Where to Stay in Morioka, Iwate

What is Morioka known for?

At the meeting of three rivers below the great cone of Mount Iwate, it grew as the seat of the Nanbu lords, and it keeps the ruins of their castle in a park, a cherry tree splitting a great rock, the endless-bowl noodles called wanko soba, and the fine cast ironware of the north. The white peak rises to the west. The rivers run clear below.

What are the main landmarks in Morioka?

The castle ruins stand in a park at the heart of Morioka. The old stone walls of the Nanbu castle, set among the trees and the rivers of the central park, rise over the town, the emblem of the city, near the centre. A cherry splits a great rock.

The famous rock-splitting cherry grows from a crack in a granite boulder nearby, while the old ironware shops, the river walks, and the peak of Mount Iwate mark the country around Morioka.

What is the history of Morioka?

Morioka grew as the seat of the Nanbu lords. In the old days the Nanbu clan built a castle of stone on the rivers here and ruled a great domain of the north from it, gathering the trade of the mountains and the plain. The lords held the north.

For centuries the town grew below the castle walls, known for its horses, its ironware, and its cold clear water. The town gave the north its poets. Morioka raised the poets Takuboku and Kenji, who wrote of its mountains and its northern skies, and their memory is kept in the city still.

The old crafts held on. Its ironworkers still cast their heavy kettles as they did for the lords, and the town keeps its castle park, its rock-splitting cherry, and its bowls of wanko soba. The peak still watches the town.

Morioka keeps its rivers and its castle below Mount Iwate.

Where is Morioka?

Morioka lies in the north of Japan, in the Tōhoku region where three rivers come together. The city sits in a basin among the hills of Iwate, where the Nakatsu and the Shizukuishi flow into the Kitakami, below the volcano of Mount Iwate to the northwest. A great cone stands over the plain.

The rivers wind through the streets.

What is the climate of Morioka?

Morioka has a cold climate of snowy winters. Warm summers and long, cold winters cross the northern basin, with deep snow through the winter and cool green summers, sharper than the south for its inland north. Deep snow covers the town in winter.

The peak holds its snow late.

How do you get to Morioka?

Morioka lies in northern Japan, on the bullet-train line up through Tōhoku. Fast trains run to it from Tokyo across the northern mountains, and roads fan out to the coast and the peaks. Roads climb west to Mount Iwate.

Tokyo lies far to the south.