t Looking over Lake Chuzenji from the Futura-san Shrine
t Looking over Lake Chuzenji from the Futura-san Shrine
Experience Northern Honshu
The backcountry reputation of Northern Honshu belies its rich history. Long ago, it was home to indigenous people, who may have been from the Ainu ethnic group. In the 12th century, Hiraizumi was the capital of the Northern Fujiwara clan, rivaling Kyoto in splendor, and during feudal times, Morioka, Tsuruoka, Hirosaki, and Aizu-Wakamatsu were thriving castle towns. Foremost, though, was Sendai, ruled by the north’s most powerful clan. Despite these significant settlements, when haiku poet Matsuo Basho set out in 1689 on his five-month trek to northern Japan, he likened it to going to the back of beyond. Three centuries later, shinkansen lines and expressways provide easy access, and the north is as much a part of the information age as the rest of Japan.
On March 11, 2011, a 9-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit this northern part of the country. Much of the area was damaged with some coastal areas completely destroyed. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was also badly damaged by the tsunami, and the long-term effects of this disaster are still unclear. In 2018, a robotic probe showed that the radioactivity levels inside the plant remain too high for humans to work inside the buildings.