How Many Types Of Fireworks Have You Seen At Fireworks Festivals?

I introduced the origin of Japanese fireworks festivals in my previous post. Japanese fireworks had improved a lot during Tokugawa family's Shogunate time (1603-1867). Because Japan was closed for international trade for most of the Shogunate time and was isolated from international community, the circumstance allowed Japanese fireworks to be developed into a unique style. 

The biggest feature would be the shape of the casing. Traditional Japanese fireworks casings look like cannon balls in various sizes. Contrary to Western fireworks casings which originally had a cylinder shape. Please look at the box on upper left hand side photo, the cut section of a fireworks casing shows layered spheres of small balls. The small balls are called "Hoshi (star)" and they are made of gunpowder. They spread to all directions equally in the air, and the fireworks look like a huge layered sphere as shown in the photo. If you are at a fireworks festival ground, you can really see a 3-D sphere.

To descrive the size of fireworks casings people still use a traditional length unit , as in "It was Shaku-dama (1 shaku ball)" though we don't use the unit anymore. 1 shaku is 33 cm (1.08 foot), and so far the biggest fireworks casing would be 4 shaku size. 1 Shaku size fireworks casing would reach 330 m (1082 feet) high in the sky and blow up into 320 m (1050 feet) in diameter. It is really an exciting view but only big festivals can have such a big size fireworks. So, if you hear that a fireworks festival has a lot of Shaku-dama or even one 3 Shaku-dama, the festival must be a major one.

Of course recent fireworks have more various shapes beside sphere types. As you can see in the photos, there are a dandelion shape, a ribbon shape, a palm tree shape and a heart shape. They were all taken at a fireworks festival, so you can find more different kinds in other festivals.

In addition, a style named "Star Mine" is also a popular fireworks although it's not a different type of shape, "Star Mine" means a type of sequence. All other fireworks I introduced in this post, casings were set off individually, but for "Star Mine", several casings are set of in a quick succession as if drawing a design in the sky. It is shown on the lower right hand side photo.

Every year something new types come out such as new colors and new shapes. It's also a fun part of watching fireworks festivals. I even saw an octopus shape and a squid shape fireworks this year!