Kamaishi Bay

millennium forest

The Toyama District Living Environment Conservation Forest in Unosumai-cho, Kamaishi City is a place where we hope that Kamaishi City will forever be a city rich in greenery.We will foster a forest of giant trees, preserve and pass it on as a permanent asset of the citizens, and promote the importance of greenery. In order to widely promote it, it has been designated as the "Kamaishi City Millennium Forest." This forest has promenades and parks, and giant trees such as horse chestnuts and katsuras with trunk circumferences exceeding 4 meters are dotted along the streams, and from the top there are wind power generation sites connected to Sankan Island and the Wayama Plateau in the ocean. You can see the windmills and Mt. Hayachine between the trees, and it can be used as a place for health promotion, socializing, and learning for children, such as forest bathing, walks, and nature observation sessions.

Takato Oshima

A mining scholar from Morioka City and the founder of modern steel manufacturing in Japan. In 1857, he built Japan's first Western-style blast furnace in Hashino, Kamaishi City.

Hashino Iron Mine [World Heritage Site]

It was built between 1858 and 1858 under the technical guidance of Kato Oshima, said to be the father of modern steelmaking, and was later run by the Nanbu domain, making it the oldest Western-style blast furnace site. It has been designated as a national cultural property (historic site). In addition to the ruins of three blast furnaces, the ruins of a water mill, a shrine, a tenement house, and a mountain shrine have also been confirmed, and the remains show the operating and management conditions at the time, and are important for the modernization of the steel industry in Japan. As a symbolic historical site, its value is extremely high. On April 3, 1981, it was recognized as a historical heritage by the American Metals Institute and received the "Historical Landmark Award." On July 5, 2015, "Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution: Iron and Steel Manufacturing, Shipbuilding, and Coal Industry," including the Hashino Iron Mine (Hashino Blast Furnace Ruins and Related Sites), was announced at the 39th World Congress held in Bonn, Germany. It was registered as a World Heritage Site by the Heritage Committee.