Iwate, A Mystical Trip
Digital Guidebook for
H
iraizumi,
H
anamaki and
T
ono
Traditional performing arts and a mystical land
To the hot spring town of Hanamaki
“Tono Monogatari (The Tono Tales)” and home of
mythical creatures
See indelible scenes of Japan
The golden culture of ancient Japan
A trip to world heritage Hiraizumi
Hiraizumi Area
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Hanamaki Area
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Tono Area
— Digital book —The Appeal of Hiraizumi
The Appeal of Hanamaki
The Appeal of Tono
In the 12
thcentury situated a long way from the capital of Kyoto, a unique
golden culture blossomed in Hiraizumi in Oshu, also known as Michi no
Oku. A number of temples, gardens and historic ruins which still remain
today were built here to pray for the repose of souls of the people who died
in the civil wars and for peace for all living things. Come and visit
Hiraizumi to discover another side to Japan.
The pink colour of the cherry trees signals the arrival of spring in the snow
country of Iwate. Refreshing breezes blow through the green land of summer.
Autumn is dyed in the red and yellow colours of all the plants and trees. In
winter, the whole land is blanketed in snow. In Iwate with its very different
scenery in each of the seasons, the food and people’s lifestyles change with
the seasons too. Which season would you like to come and visit in?
Experience the traditional rural festivals, the simple folk cra
fts unique to
the area, the folk tales and old legends, the traditional houses and the
rural lifestyle. Being able to experience the charm of old Japan in person
is the highlight of a trip to Iwate. Meeting the people of Iwate with their
gentle, earnest nature and heartfelt hospitality will become a memory of
your trip here.
Iwate has lots of hot springs and is known as one of the foremost hot spring
destinations in Japan. Hot springs that were frequented for treating illnesses
and for good health long ago are now popular tourist locations. The
abundant foods and local dishes of Iwate are another unmissable highlight
of a trip here. Make the most of the blessings of nature and the sense of
space and freedom here.
The golden culture of ancient Japan
A trip to world heritage Hiraizumi
Hiraizumi
This Buddhist temple was built by the Fujiwara family who ruled Hiraizumi. The Konjikido Golden Hall decorated with its gold leaf and mother-of-pearl inlay symbolized the desire for peace of the Hiraizumi culture during periods of war.
Chuson-ji Temple (Konjikido Golden Hall)
World Heritage
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The Jodo garden and the traditional culture of Hiraizumi
Hiraizumi
World Heritage
This Buddhist temple was said to have been the most splendid in Japan in the time of the Fujiwara family. The Jodo garden here was made incorporating various ocean, river and other natural scenes into the design and still remains today.
Motsu-ji Temple (Pure Land Garden)
Motsu-ji Gokusui no En
(held every year on the 4th Sunday in May)
This is a reenactment of a game of the Heian era where people dress in robes, sit along the river in the garden and recite classic Japanese poems.
Ennen no Mai Dance
(Motsu-ji 20th Night Festival Jan 20)
This is a traditional New Year event that has continued for 800 years since Motsu-ji was founded. This graceful dance is performed to pray for longevity.
World Heritage World Heritage World Heritage
These are the remains of a temple that was built by the Fujiwara family in their golden age. You can see the almost perfect remains of the Jodo garden that is used today as a public park. These are the remains of a temple built by the Fujiwara family
that was modelled on the Byodoin Temple at Uji near Kyoto that is depicted on 10 yen coins. The remains of the foundation stones and the garden still survive today.
Muryoko-in Ato
Kanjizaio-in Ato
Mt. Kinkeisan
This mountain is located midway between Chuson-ji Temple and Motsu-ji Temple. It’s a cone-shaped mountain like a pyramid and it has a symbolic existence as the reference point for the town’s development.
Tour around the heritage assets of world heritage Hiraizumi and their related facilities
Takkoku no Iwaya Bishamondo Temple
This temple was built before the Fujiwara era about 1,200 years ago. The temple is built into the rock face of a cliff and a large image of Buddha carved into the rock face can be seen.
