Hiraizumi

Hiraizumi is a small town in southern Iwate Prefecture, beside the Kitakami River. In the 12th century it was the capital of the Northern Fujiwara, a family that ruled northern Honshu for almost a century and grew rich from the region’s gold and horses. The family’s four lords filled the town with temples and gardens inspired by the Pure Land, the Buddhist paradise, at a time when the rest of the country was at war.

In 1189 the Fujiwara’s power ended with the invasion of Minamoto no Yoritomo, after the family sheltered and handed over his brother, the warrior Minamoto no Yoshitsune. Most of the town disappeared, but the Konjikido—a small hall completely covered in gold inside Chuson-ji—and the lake and stones of Motsu-ji’s garden remain. In 2011 the group of temples, gardens and archaeological sites was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list.

Five hundred years after the fall, in 1689, the poet Matsuo Basho climbed Takadachi Hill, where Yoshitsune died, and wrote there one of Japan’s best-known haiku, about the summer grass that covers warriors’ dreams. Today’s town is peaceful, with rice fields, the temple hill and a circular bus that links the main sites.

Nearby are the Takkoku no Iwaya shrine, set into a rock face, and the Geibikei gorge, explored by flat-bottom boat. Hiraizumi can be visited in a day from Sendai or Morioka, or with an overnight in Ichinoseki, the shinkansen station.

This destination brings together 1 city: Hiraizumi.