The first mention of a firework dates back to 7th century China, from where this custom has spread to other cultures. It seems that in Japan they reached in 17th century, and became popular due to the lords who resided in Edo, today’s Tokyo. In 1733, the eighth shogun, Tokugawa Yoshimune, organized the first such festival, Water God Festival, on the Sumida River, launching fireworks to honor the souls of the dead from the previous year, when some 1 million people had died of famine. According to Teruhiko Muto's Nihon no Hanabi no Ayumi (History of Fireworks in Japan), this river was preferred as place of holding the festival to avoid the summer heat. This became an annual event since 1810, under the name Ryōgoku Kawabiraki, which held on the last Saturday in July. The tradition continued nearly every year until 1920s, ceasing entirely during WWII and for several decades afterwards. Finally, in 1978, the tradition was reinstated, and continues to nowadays.
Now is known as Sumida River Fireworks Festival (Sumidagawa Hanabi Taikai), and follows the Japanese tradition of being an competition between rival pyrotechnic groups (previously organized into guilds). Each group tries to out-do the last, and the result is an incredible variety of fireworks, not just in different colors and patterns, but forming shapes as complicated as Doraemon, Pikachu, or Kanji. A key characteristic of many Japanese fireworks is that they are spherical, being named according to their effects. Some of the names are flowers, including kiku (chrysanthemum), botan (tree peony) and yanagi (willow). Street vendors sell various drinks and food, and held various games, such as Kingyo-sukui (Goldfish scooping). Even today, men and women attend these events wearing the traditional Yukata (summer Kimono), or Jinbei (men only), collecting in large social circles of family or friends to sit picnic-like, eating and drinking, while watching the show.
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