The fireworks began as a memorial. In Shizuoka, the Abekawa Fireworks Festival sends around fifteen thousand shells over the riverbank on a summer night, one of the largest displays in the Tokai region. But these fireworks have a reason for their beginning. In 1953, they were first launched to console the spirits of those who died in the war and those lost to floods; that is the festival's origin. Behind the splendor lies prayer. The light rising into the night sky is not merely beautiful; each shell carries a feeling of mourning for someone. Fire reflects on the river's surface, and for an instant the faces looking up grow bright. Each summer people gather, remembering the dead, as if to confirm the present in which they are alive. The light fades, and because it fades, it stays in the heart.