori, the sparrow dance, is said to have begun in 1603 when stonemasons from Sakai, builders of Sendai Castle's walls, danced impromptu at the completion celebration. The name echoes the sparrows in the Date family crest, and the hopping, fan-waving dance lives on at May's Aoba Festival.
Source:すずめ踊り（Wikipedia）
Correct answerZuiganji
Zuiganji, Matsushima's great Zen temple, traces back to a Heian-era foundation and was rebuilt by Masamune over roughly five years from 1604. Its main hall and kuri kitchen are National Treasures, distilling the essence of Momoyama architecture in a setting of cedar avenues.
Source:瑞巌寺（Wikipedia）
Correct answerSendai's Kitchen
Sendai Asaichi, open on weekday afternoons as well as mornings, is affectionately called "Sendai's Kitchen." Lined with shops selling fresh fish, produce, and fish cakes, it is used by local restaurant owners and homemakers alike.
Source:仙台朝市(Wikipedia)
Correct answerJozenji-dori
Jozenji-dori runs east-west through central Sendai beneath four rows of zelkova trees planted in 1958. With Aoba-dori it embodies the City of Trees, hosting the Jozenji Street Jazz Festival in summer and the Pageant of Starlight, when LEDs light the bare branches each December.
Correct answerThe seven decorations
Sendai Tanabata decorations traditionally carry seven small ornaments: paper strips for study, a paper kimono for sewing skill and protection, cranes for long life, a purse for prosperity, a casting net for good catches, a wastebasket for thrift, and streamers for the weaver-princess's threads.
Source:七夕飾りについて｜仙台七夕まつり
Correct answerNamboku Line
The Namboku Line was the first line of the Sendai subway to open, running north-south between Izumi-Chuo and Tomizawa. Its northern terminus, Izumi-Chuo Station, sits at the center of Izumi Ward in northern Sendai.
Source:仙台市地下鉄南北線(Wikipedia)
Correct answerSeri-nabe
Seri nabe is a Sendai winter hot pot in which seri, Japanese parsley with its roots still attached, is swished briefly through duck or chicken broth. The sweet roots are the whole point. Miyagi leads Japan in seri production, and Natori's crop carries the name Sendai seri.
Source:今の季節におすすめの「仙台三大鍋」をご紹介します
Correct answerSalty red miso
Sendai miso is a salty red miso of rice koji and soybeans, matured long for a depth once praised as name-miso, good enough to eat on its own. The name is said to derive from a signboard raised by the domain's miso purveyor in the castle town early in the Edo period.
Source:仙台味噌（Wikipedia）
Correct answerHasekura Tsunenaga
Hasekura Tsunenaga led the Keicho embassy as Masamune's envoy, sailing from Tsukinoura aboard the San Juan Bautista in 1613 and gaining audiences with Philip III of Spain and Pope Paul V. The materials he brought home are National Treasures, inscribed in UNESCO's Memory of the World.
Correct answerAltair
Vegalta fuses Vega and Altair, the weaver and cowherd stars of the Tanabata legend, lovers who meet once a year. The name is said to voice the hope that club and citizens merge as one, fitting for the festival city of Sendai.
Source:ベガルタ仙台（Wikipedia）
Correct answerSendai Hatsuuri
Sendai hatsuuri, the new year's first sale, is a merchant custom said to run from the Edo period, famous for extravagant prizes. The Fair Trade Commission allows a special exemption for the first three days of January in the old domain's territory, and queues form before dawn.
Source:仙台初売り（Wikipedia）
The last fifteen guard the road to true Sendai expertise: a surprise hidden in the castle's design, a small waterwheel that lit up the history of Japanese electricity, a giant of Chinese literature in his student days. Dialect words and autumn riverbank gatherings test lived-in knowledge rather than guidebook memory. Keep the Date clan's timeline close, and remember what the domain school taught. Clear this tier, and the top titles come into view.
Correct answerA keep (tenshu)
Sendai Castle had a stone platform for a keep, but no keep was ever raised. The cliff-bound terrain of Mount Aoba was defense enough: the visiting Spanish envoy Vizcaino called it one of the finest and strongest castles in Japan, a fortress that needed no showpiece.
Source:仙台城（Wikipedia）
Correct answerSankyozawa Power Station
Sankyozawa began generating in 1888, when a spinning company attached a dynamo to its factory waterwheel, recognized as Japan's first hydroelectric power on record. Remarkably, it still operates as a working Tohoku Electric plant, with the adjacent centennial museum telling its story.