You can view artifacts here that have been excavated from Hiraizumi’s historic sites and exhibits that explain the history and culture of world heritage Hiraizumi.
Hiraizumi Cultural Heritage Center
Hiraizumi
Audio pens that can be used in 7 different languages are available for rental making them very useful when seeing the sights of Hiraizumi. You can borrow them from Hiraizumi Tourist Information, Chuson-ji Temple or Motsu-ji Temple for ¥500 each. Languages available are English, Chinese, Korean, French, German, Spanish and Japanese.
Rental of Audio Guide Pens
Hiraizumi
This festival is held every year in spring (May 1-5) and autumn (No-vember 1-3). The spring festival is a huge event where historical scenes of Hiraizumi are recreated and you can see Yoshitsune’s East-ern Flight Procession.
This ancient lotus blossomed from a single 800-year-old seed which was discovered in the Konjikido Golden Hall.
This festival takes place in the Jodo garden of Motsu-ji Temple. The best time to see the flowers is early summer.
Worshippers bearing torches parade around the temple grounds and pray for the New Year. There is also a performance of the Ennen no Mai longevity rites.
Participants parade a mikoshi (portable shrine) around the town of Hiraizumi as onlookers splash them with purifying water. The festival is held in the middle of July.
From midway through October you can see the autumn colours around the temples of Hiraizumi.
The snows pile up in winter and you can experience completely different scenery to the other seasons. The cherry trees lining the road that joins Chuson-ji and Motsu-ji temples signal the arrival of spring.
The Autumn Scenery
The Winter Scenery
Fujiwara Festival
The Four Seasons And Festivals Of Hiraizumi
Chuson-ji Lotus
Motsu-ji Iris Festival
(June 20 – July 10)
Motsu-ji Hatsukayasai Festival
(January 20)
Hiraizumi Mizukake Mikoshi Festival
Cherry Blossoms
Mochi dishes are one of the Japanese foods served at celebratory occasions. Eating small pieces of mochi of a variety of flavours is the style of Hiraizumi.
Mochi Food Culture
Iwate Minami Beef
Moridashi Wanko Soba
A variety of foods including soba noodles and tempura are served in a number of small traditional handicraft wooden lacquerware bowls to enjoy.
This is a finely marbled, distinctive high-grade beef that is produced in the south of Iwate Prefecture.
Hiraizumi
Experience the vivid, colourful, traditional food dishes of Hiraizumi
Ksitigarbha figures (Nanbu Cast Ironware)
Nanbu Cast Ironware
Glass
Come and see the cra
ftsmen skills that helped create the golden culture of Hiraizumi
Arts of Hiraizumi
Hidehira-nuri Lacquerware
Hiraizumi Souvenirs
Ceramic Painting Experience
These are lacquered wooden bowls and dishes with a distinctive diamond-shaped gold leaf design. They get their name from Hidehira, the third ruler of the Fujiwara dynasty.
Traditional crafts of Iwate including Nanbu ironware, glass handicrafts and Japanese-style folk crafts are recom-mended as a souvenir of your trip here.
Experience Hidehira-nuri lacquerware painting, a traditional craft of Hiraizumi. Make your own piece of work by painting a picture on a lacquered object such as chopsticks.
G i v e i t a t r y !
Hiraizumi
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Hanamaki
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Traditional performing arts
and a mystical land
To the hot spring town of Hanamaki
Hanamaki Hot Spring Area
Hayachine Kagura Dance
A UNESCO Intangible Cultural Asset
Hanamaki has one of the most prominent hot spring areas in Japan. Hanamaki hot springs situated amidst the unique, rich nature of Iwate are the perfect place to relax with walks around the hot spring town and beautiful views of the valley from the outdoor hot spring baths.
Hanamaki
Soothe your weary body by soaking in a hot spring and then feast on the unique rural and traditional dishes of Iwate. You can experience a relaxing time of the finest quality surrounded by nature at one of the hot spring ryokans of Hanamaki by putting on a yukata and taking a walk around the area surrounding your accommodation or by just making yourself at home and reclining on the tatami floors. At Hanamaki Hot Spring Area you can experience the spirit of hospitality.
