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Iwaki is a city on the Pacific coast of southern Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, the largest city in the prefecture by area. It stretches from long beaches and the port of Onahama inland to the forested Abukuma highlands, and was formed in 1966 by the merger of 14 towns and villages.
For about a century the city lived from the Jōban coal field, once one of the largest in Japan. When the mines closed, the hot water flooding the old shafts was turned into the Jōban Hawaiian Center, today's Spa Resort Hawaiians, and the hot spring town of Iwaki Yumoto is counted among the oldest spas in the country.
The coast was struck by the tsunami of March 2011, and its fish markets, beaches and lighthouse have since been rebuilt. Visitors now come for the aquarium and seafood of Onahama, the white lighthouse at Shioyasaki, and the 12th-century Shiramizu Amidadō, a Buddhist hall set in a paradise garden that is a National Treasure.
Aquamarine Fukushima is the large aquarium on the harbor of Onahama in Iwaki, opened in 2000 as the largest in the Tohoku region. Under its glass roof it shows the life of the seas off Fukushima, where the warm Kuroshio and cold Oyashio currents meet, with a strong focus on learning.
Iwaki LaLaMew is the seafood market and tourist hall on the harbor of Onahama in Iwaki, opened in 1997 next to the aquarium. Stalls of fresh and dried fish fill the ground floor with restaurants above, and after the tsunami of March 2011 wrecked it, it reopened that same November.
Shioyasaki Lighthouse is a white lighthouse on a headland above the beaches of Usuiso and Toyoma in Iwaki, first lit in 1899 on a coast feared for its rocks. Chosen among the 50 finest lighthouses of Japan, it can be climbed by visitors for wide views along the Pacific shore.
Nakoso Barrier Park is a hillside park in the far south of Iwaki, at the site long linked with Nakoso no Seki, a barrier gate to the north famed in classical poetry. Its paths are lined with cherry trees and stones carved with old poems, among them one said to be by the warrior Minamoto no Yoshiie.
Spa Resort Hawaiians is a hot spring resort in the Jōban area of Iwaki, opened in 1966 as the Jōban Hawaiian Center to save jobs as the coal mines closed. Its warm pools are fed by spring water from the old mine area, and its hula and fire dance shows began with daughters of mining families.
Iwaki Yumoto Onsen is the hot spring town around Yumoto Station in Iwaki, known since the Nara period and counted among the three ancient spas of Japan. Its springs grew with the drilling of the Jōban coal field in the Meiji era, and inns and public baths still line the streets near the station.
Iwaki City Coal and Fossil Museum, nicknamed Horuru, opened in 1984 in the Yumoto area of Iwaki, on the history of the Jōban coal mines. It shows a model mine shaft and fossils found in the city, among them Futabasaurus, a plesiosaur first dug up in Iwaki in 1968, and it reopened in 2024.
Natsui River Gorge is a forested valley where the Natsui River cuts through the Abukuma highlands in the northwest of Iwaki, running for about 15 km along the border with the town of Ono. The JR Ban'etsu East Line and a road follow the river, and the gorge is loved for its autumn colors.
Shiramizu Amidadō is a Buddhist hall of the temple Ganjō-ji in the Uchigō area of Iwaki, built in 1160 by Tokuhime, daughter of Fujiwara no Kiyohira of Hiraizumi, in memory of her husband. The hall is a National Treasure, and it stands on an island in a pond garden made to show the Pure Land.
Iino Hachimangū is a Hachiman shrine in the Taira area of central Iwaki, said to have been founded in 1063 by Minamoto no Yoriyoshi and long one of the largest shrines on this coast. It was moved to its present site in 1602, when its old hill was taken for the building of Iwakitaira Castle.
Ōkunitama Shrine is an old shrine in the Sugenami area of Iwaki, listed in the Engishiki of the 10th century and said to have been honored by the general Sakanoue no Tamuramaro. Ancient temple ruins and the Kōzuka burial mound nearby suggest that the early rulers of Iwaki were based here.
Iwaki City Art Museum is the city art museum in the Taira area of central Iwaki, opened in 1984 and known for modern and contemporary art from Japan and abroad. It holds more than 2,300 works, stages changing exhibitions through the year, and its building has won several architecture awards.
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