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Morioka is the capital of Iwate Prefecture, a city of about 284,000 people in the Kitakami Basin, where the Kitakami, Shizukuishi and Nakatsu rivers meet. The volcano Mount Iwate rises to the north-west, and the Tōhoku Shinkansen stops at Morioka Station on its way to Aomori and Akita.
The Nanbu clan made Morioka their seat at the end of the 16th century, and for the Edo period it was the castle town of the Morioka Domain. It became a city in 1889. The poet Ishikawa Takuboku grew up in Shibutami, now part of the city, the writer Miyazawa Kenji studied here, and the prime minister Hara Takashi was born in the town.
Visitors walk the granite walls of Morioka Castle and see the rock-splitting cherry of Ishiwari-zakura and the red-brick bank of 1911, eat bowl after bowl of wanko soba, and buy Nanbu iron kettles. In June belled horses parade to Morioka Hachimangū, and in August the Sansa Odori fills the streets.
Morioka Castle is the ruined castle of the Nanbu lords in the centre of Morioka, completed in 1611 on a granite hill where the Nakatsu and Kitakami rivers meet. Its buildings are gone, but white granite walls up to 14 metres high survive, now in a park of 1906 and a National Historic Site.
Sakurayama Shrine is the Shinto shrine at the foot of the Morioka Castle walls in Morioka, dedicated to four lords of the Nanbu clan. It was founded inside the castle in 1749 for the first lord of the Morioka Domain, and moved to its present site in 1899, when its halls and gate were built.
Ishiwari-zakura is the famous cherry tree growing out of a crack in a huge granite boulder in the grounds of the Morioka District Court in Morioka. More than 360 years old, it has been a Natural Monument since 1923, survived a fire in 1932, and blooms each year from about the middle of April.
The Iwate Bank Red Brick Building is the old head office of the Morioka Bank by the Naka-no-hashi bridge in Morioka, finished in 1911 to a design by Tatsuno Kingo, architect of the Bank of Japan. An Important Cultural Property, it served as a bank until 2012 and reopened for visitors in 2016.
Hōon-ji is a Sōtō Zen temple in Morioka, founded by the Nanbu clan at Sannohe in 1394 and moved to Morioka in 1601. It is famous for its Rakan-dō hall, rebuilt in 1858, which holds statues of the 500 disciples of the Buddha made in Kyoto, among them figures said to be Kublai Khan and Marco Polo.
Morioka Hachimangū is the Shinto shrine that guards Morioka, traditionally founded in 1062 and re-founded on its present site by the Nanbu lords in 1680. It is the main shrine of the city, known for its festival with floats, its horseback archery, and as the goal of the Chagu Chagu Umakko parade.
Chagu Chagu Umakko is the horse festival held on the second Saturday of June, when about 100 horses in bright harness and bells walk 14 kilometres from Takizawa to Morioka Hachimangū in Morioka. Its name copies the jingling of the bells, chosen as one of the 100 Soundscapes of Japan in 1996.
Morioka Sansa Odori is the summer dance festival of Morioka, held each year from 1 to 4 August along Chūō-dōri in front of the city hall. Dancers and taiko drummers parade calling Sakkora choiwayasse, and in 2007 it entered the Guinness World Records as the festival with the most Japanese drums.
Wanko soba is the Iwate way of eating soba noodles, served in Morioka in tiny bowls of a single mouthful each, which a server refills the moment you empty them, until you cover your bowl with its lid. It is counted among Japan's three great soba styles and as one of Morioka's three famous noodles.
Nanbu ironware is the cast-iron craft of Morioka, known above all for its heavy iron kettles. It began around 1600, when the Nanbu lords built Morioka Castle and brought in casters under their protection, and in 1975 it was named a traditional craft of Japan, still made in the city.
Morioka Tsunagi Onsen is the hot-spring village on the shore of Lake Gosho in the west of Morioka, with views across the water to Mount Iwate. Legend says Minamoto no Yoshiie found the spring in the 11th century and tied his horse to a stone here, and its water is strongly alkaline.
The Ishikawa Takuboku Memorial Museum is the museum of the poet Ishikawa Takuboku in Shibutami, his home village in northern Morioka, opened in 1970. Its grounds hold the old Shibutami primary school and the old Saitō family house linked to him, facing Mount Iwate, and it was renewed in 2025.
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