Takuboku Ishikawa and Bokusui Wakayama Friendship Monument

Hotokuji Temple

This temple, which was founded in 1658 and has the largest temple in the ward, is where Takuboku Ishikawa spent his childhood. There is a monument with a poem in the temple grounds that looks directly towards Mt. Iwate, which reads, ``An old bird came to sing at the top of the Hiba tree on the side of my hometown temple.'' When the building was rebuilt in 2000, the room used by Takuboku was restored.

Takuboku newlywed house

This is the house where the newlywed Takuboku lived for about three weeks starting in 1903, and is the only remaining samurai residence in Morioka. He wrote about this time in his essay ``My four and a half tatami mats''.

Homespun Michinoku Akanekai

You can see the homespun process, which is all done by hand, from dyeing to weaving, and a series of panels introduce the manufacturing process. Homespun, which was popularized in Iwate by British missionaries at the beginning of the Meiji period, is a woolen fabric made from dyed wool and woven from hand-spun thread. While mass production is often done by machines, Michinoku Akane-kai is particular about creating original handmade products, in which each warp and weft of spun wool is woven by hand.