#80 - Sightseeing in Sendai: Loople and Zuihoden

Sendai is the largest city in the Tohoku Region in Japan with around one million inhabitants. There are several good tourist and cultural spots in Sendai, but they are sometimes a little too far apart to travel to if you have limited time in the city. What could you do?

Loople Sendai Bus

The Loople is a bus service in Sendai. As the name suggests, it travels in a one-way loop across the city, and stops at several useful locations for sightseeing. Stops include Sendai City Museum, Aoba (Sendai) Castle, Osaki Hachimangu Shrine, and the Miyagi Museum of Art, as well as other.

It leaves from Sendai Station, which is a convenient hub for the bullet train, local trains, subway and other bus routes. You can identify a Loople bus easily. It has a wonderfully nostalgic design which incorporates a lot of wood in the design, and it looks very different to other services. The service starts at 9:00 and the last is 16:00, which seems early, but as this is intended as a city touring bus, you should bear in mind that most attractions or tourist spots will be closed around the same time. Buses leave every 20-30 minutes, depending on the season. 

Perhaps the best way to use the Loople is to buy the 1-day pass. This will let you get on and off the Loople any time you want during the day. It costs 620yen for the 1-day pass (single fare is 260yen) so if you stop to visit 2 places, you have already saved money! Even better, the 1-day pass allows a discount at some tourist attractions! 

Zuihoden

One of Sendai's most visited attractions is the Zuihoden Mausoleum (瑞鳳殿). This mausoleum was built in 1637 for Date Masamune, one of the most powerful feudal lords from the Edo Period, who died the previous year. Zuihoden was designed in the style of the Momoyama Period, which features intricate woodwork with bright and vivid colours.  

Zuihoden - the mausoleum of Date Masamune.

Steps up to Zuihoden.

During the Second World War, the mausoleum was destroyed by bombing, but it was reconstructed in 1979 to be an exact replica.

Kansenden and Zennoden.

 On the grounds, you can also find the mausoleums of other members of the Date clan: Kansenden (感仙殿), built for Date Tadamune, and Zennoden (善応殿), built for Date Tsunamune. There are also the graves and tombs of other descendants. There is a small museum exhibiting items which were excavated from the site.

#72 - Sendai Castle and Date Masamune

Castle Ruins

The first time I visited Sendai Castle was in the middle of April 2013. At the time, there were a few cherry blossom trees in bloom still, but it was at the end of the season so they looked rather poorly. I went with a fellow teacher and her student.

Unfortunately, due to time and other events, the castle no longer stands. Actually, it would be more accurate to call it castle ruins, and now only the foundation walls remain. Actually, the real name of this area is called Aoba Castle (青葉城 Aoba-jo) because it was built upon Mount Aoba.

Castle walls

There are a few ways to reach the castle, but whenever I went I always chose the same path. Its fairly easy to get to. You can get a bus in more-or-less a straight line from downtown Sendai and get off at the International Center. From there, cross the road to Sendai City Museum. If you walk behind the building, there is a tiny path which you can walk upwards towards the castle ruins.


It is completely free to visit the castle. In fact, I ended up visiting several times, sometimes during the day and sometimes at night. From the top of the castle walls, there is a great panoramic view of Sendai city. To the left you can see mountains and the large Sendai Daikannon - a great white statue of the Japanese Buddhist Bodhisattva Kannon which is 100 metres tall - which overlooks the city. To the right of the view on a clear day, you can see the ocean near the Sendai port area. On the castle grounds, there is also a Gokoku Shrine (護国神社 Gokoku-jinja) as well as a large statue of Date Masamune on horseback.

View of central Sendai from the castle ruins.
Unfortunately I didn't manage to get a photo of the whole view.

Date Masamune

Speaking of which, who is this? Date Masamune is a well-known historical figure in the Sendai and Tohoku region. You can see his figure on a whole plethora of souvenirs from Sendai. He was a daimyo (大名) - a powerful territorial lord - in the region, and helped to found the modern-day city of Sendai. 

Me and a bust of Date Masamune.

Rear of the statue of Date Masamune
on horseback at the castle.

Date Masamune is also known as the "one-eyed dragon" (独眼竜 dokuganryu). This is because he had an infection of small-pox in his right eye as a child which caused him to lose his eye. How he lost it, though, is unclear. Some sources say that he plucked it out himself.

Another symbol of Date Masamune was his famous crescent-moon shaped helmet. This won him a fearsome reputation. Actually, I have noticed that the figure of Date Masamune, or a similar design, is often used in anime or games (for example, Samurai Warriors). 

I also found out that the design of this helmet was the inspiration for Darth Vader's costume!