Hanamaki, Iwate
Hanamaki (花巻市; -
shi) is a
city located in
Iwate,
Japan. As of
2005, the city has an estimated total population of 106,414[
1]. Hanamaki is most famous as the birthplace of
Kenji Miyazawa and for its
onsen. The city recently celebrated the 50th anniversary since its consolidation from six smaller towns in
1954. Hanamaki as of 2006 is composed of the old Hanamaki city and three surrounding
towns, which
merged on January 1.
Kenji Miyazawa was born in Hanamaki in
1896, where he spent most of his life. Miyazawa's invented
Esperanto word
Ihatov refers to Iwate prefecture in general, and is agreed to refer more specifically to Hanamaki itself.
On
April 1, 1954 six towns
consolidated into the former city of Hanamaki. Those seven towns (in rough order of
size category) were: Hanamaki-cho, Yuguchi-mura, Yumoto-mura, Miyanome-mura, Yasawa-mura, and Ohta-mura. An additional seventh town, Sasama-mura, joined the following year.
In January 2006 Hanamaki again cosolidated with three neighboring
towns,
Towa-cho,
Ohasama-machi, and
Ishidoriya-cho to establish a new city also called Hanamaki. With the merger, the population of Hanamaki increased from 72,926 to 106,414 people, and its geographic area expanded from 385.40 km² to encompass 908.32 km².
Hanamaki is located in the southern half of Iwate, along the valley which runs north-south through the length of the prefecture. The
Tohoku shinkansen line passes through Hanamaki. The total city area is 908.32 km²[
2].
The city has an estimated population of 106,414 as of 2005. The population density of pre-merger Hanamaki as of
2003 was 189.22 persons per
km².
Regular
JR trains, both those going
north-
south along the
Tohoku Main Line as well as those heading
east to the coast on the
Kamaishi line stop at Hanamaki Station.Shin Hanamaki station, which is on the Kamaishi line and significantly removed from the town center, is a stop on the
Tohoku Shinkansen.
Hanamaki
Airport has regular flights to
Sapporo,
Nagoya,
Osaka, and
Fukuoka.
A night bus travels between Hanamaki and
Tokyo.
Hanamaki is known historically for its many
onsen. Kenji Miyazawa's various legacies are the old Hanamaki city's other perennial tourist attraction.The city also has a number of
ski slopes.
One of Hanamaki's most notable events is the Hanamaki
Matsuri, an annual festival which takes place the second weekend of September and dates back to
1593. The three-day festivities include a dance of over one thousand synchronized traditional dancers; the carrying of over one hundred small
shrines; and the parading of a dozen or so large, hand-constructed floats depicting historical, fictional, or mythical scenes and accompanied by drummers, floutists, and lantern-carriers.
With the city's recent mergings, Hanamaki now lays claim to its merged towns' attractions.
Ohasama is famous for local varieties of traditional
Kagura dance. Kagura dancers often appear at area festivals or functions. On a hill above the town of Ohasama proper stands a statue resembling the wolf-like costumes donned by Hayachine Kagura dancers.
Iwate's second tallest mountain,
Mt. Hayachine, which at 1917 m (6289 ft) is the second highest mountain in Iwate Prefecture, lies in the northeast section of Ohasama.
The area is home to the regionally well-known Edel
Wine. In September, the Ohasama Wine House hosts the annual Wine
Festival.
Around the time of Japan's
Girls' Festival, Ohasama puts on displays of its collection of
dolls, many of which are several hundred years old. Local history suggests that the dolls may have been given to residents of Ohasama by travelers from
Kyoto on their way to trade in
Hokkaido.
Ishidoriya has a history of
sake-making connected with the Nambu
Toji tradition.
Hanamaki is
sister cities with
Hot Springs, Arkansas.Within Japan, Hanamaki conducts "friendship city" exchanges with
Towada-shi in
Aomori and with
Hiratsuka-shi in
Kanagawa.
Each of the erstwhile towns also conduct exchanges with sister cities of their own, which have been taken up by the new Hanamaki city.
Ohasama was sister cities with Berndorf, Austria since
1965. Mt. Hayachine is also home to a particular species of
edelweiss, called
Hayachine Usuyukisou, which grows exclusively on Mt. Hayachine. It was because of this flower that
mountain climbers from Ohasama forged a friendship with those from Berndorf, Austria.
Ishidoriya was sister cities with
Rutland, Vermont.
Towa in turn carried on exchanges with many towns and cities while eschewing formal sister city agreements, startig with
Clinton, Wisconsin in
1975, and including locations in
Ohio,
Germany, and
Scotland.
*
Hanamaki official website in Japanese
*
Hanamaki International Exchange Association website in English
