Tōhoku region
This article is about the region in Japan. Tohoku is also a town in Aomori Prefecture.The is a geographical area of
Japan.
Tōhoku is
Japanese for "northeast," and the Tōhoku region occupies the northeastern portion of
Honshū, the largest
island of Japan. The area is also known as .
The region consists of six
prefectures:
Akita,
Aomori,
Fukushima,
Iwate,
Miyagi and
Yamagata Prefectures.
The last stronghold of the
indigenous Ainu on Honshū and the site of many
battles, Tōhoku retains a reputation as a remote region, offering breathtaking scenery but a harsh
climate. The
haiku poet Matsuo Basho wrote
Oku no Hosomichi (The Narrow Road to the Deep North) during his travels through Tōhoku.
Tōhoku, like most of Japan, is hilly or mountainous, with the
Ou Mountains running north-south. Its initial historical settlement occurred between the
seventh and
ninth centuries, well after Japanese
civilization and
culture had become firmly established in central and southwestern Japan. Although
iron,
steel,
cement,
chemical,
pulp, and
petroleum-refining industries began developing in the
1960s, Tōhoku was traditionally considered the
granary of Japan because it supplied
Sendai and the
Tokyo-
Yokohama market with
rice and other
farm commodities. Tōhoku provided 20 percent of the nation's rice crop. The climate, however, is harsher than in other parts of Honshū and permits only one crop a year on
paddy fields.
The inland location of many of the region's
lowlands has led to a
concentration of much of the
population there. Coupled with
coastlines that do not favor
seaport development, this
settlement pattern resulted in a much greater than usual dependence on
land and
railroad transportation. Low points in the central mountain range fortunately make
communications between lowlands on either side of the range moderately easy.
Tourism became a major
industry in the Tōhoku region, with points of interest including
*
Hirosaki*the islands of
Matsushima Bay*
Lake Towada*
Oirase River Valley
*
Lake Tazawa*
Kakunodate*the
Rikuchu Coastline National Park*the
Bandai-Asahi National Park*
Sanriku Coastline*
Morioka*
Hiraizumi*
Aizu*
Mount Bandai*
Three Mountains of Dewa*
Geography of Japan*
List of regions in Japan* -
Japan
