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Akita is the capital of Akita Prefecture in the Tohoku region of northern Japan, on the Sea of Japan coast, famous for the Kanto Festival, when performers balance tall bamboo poles hung with lanterns, and for kiritanpo rice sticks. About 300,000 people live in the city at the mouth of the Omono River.
In 733 the imperial court built Akita Castle here as its northernmost fort in Dewa Province. The Satake lords took over the Kubota Domain in 1602 and from 1604 ruled it from Kubota Castle, whose grounds are now Senshu Park in the city centre, with a rebuilt watchtower, cherry trees and the triangular Akita Museum of Art by Tadao Ando.
The old merchant quarter keeps the red brick bank that now houses the Akita City Red Brick Museum, and the Neburi Nagashi Kan lets visitors try to lift a kanto pole. Beyond the centre, the Port Tower Selion looks out over the sea, and Mount Taihei rises 1,170 metres to the north-east.
Senshu Park covers the main and second baileys of Kubota Castle in the centre of Akita and became a public park after the castle site passed to the Satake family in 1890. Around its moats grow cherry trees and azaleas, and shrines, a library and a theatre stand among the woods.
Kubota Castle was built from 1603 by Satake Yoshinobu on a 40-metre hill in Akita and ruled the Kubota Domain until 1871. It never had a main keep and made little use of stone walls, and today a rebuilt corner watchtower and front gate stand in Senshu Park with views over the city.
The Akita Museum of Art reopened in 2013 in a triangular building by Tadao Ando beside Senshu Park in Akita. Its main collection is the work of Tsuguharu Foujita gathered by Masakichi Hirano, and the free cafe on the second floor looks out across the water to the castle park.
The Akita City Red Brick Museum occupies the former head office of Akita Bank, a red brick building completed in 1912 in Akita and now an Important Cultural Property. The old banking hall keeps its period look, and rooms show local crafts and prints by the Akita artist Tokushi Katsuhira.
The Kanto Festival is held in Akita from 3 to 6 August to pray for a good harvest, and it is one of the great summer festivals of Tohoku. At night performers balance tall bamboo kanto poles hung with rows of paper lanterns on their palms, foreheads, shoulders and hips.
Neburi Nagashi Kan is the Akita City Folk Performing Arts Hall, opened in 1992 in the old merchant quarter of Akita. Its tall atrium displays kanto lantern poles, floats from the Tsuchizaki festival and bonten from Miyoshi Shrine, and visitors can try lifting a kanto pole themselves.
Akita Castle was an ancient fortified settlement founded in 733 on the Takashimizu hill in Akita, the northernmost fort of the imperial court in Dewa Province. It was a base for ruling the Emishi and possibly for receiving envoys from Balhae, and its rebuilt east gate stands in Takashimizu Park.
The Akita Prefectural Museum opened in 1975 in Akita and was renewed in 2004. It covers the archaeology, history, crafts, folklore and natural history of Akita Prefecture, from Jomon pottery to local wildlife and rocks, and it makes a good introduction to the culture of the region.
Mount Taihei is a sacred mountain 1,170 metres high on the north-eastern edge of Akita and a symbol of the city, visible from many of its streets. The inner shrine of Taiheizan Miyoshi Shrine stands on the summit, and trails from the Asahimata campsite climb to the top in a day.
Akita Port Tower Selion was completed in 1994 at the port of Tsuchizaki in Akita and is 143.6 metres tall to the tip of its spire. Its free observation deck at 100 metres gives a 360-degree view of the city, the Sea of Japan, the Oga Peninsula and, on clear days, Mount Chokai.
Omoriyama Zoo is the city zoo of Akita, opened in 1973 in Omoriyama Park in the south-west of the city and nicknamed Milve. Its roughly 15 hectares hold about 90 species, and keepers have built simple displays where chimpanzees, lemurs and big cats can climb, jump and play.
Kiritanpo is the best-known dish of Akita: freshly cooked rice is pounded, wrapped around Japanese cedar skewers and toasted over a fire. In Akita it is grilled and spread with miso or simmered in kiritanpo nabe, a hotpot of chicken broth, vegetables and mushrooms that is the classic way to eat it.
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