Zuihoden In Sendai

Above, the statue of Date Masamune at the site of Sendai Castle. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Back in 2006, I took a shinkansen trip from Tokyo to Sendai (and nearby Matsushima) in the Tohoku region of Japan to see the area where my father was briefly stationed during the Korean War. I arrived at Sendai Station, a place prominently featured in Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993) and Gamera 2: Advent of Legion (1996).

While in Sendai, I did some exploring around the city. I managed to get up to the hilltop site of the former Sendai Castle, now just ruins. The site has a great view of the city and, also, has a statue of the founder of Sendai, Date Masamune (September 5, 1567 – June 27, 1636), called "the One-Eyed Dragon."

Away from the site of Sendai Castle is Zuihoden, the mausoleum of Masamune. Unfortunately, Zuihoden was closed the day I was exploring Sendai. On the other day I had available, I toured Matsushima Bay.

Laura Welch, one of my co-contributors at JapanTravel, has an interesting article on Zuihoden and it tells about Masamune and the architecture of the mausoleum. If you are at all interested in the days of the samurai during the Edo eriod of Japan, you are sure to find the article of interest.

To read the article, go here.