Experience the appeal of Iwate at a hot spring ryokan
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Hanamaki
Discover the sights and culture of Hanamaki
This is a private school where the Japanese poet and author of children’s literature Miyazawa Kenji gave lectures to the local farmers about agriculture and technology.
This festival that was started to honour the founders of the town has a history of 400 years. Resplendent festive floats and people dressed in kimono parade around the town.
You can see exhibitions here that showcase the history and culture of Hanamaki including artifacts from the stone age and everyday items from the lives of the samurai.
This dance is said to be the dance of the souls of deer. It is a representative local performing art of Iwate where people put on a distinctive costume and mask in the image of a deer.
You can see exhibitions here that bring to life the appearance of the world of his children’s stories including ‘Matasaburo of the Wind’ and ‘Night on the Galactic Railway’.
Hanamaki Festival
Miyazawa Kenji, an author loved by people in many countries, has had many of his works translated into other languages. Kenji, who was born in Hanamaki, gave Iwate the name Ihatov, an earthy paradise. Gaze on the nature and culture of Iwate on a trip that takes you around the scenes that inspired the works of the art-loving Kenji.
To the mystical world of the works of Miyazawa Kenji
The café Rinpusha has Miyazawa Kenji goods on sale
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Hanamaki
See the sights
of Hanamaki
This is a famous mountain popular with hikers that has a large number of alpine plants and flowers including Hayachine usuyukiso which resembles Edelweiss.
This steam train that was in regular use until 40 years ago was restored and now it mostly runs along the JR Kamaishi line as a tourist train.
This waterfall that flows over bedrock has a height of 8.5m and width of 30m. It’s along a nature trail near to Hanamaki Hot Spring that makes for a nice walk.
Mt. Hayachine
Ginga Steam Locomotive
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This is a unique dish of Iwate’s food culture where people compete to see how many small bowls of soba noodles they can eat.
Exhibits about the equipment used by the Nanbu toji (chief sake brewer), one of the three major toji (sake brewers) of Japan, for making Japanese sake and the history of the sake are on display here.
Hanamaki is the home of Nanbu toji and Japanese sake making flourishes here. Naturally the sake made here with the highest quality rice and water by the skills of the master brewers is popular, but also the wine made here at the local wineries with grapes grown in Hanamaki has many fans too.
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Hanamaki
The Foods of Hanamaki
Wanko Soba Noodles
Nanbu Toji Museum
Come and experience the traditional food culture of Hanamaki that has been alive here from long ago
Japanese Paper Making Experience
You can try your hand at making Narushima Japa-nese paper by hand using tree bark and traditional production methods.
Hanamaki
This handmade Japanese paper is used for writing paper, cards and for furniture. Its strength and the simplicity of its texture are its appeal.
Folk crafts of beautiful simplicity made using raw materials of the land
Popular folk craft souvenirs of Hanamaki include Hanamaki umbrellas made with Japanese paper, Hanamaki figures and Hanamaki kokeshi dolls.
Hanamaki figures
Hanamaki kokeshi dolls Hanamaki umbrellas
Arts of Hanamaki
Narushima Japanese Paper
Souvenirs of Hanamaki
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“Tono Monogatari (
The Tono Tales)”
and home of mythical creatures
See indelible scenes of Japan
There are several traditional ‘magariya’ rural houses here and you can experience the traditional lifestyle of a rural village. Learning about farm work from the maburitto (guides) and experiencing their welcoming hospitality is a highlight of a trip here.
Tono Furusato Village
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Tono
This is a place that feels like the home of folk tales with the thatched-rooved magariya (L-shaped farmhouses) and the Oshirado which enshrine Oshirasama deities that appear in the “Tono Monogatari”.
This is the stream that the most famous mythical creature of the “Tono Monogatari”, the Kappa, is said to dwell in. You may get to meet the legendary Kappa….
500 rakan images are engraved onto natural stones along a mountain path to commemorate the victims of a famine in the Edo period.
Oshirasama
Denshoen Park
Kappa-Buchi Pool
500 Rakan
Tono
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The place where old people were taken to live out the remainder of their lives as part of an old Tono custom was known as Denderano Field.
