Sendai Museum Displays Nostalgic Photographs of the City

The Yomiuri Shimbun

12:08 JST, December 20, 2023

SENDAI — A special exhibition of photographs capturing the faces of people and landscapes in the city of Sendai is currently being held at the Sendai City Museum of History and Folklore.

Titled “Natsukashi Sendai 5 Itsuka Mita Machi, Hito, Kurashi” (Nostalgic Sendai 5: Town, people and life once there), the exhibition features photos such as of children smiling on the hinamatsuri girls day and an amusement park that once operated on the rooftop of Fujisaki department store.

The exhibition is the fifth in a series first held in 1998. Many photographs have been donated by individuals. Of the 225 works on display in the current exhibition, about 100 are being publicly seen for the first time.

Visitors to the museum looked excited as they found photographs of the places they know, saying “Was it like this?” or “That’s nostalgic.”

Kuniaki Konno, 66, an office worker in Aoba Ward, looked impressed as he found a photo from the Showa era (1926-1989) of the west exit of Sendai Station.

“It brought back fond memories of shopping at the ams Seibu and Marumitsu department stores,” he said.

“I want people to recognize that the Sendai of the past was full of smiles even though it was not an affluent time,” said museum curator Hiroki Hatai, 51. He also called on residents to donate old photographs, saying they would be valuable records for future generations.

The exhibition will run through April 14 next year.