Source:三居沢発電所
Correct answerGongen-zukuri
Gongen-zukuri links main hall and worship hall through a lower stone-floored chamber, and Osaki Hachimangu's 1607 shrine is held to be the style's oldest surviving example, black lacquer ablaze with polychrome carving. The style's name comes from the Tosho-gu shrines of Ieyasu, the Great Gongen.
Correct answerLu Xun
Lu Xun (Zhou Shuren) studied at Sendai Medical College, forerunner of Tohoku University's medical school, from 1904 for about a year and a half. The experience that turned him from medicine to literature, and his bond with teacher Fujino Genkuro, are told in his memoir 'Mr. Fujino.'
Source:魯迅（Wikipedia）
Correct answerA one-month-late version of the lunar Tanabata
Tanabata is originally a festival of the seventh day of the seventh lunar month. Since July 7 on the modern calendar falls in the rainy season, Sendai holds its festival a month late, August 6-8, centered on the 7th, a schedule settled after the festival's early-Showa revival.
Source:仙台七夕（Wikipedia）
Correct answerYokendo
Yokendo was the Sendai domain's school, begun in 1736 and bearing that name from the Meiwa years. Under headmaster Otsuki Heisen it expanded, adding a medical school and pioneering Dutch learning. Nisshinkan belonged to Aizu, Kodokan to Mito, Meirinkan to Choshu.
Source:養賢堂_(仙台藩)（Wikipedia）
Correct answerA crescent moon
The helmet of Masamune's black-lacquered five-plate armor bears a great sweeping crescent moon of gold. The armor, called yukinoshita-do for its five hinged iron plates, is as sturdy as it is striking; the Sendai City Museum holds it as an Important Cultural Property.
Correct answerLoople Sendai
Loople Sendai, the city's tourist loop bus, has run since 1999. Retro-styled coaches circle clockwise from Sendai Station past Zuihoden, the castle site and Osaki Hachimangu in about seventy minutes, a one-ticket way to string the city's sights together.
Source:るーぷる仙台（Wikipedia）
Correct answerNot quite right; feeling off
Izui expresses a nagging discomfort, like grit in the eye or a collar that sits wrong, that standard Japanese struggles to name in one word. It is a hallmark of Sendai and Miyagi speech, also heard in Hokkaido and elsewhere in the northeast.
Source:いずい（Wikipedia）
Correct answerSendai-hira
Sendai-hira is a silk fabric prized since the Edo period as the finest cloth for hakama, begun, tradition says, when the domain lord invited weavers from Kyoto. Firm, crease-resistant and deeply lustrous, it is designated an Important Intangible Cultural Property as seigo sendai-hira.
Source:仙台平（Wikipedia）
Correct answerImoni gathering
Imonikai are autumn gatherings where families and workmates circle taro hot pots on the riverbanks, a Tohoku institution. Sendai favors pork and miso, Yamagata beef and soy sauce, a rivalry that never tires. In Sendai, the Hirose riverbeds are the classic venue.
Source:芋煮会（Wikipedia）
Correct answerKatakura Kojuro (Kagetsuna)
Katakura Kagetsuna, the first Kojuro, served as Masamune's trusted strategist, and the name Kojuro passed down the Katakura line. Lord of Shiroishi Castle from 1602, his house kept it until the Meiji era, an exception under the one-castle-per-domain rule.
Correct answerHarako-meshi / Zunda mochi / Beef tongue
Harako meshi, rice simmered in salmon broth and topped with salmon and roe, originated in the Watari district and defines Miyagi autumn. With zunda mochi and beef tongue it rounds out the prefecture's signature foods; kiritanpo hot pot belongs to Akita.
Source:はらこ飯 宮城県｜うちの郷土料理
Correct answerMasamune's birth → Begins building Sendai Castle → Construction of Osaki Hachimangu → Dispatch of the Keicho Mission to Europe
Date Masamune was born in Yonezawa in 1567, began building Sendai Castle and its town in 1601, dedicated Osaki Hachimangu in 1607, and dispatched the Keicho embassy to Europe in 1613, the milestones of a warlord turned domain builder.
Source:伊達政宗（Wikipedia）
Correct answer2013
In 2013, their ninth season, the Rakuten Eagles took their first Pacific League pennant and beat the Yomiuri Giants four games to three for their first Japan Series title. Ace Masahiro Tanaka went an unprecedented 24-0 to power the run.