Various local performance arts can be seen at the autumn festival including kagura dancing, the deer dance and Nanbu bayashi. Mikoshi (portable shrines) are carried around the town and there is a sacred atmosphere in the air around town.
This huge rock that appears in the “Tono Monogatari” is perfectly balanced on another rock. There are various reasons given for it being balanced as it is including it being a grave for the ancients.
This is a small shrine that is said to be good for people seeking a marriage partner. Tie a red cloth with one hand and make a prayer for fulfillment in love.
If you want to learn about the nature, way of life and history of Tono and the Tono Tales, this is the place to come first! You can learn about Tono ‘The Hometown of Japan’ with the easy to understand exhibitions and videos here. The folk tales and the animation of the “Tono Monogatari” by Mizuki Shigeru shown in the theatre here are popular with visitors.
Tono Festival
Denderano
Unedorisama Shrine
Tsuzukiishi Rock
Tono Municipal Museum
The “Tono Monogatari”, which is a compilation of legends and stories told and passed down the generations in Tono, is a famous piece of work well known in the fields of Japanese folklore studies and literature. Come and walk the landscape that resembles long ago and where it feels like you could meet a mysterious being or spirit like the Kappa, Oshirasama or Zashikiwarashi at any moment.
The “Tono Monogatari”, a mysterious world
inhabited by mythical creatures
This is the house of Sasaki Kizen who told Yanagita Kunio, the author of the “Tono Monogatari”, some of the folklore and legends of the Tono area.
＊No trespassing as this is private property.
Tono
Enjoy Tono’s nature to the full
This is an activities center surrounded by the nature of the valley of Tono. In addition to viewing the night sky and cycling, you can also enjoy making soba noodles here.
This a scenic area well known as a great place for the autumn leaves. Come and enjoy this beautiful gorge with a river flowing over a number of granite steps that resemble a staircase.
This is an accommodation facility with a Nanbu magariya (traditional L-shaped farmhouse), a Japanese garden and a large heated bath. With a performing arts hall and exhibitions of objects used in daily rural life on display, you can find all the highlights of Tono under one roof.
Takamuro Suikoen Park
Chotankei Gorge
Kashiwagidaira
Tono
This is a barbarian-style BBQ of Tono where a fire is lit in a bucket, an iron pot put on top and then the meat grilled. Lamb is served here.
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This is a local dish in which fine strips of dough kneaded from wheat flour are boiled in a soy sauce soup with other ingredients including a variety of vegetables.
This is a local dish that looks like a chicken egg. It has a sweet taste and is comprised of a center made from the paste of boiled beans and an outer layer made from rice flour.
The Foods of Tono
Come and taste traditional rural dishes that have passed down the generations of Tono
Tono Genghis Khan
Hittsumi
Tono Dobekko Festival
This is a series of festivals held in the winter period that are a sign winter is here in Tono. It’s an event where you can eat local dishes as appetizers with the local sake and doburoku being served around a traditional sunken fireplace.
S a k e o f T o n o
Wine
Local Japanese sake Zumona beer
This local sake of Tono is also known as Dobekko. It’s a very simple type of Japanese sake where the rice is just fermented and not filtered like regular sake.
In addition to doburoku (unfiltered sake) and Japanese sake, there are also local beers and mountain grape wines on sale here. Take one as a companion on your trip.
