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The modern city of Morioka traces its roots back over four centuries to 1597, when Nambu Nobunao began to construct a castle on a small hill overlooking the confluence of the Kitakami and Nakatsugawa Rivers. Nobunao was the 26th head of the Nambu clan that ruled this area in medieval Japan.
Rather than building long, straight boulevards, the streets of Nobunao’s capital were deliberately concentrated in a web around the castle, with the manors and homes of clan vassals （samurai） encircling this city center. The area created by this innovation was well defended, well suited to the development of business and commerce, and easy to get around. It also forms the backbone for contemporary central Morioka, and is the source of our city’s distinct feel.
The feudal clans were disbanded in 1871, giving birth to Morioka Prefecture, among others. The following year the prefecture was renamed Iwate. 1889 witnessed the implementation of modern municipal districting and consequent birth of the current Morioka City. The new capital of Iwate was one of 39 cities in the young nation, with a population of 29,190 people and an area of 4.47 square kilometers.
Morioka celebrated its centennial in 1989. With the realization of a new major urban center in mind, this was followed closely by an April 1992 merger with the village of Tonan to the south. This was in turn followed in January 2006 by a merger with the city’s northern neighbor, Tamayama, increasing Morioka's population to 300,000 and its area to 886.47 square kilometers.
Additionally, work to further develop our city’s urban center continues in southwest Morioka, particularly west of Morioka Station and the southern areas of the city. It seems too significant for mere coincidence that this takes the city clockwise toward the sites of Shiwa Castle and Kuriyagawa Palisade: these were respectively the ninth century governmental center of the area and a major fortress of the mighty Abe clan that later exerted much influence over this area.
Until the opening of the Akita Shinkansen and the extension of the Tohoku Shinkansen north to Hachinohe, Morioka was the northernmost Shinkansen stop. Morioka’s new role as the crossroads and transportation center of northern Honshu provides us an unprecedented opportunity to lead and develop the whole prefecture?a chance we certainly intend to make the most of.
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