Matsushima Bay, one of the three classic views of Japan, holds more than two hundred pine-covered islands. On the nights of 15 and 16 August, the water between them fills with floating lanterns.

The festival exists because of Zuiganji, the temple above the shore. Its segaki rite - a memorial service for one's ancestors and equally for the dead no one remembers - has been performed here for some seven hundred years. Umi no Bon began as the eve of that rite.

Its present form dates only from 2011, the first summer after the tsunami. The town put the lanterns out again as an act of mourning, and it has continued each year since.

On the fifteenth, people gather at the central plaza by the shore from late afternoon: a children's masu-stacking contest, Godaido drumming, bon dancing. At half past seven the fireworks begin - suichu hanabi, water fireworks, fired low so they open at the surface of the sea rather than overhead.

The sixteenth is quieter. Sutras are chanted in the temple's national-treasure main hall. At eight, the fireworks come once more.

These are not tourist fireworks. They are offerings. That is why they stay low, and why they are brief.