Sendai

Sendai (仙台市, Sendai-shi) is the capital city of Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, and the largest city in the Tōhoku region, and the second largest city north of Tokyo. In 2010, the city had a population of one million, and was one of Japan's 20 designated cities. The city was founded in 1600 by the daimyo Date Masamune, and is nicknamed the City of Trees (杜の都, Mori no Miyako); there are about 60 zelkova trees on Jōzenji Street (定禅寺通, Jōzenji dōri) and Aoba Street (青葉通, Aoba dōri).

In the summer, the Sendai Tanabata Festival, the largest Tanabata festival in Japan, is held. In winter, the trees are decorated with thousands of lights for the Pageant of Starlight (光のページェント), lasting through most of December.

On March 11, 2011, coastal areas of the city suffered catastrophic damage from a magnitude 9.0 offshore earthquake which triggered a destructive tsunami.

History

Edo period

Although the Sendai area was inhabited as early as 20,000 years ago, the history of Sendai as a city begins from 1600, when the daimyo Date Masamune relocated to Sendai. Masamune was not happy with his previous stronghold, Iwadeyama. Iwadeyama was located to the north of his territories and was also difficult to access from Edo (modern-day Tokyo). Sendai was an ideal location, being in the centre of Masamune's newly defined territories, upon a major road from Edo, and near the sea. Tokugawa Ieyasu gave Masamune permission to build a new castle in Aoba-yama (Mount Aoba), Sendai after the Battle of Sekigahara. The previous ruler of the Sendai area had used a castle located on Aobayama.

Sendai (disambiguation)

Sendai is the capital city of Miyagi Prefecture, Japan.

Sendai may also refer to:

See also

3133 Sendai

3133 Sendai, provisional designation A907 TC, is a stony asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, about 8 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by German astronomer August Kopff at Heidelberg Observatory, southern Germany, on 4 October 1907.

The S-type asteroid is a member of the Flora family, one of the largest groups of stony asteroids in the main-belt. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 1.8–2.5 AU once every 3 years and 3 months (1,176 days). Its orbit is tilted by 7 degrees to the plane of the ecliptic and shows an eccentricity of 0.16. In 2010, two photmetric light-curve observations by the Palomar Transient Factory and by amateur astronomer Ralph Megna at Goat Mountain Astronomical Research Station (G79) have rendered a rotation period of 5.78 and 5.75 hours, respectively.

According to the surveys carried out by the U.S. Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer and its NEOWISE mission, the asteroid's surface has an albedo of 0.21 and 0.31, while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link (CALL) assumes an intermediate albedo of 0.24, which is identical to the albedo of the Flora family's namesake, the asteroid 8 Flora.