Doburoku
Souvenirs of Tono
Delicious sake is also a highlight of a trip to Tono with its diverse food culture
Tono
Shin-Hakodate Hokuto Shin-Aomori Morioka Akita Akita Shinkansen Tohoku Shinkansen Hokkaido Shinkansen Sendai Fukushima Shin-Hanamaki Yamagata Shinjo
↓To Tokyo ↑ To Hokkaido
Tono
Hanamaki
Hiraizumi
Oirase Keiryu Mountain Stream Kakunodate Yamadera Aizu Wakamatsu Matsushima Koiwai Farm Yamagata Shinkansen IchinosekiMain Tourist Spots
of
The Tohoku Area
Yamagata Prefecture Akita Prefecture Miyagi Prefecture Iwate Prefecture Aomori Prefecture Fukushima Prefecture
Iwate Snow Festival
Kakunodate
Akita Prefecture
Aizu Wakamatsu
Fukushima Prefecture
Aomori Prefecture
Yamadera
Yamagata Prefecture
Yamagata Prefecture is known for the Hanagasa Festival. It is said that the famous Edo poet Matsuo Basho once visited Yamadera Temple. After you’ve climbed the 1,015 stone steps here, a wonderful panoramic view opens out before you and you feel like you’re standing in mid air. Namahage and kiritanpo are famous in Akita Prefecture. Kakunodate used to be prosperous as a castle town and with the old samurai houses lining the town’s streets, it possesses an elegant charm and is known as the ‘Little Kyoto of Michinoku’.
Miyagi Prefecture is famous for Mori no Miyako (the city of trees), Sendai. Matsushima is ranked as one of top three views in Japan and its beautiful natural environment of the Pacific Ocean and its 260 islands is a huge draw card. The view of Matsushima Bay from each of the Shidaikan (four observatories) is wonderfully picturesque. Iwate Prefecture is famous as the home of Miyazawa Kenji. Koiwai Farm can be enjoyed by families throughout the year with its wide variety of attractions within its grounds in addition to the snow festival held here and the winter illuminations.
Aomori Prefecture is known for the Nebuta Festival. There are a number of waterfalls and clear streams to enjoy along Oirase Keiryu which flows out of Lake Towada. You can sense a closeness with the magnificent nature of this area here.
Fukushima Prefecture is home to beautiful flowers and a great choice of hot springs. Tsuruga Castle, the symbol of Aizu Wakamatsu, has the only castle tower in Japan with red roof tiles. In spring around 1,000 cherry trees bloom in its grounds.
Koiwai Farm
Iwate Prefecture
Oirase Keiryu Mountain Stream
Miyagi Prefecture
Iwate Hanamaki Airport Sendai Akita Yamagata Ichinoseki Shin-Aomori Hakodate Sapporo Hachinohe Tokyo Morioka Sendai Airport Shin-Chitose Airport Hakodate Airport Aomori Airport Akita Airport Narita Airport Haneda Airport
General incorporated association
Hiraizumi Tourism Association
Postcode: 029-4102 61-7 Izumiya, Hiraizumi, Nishiiwai, Iwate Tel: 0191-46-2110 Fax: 0191-46-2117
http://hiraizumi.or.jp
General incorporated association
Hanamaki Tourism Association
Postcode: 025-0004 3-183-1 Kuzu, Hanamaki, Iwate Tel: 0198-29-4522 Fax: 0198-29-4447
http://www.kanko-hanamaki.ne.jp/
General incorporated association
Tono Tourism Association
Postcode: 028-0522 5-8 Shinkoku, Tono, Iwate Tel: 0198-62-1333 Fax: 0198-62-4244
http://www.tonojikan.jp
Transport Information
Iwate, A Mystical Trip
Digital Guidebook for
H
iraizumi,
H
anamaki and
T
ono
Aomori Airport Akita Airport Narita Airport Haneda Airport Sendai Airport Shin-Chitose Airport Hakodate Airport
About 3hrs 20mins About 2hrs 30mins About 3hrs 40mins
Hiraizumi Sta.
Shin-Hanamaki Sta.
Tono Sta.
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Hiraizumi Sta.
Shin-Hanamaki Sta.
Tono Sta.
About 3hrs 40mins About 3hrs 30mins About 5hrs
Hiraizumi Sta.
Shin-Hanamaki Sta.
Tono Sta.
About 3hrs 20mins About 3hrs 10mins About 4hrs 20mins
Hiraizumi Sta.
Shin-Hanamaki Sta.
Tono Sta.
About 1hr 30mins About 1hr 30mins About 2hrs 40mins
Hiraizumi Sta.
Shin-Hanamaki Sta.
Tono Sta.
About 2hrs About 1hr About 2hrs 10mins
Hiraizumi Sta.
Iwate Hanamaki Airport
Tono Sta.
