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Koriyama is a city in the centre of Fukushima Prefecture in the Tohoku region of Japan, famous for the Asaka Canal that turned the dry Asaka plain into rice fields, for the cherry trees of Kaiseizan Park and for its share of the shore of Lake Inawashiro. With about 320,000 people it is the commercial hub of the prefecture.
Koriyama grew as a post town and market centre in the Edo period. In the early Meiji era the government settled former samurai here and from 1879 dug a canal from Lake Inawashiro, completed in 1882. The Kaiseikan, the shrine of Kaiseizan Daijingu and the park around them tell the story of this pioneering work.
In town, visitors can see British and Japanese paintings at the Koriyama City Museum of Art, a Meiji school building at the Asaka History Museum and a planetarium high in the Big-i tower. West of the centre lie the hot springs of Bandai-Atami, the strange rocks of Jodomatsu Park and the wind turbines of the Nunobiki Highlands.
Kaiseizan Park is a 30-hectare park in front of Koriyama city hall in Koriyama, laid out on land cleared by Meiji pioneers. Around Isuzu pond grow about 1,300 cherry trees, including Somei Yoshino planted around 1878 and said to be the oldest in Japan, and it is among Japan's top 100 historic parks.
The Kaiseikan is an open-air museum in Koriyama centred on a western-style building of 1874 that housed the office for the Asaka land reclamation. Emperor Meiji rested here on his tours of 1876 and 1881, and three settlers' houses nearby show how the pioneers lived.
Kaiseizan Daijingu is a Shinto shrine in Koriyama founded in 1876 with a spirit received from Ise Grand Shrine, so it is called the Ise Shrine of Tohoku. It was built as a spiritual home for the Asaka pioneers, and the opening ceremony of the Asaka Canal was held here in 1882.
The Asaka Canal carries water from Lake Inawashiro through the hills to the Asaka plain around Koriyama, turning dry moorland into rice fields. Begun in 1879 with advice from the Dutch engineer Van Doorn and opened in 1882, it is counted among the three great canals of Japan.
The Koriyama City Museum of Art stands in the Yasuhara district of Koriyama, in a building chosen as one of Japan's 100 best public buildings. Its collection is known for British art, including Turner, as well as modern Japanese painting such as Kishida Ryusei and artists linked to Koriyama.
The Asaka History Museum occupies the main building of the old Fukushima Prefectural Ordinary Middle School, built in 1889 in the grounds of Asaka High School in Koriyama. The wooden western-style building is an Important Cultural Property, and it opened as a museum in 1984.
The Koriyama City Fureai Science Center, nicknamed Space Park, fills the top floors of the Big-i tower next to Koriyama station. Its planetarium, 104 metres above the ground, is recognised by Guinness as the highest in the world, and an observation floor at 96 metres looks over the city.
Cream Box is a sweet bread from Koriyama, a thick slice of soft bread spread with white milk cream, said to have been created at a local bakery called Romeo in 1976. It is sold in bakeries and shops, including school shops, across Koriyama for about 100 yen and was named a 100-year food in 2021.
Lake Inawashiro is the fourth largest lake in Japan, and about a quarter of its surface belongs to Koriyama, whose Konan district lines its southern shore. Its water is so clear that it is called the heavenly mirror lake, and its southern beaches are popular for swimming and camping in summer.
The Nunobiki Highlands form a plateau about 1,080 metres high south of Lake Inawashiro in western Koriyama. Thirty-three wind turbines about 100 metres tall stand on it, and sunflower fields bloom around them in late summer, though deer have damaged the flowers and the road closes in winter.
Bandai-Atami Onsen is a hot spring town on the Gohyaku River in western Koriyama, said to have been opened about 800 years ago. Legend says Princess Hagi was cured of an illness in its waters, honoured by a festival every August, and its free foot baths are open until sunset.
Jodomatsu Park is a park in western Koriyama around a hill of strange rocks and pines, nicknamed the Matsushima of the land. Its famous Mushroom Rock was carved by erosion from tuff about four million years old, and trails link it with a sunset lookout, though part of it fell in 2011.
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