Japan · Miyagi-ken · Sendai
Ichibancho, Sendai — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Ichibancho is a district of Aoba-ku in Sendai running 1-chome to 4-chome along the Higashi-Ichibancho street, one of the city's two main shopping areas.
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Where to stay in Ichibancho
Where the beds are, and what that means for the visit.
The arcade is the reason to be here. Ichibancho runs from 1-chome in the south to 4-chome in the north, with arcades over 2-chome to 4-chome, and those covered stretches are what people mean when they say the shopping street. Its extent is fixed by two roads.
The shopping street runs from Jozenji-dori in the north to Minamimachi-dori in the south. Sendai station is the other commercial pole.
About Ichibancho
What are the main landmarks in Ichibancho?
Four blocks make up the street, three of them arcaded. Higashi-Ichibancho-dori divides into roughly four sections and three of those are pedestrianised arcades, which is the part the public recognises as Ichibancho. Festivals fill it.
Elaborate bamboo decorations go up along it and along Chuo-dori for the Sendai Tanabata in August, the suzume odori is danced here during the Sendai Aoba Matsuri in spring, and a large torii is raised in the arcade at the end of the year for the Sendai hatsu-uri. A university campus adjoins the southern end. Tohoku University's Katahira campus lies beside 1-chome, which was once a student quarter.
What is the history of Ichibancho?
The street ran the length of the town in the Edo period. Higashi-Ichibancho-dori crossed Sendai from north to south then, and the district still carries the old name Sendai Ichibancho. Two institutions closed the ends.
Sendai city hall was built on the north side and the Tohoku University Katahira campus on the south, which turned both ends of the street into T-junctions and stopped it running through. Arcades came over most of what was left. Three of the four remaining blocks were covered and pedestrianised, and those are what the public now calls Ichibancho.
The southern end kept a student character. 1-chome adjoins the Katahira campus and was once a student quarter, while the arcaded blocks to the north became the retail centre.
Where is Ichibancho?
Ichibancho lies in Aoba-ku in the central district of Sendai along Higashi-Ichibancho-dori, running from Jozenji-dori in the north to Minamimachi-dori in the south, with Chuo-dori crossing it.
More areas in Sendai
Updated September 2026