Nationwide

Fireworks Season

Japan fires several million shells between July and September, in front of crowds that arrive six hours early. How the evening actually works, where to stand, and whether a paid seat is worth it.

A large firework bursting in gold and white above a dark bay — Japan · August 2024

A Japanese fireworks display is not a ten-minute municipal event. The big ones run for an hour or more, are fired by competing pyrotechnic houses, and are watched by crowds that arrive in the early afternoon for a show that starts at seven.

They are also the most reliably photogenic evening of the Japanese summer, and the most badly planned by visitors, who turn up at six and find every sightline taken.

At a glance

Season: Late July to the end of August, with a few into September
Start: Usually 19:00 to 19:30, running 60 to 90 minutes
Arrive: Early afternoon for a free spot; an hour before for a paid seat
Trains home: The worst crush of the Japanese year. Expect 60–90 minutes to board
Weather: Postponed for rain and wind, often to the following day

What you are looking at

A wide firework burst in red and white over water — A warimono shell: it opens as a perfect sphere, and is judged on how round it is.Japan · August 2024

The classic Japanese shell opens as a sphere, not a fountain, and the craft is judged on symmetry, the evenness of the colour change, and whether the stars burn out at the same instant. Large displays are competitions between workshops as much as entertainment.

Several fireworks bursting at once above a dark horizon with reflections in water — The finale is usually fired from several barges at once, which is why the last three minutes photograph differently from the rest.Japan · August 2024

The evening, in order

Early afternoon. Free ground is taken from about two. Groups put down sheets and leave one person with them.
Late afternoon. Food stalls open. This is the part most visitors miss, and it is half the point.
Dusk. Lanterns, the last of the light, the crowd settling.
The show. Sixty to ninety minutes, with a pause or two.
Going home. The slowest hour of your trip. Stations queue people in blocks; walking one stop further out is usually faster.

A single firework trailing gold against a black sky — Shot at f/11, four seconds, on a railing — no tripod needed if there is anything solid to lean on.Japan · August 2024

Paid seats, honestly

Most large displays sell reserved seating: a marked square of ground, a number, and the right to arrive an hour before rather than five. For two people the cost is usually somewhere between a cheap dinner and an expensive one.

It is worth it when the display is one of the famous ones, when you are travelling with children, or when the alternative is five hours on hot tarmac. It is not worth it at a small local display, where you can walk up at six and find space.

A cluster of fireworks opening together over a bay — August. The bay displays are easier to photograph than the river ones: more sky, fewer buildings.Japan · August 2024

Photographing it

Four settings and one rule. ISO 100, f/8 to f/11, two to six seconds, manual focus set to infinity before dark — and brace the camera on something. A railing, a bag, a wall. The exposure is long enough that a tripod helps, but the crowd rarely leaves room for one.

The rule: frame wider than you think. The first shells tell you where the top of the display will be, and almost everyone crops the finale.