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100,000 solar-powered LED light balls, Tokyo Hotaru Firefly Festival, Sumida river, 2012

What happened on Sumida river?

Fireflies have become a rare sight in Japan. Once they used to glow their low light all over the country in the summer time but now they have become an uncommon sight even in rural areas. Last month 100,000 LED lights floated down through Tokyo’s city centre on the Sumida river mimicking a stream of fireflies.

The Tokyo Hotaru Festival

This happened on the occasion of the Tokyo Hotaru Festival (Tokyo Firefly Festival) which was first held in 2012 and is intended to revalue the river and its surroundings, similar to what Seoul has done with their prestigious Cheonggyecheon¹ stream renaturation project.

How was this project created?

The LED lights were sponsored by Panasonic and equipped with solar cells. At the end all of the lights were taken out of the river by using a big net.

Photos

100,000 solar-powered LED light balls, Tokyo Hotaru Firefly Festival, Sumida river, 2012
Photo: Raymond Viloria/500px.com

100,000 solar-powered LED light balls, Tokyo Hotaru Firefly Festival, Sumida river, 2012

100,000 solar-powered LED light balls, Tokyo Hotaru Firefly Festival, Sumida river, 2012
Photo: Helaine Chardon/boo.jp

100,000 solar-powered LED light balls, Tokyo Hotaru Firefly Festival, Sumida river, 2012

100,000 solar-powered LED light balls, Tokyo Hotaru Firefly Festival, Sumida river, 2012

100,000 solar-powered LED light balls, Tokyo Hotaru Firefly Festival, Sumida river, 2012
Photo: 411posters/411posters.com

100,000 solar-powered LED light balls, Tokyo Hotaru Firefly Festival, Sumida river, 2012
Photo: 411posters/411posters.com

100,000 solar-powered LED light balls, Tokyo Hotaru Firefly Festival, Sumida river, 2012
Photo: 411posters/411posters.com

100,000 solar-powered LED light balls, Tokyo Hotaru Firefly Festival, Sumida river, 2012

100,000 solar-powered LED light balls, Tokyo Hotaru Firefly Festival, Sumida river, 2012

All images by Tokyo Hotaru/tokyo-hotaru.jp unless otherwise noted.

Videos

Still video

5min

Visitor video

1min 33sec

Timelapse

19sec

Related readings

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheonggyecheon

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