Kenji Miyazawa Poetry Monument (Former Prefectural Library Square)

Takuboku Ishikawa and Bokusui Wakayama Friendship Monument

The ``Takuboku Ishikawa and Bokusui Wakayama Friendship Monument'' is engraved with the works of two of Takuboku's friends, Bokusui, with whom he was most forgiving in his later years and with whom he shared his final moments. ``I just want to run away from the classroom window and go to the castle ruins alone to sleep'' (Takuboku Ishikawa) and ``Leaning against the old stone wall of the castle ruins, I can't hear the distant sound of the waves'' (Bokusui Wakayama).

Nitobe Inazo Monument

The monument, ``Wish Fulfilled, Bridge of the Pacific,'' erected in Morioka Castle Ruins Park, a place of relaxation for citizens, belongs to Inazo Nitobe, who was born in Morioka and later served as deputy secretary-general of the League of Nations. When Nitobe was asked by a professor what his purpose was to study English literature, he answered, ``If I were allowed to do so, I would like to be a bridge across the Pacific Ocean.'' "I want to serve as a government official. That's why I need to be fluent in English," he is said to have replied.

Seiichi Kashima

A businessman from Morioka City. He was adopted as a son-in-law by the Kashima group, and the group became a railway construction specialist. He devised a new construction method and took charge of construction of the Tanna Tunnel, the longest in Japan at the time, in an area with poor ground, and completed it over a period of 16 years. He also changed the group into a stock company and became its first president, and in the industry, he served as a director of the Imperial Railway Association and chairman of the Japan Mainland Construction Industry Association, promoting the modernization of the civil engineering and construction industry. There is a Kashima Seiichi Memorial Observatory on a rocky mountain to the east of Morioka City, offering a panoramic view of the mountain range centered on Mt. Iwate.