lower bridge

Morioka Tsunagi Onsen

A hot spring that is popular as the inner parlor of Morioka. It is said that the name ``Tsunagi'' came from the fact that a long time ago, Minamoto no Yoshiie would tie his beloved horse here to rest. Inns and hotels are lined up overlooking Lake Gosho, which was created by damming the Shizukuishi River. Nearby are Morioka Handmade Village, Koiwai Farm, and the area around Gosho Lake where families can enjoy nature to the fullest.

Kenji Miyazawa poem monument (lower bridge)

In 1999, a monument commemorating Kenji Miyazawa's poem ``Chagu Chagu Umako'' was erected near the bridge below where he was lodging with his younger brother when he was in his third year at the High School of Agriculture and Forestry. There are four songs, including the following: ``Even though it's still a little while before dawn, the bottom edge of the river is still open.'' It was around this time that Kenji began to devote himself seriously to literature, and the ten years he spent in Morioka from the age of 13 to the age of 24 (the end of his high school agricultural research studentship) became the foundation for his subsequent activities.

Takuboku Bokyo Hill

To commemorate the souls of the Takuboku couple, a statue of Takuboku Bokyo was erected on the top of the rocky mountain, Takuboku Bokyo Hill, overlooking the local mountains and rivers. The statue faces his hometown, Mt. Himekami, and is engraved with one of Takuboku's favorite poems, ``In autumn, I listen to the insects that fill the three fields at the foot of Mt. Iwate.'' Nearby, a ``couple poem monument'' of a poet and his wife was erected, one of a kind in Japan, and Takuboku's ``When I see the mountains of my hometown far to the north through the train window, I straighten my neck,'' and his wife Setsuko's ``Hikari.'' Two poems are engraved on it: ``From the faint sound of crickets in the evening, the arrival of autumn, and the embrace of my heart.'' The two of them, both young and only in their 20s, fell ill due to poverty and passed away one after another, and now they are gazing at the mountains and rivers of their hometown in the form of songs.