Iwate Tsunami Memorial

What to know

The Iwate Tsunami Memorial (いわてTSUNAMIメモリアル) is a museum dedicated to the 2011 tsunami. Located near the waterfront of Rikuzentakata, it features a spacious park and the city's famous Miracle Pine. Opened in September 2019, it also functions as a Michi-no-eki roadside station.

The museum occupies one half of a long, elegant building, while the other half houses a large souvenir shop. The museum is well-executed and fully bilingual in Japanese and English. In addition to covering the 2011 tsunami in detail, it explains the science behind tsunamis, past tsunamis that struck the Sanriku Coast, and natural disasters in Japan generally. There is also a replica of a disaster management office, a section on lessons learned, and two theaters showing videos about the tsunami's destruction and how people have coped with the disaster.

A spacious park stretches from the museum to the seawall, which was rebuilt to 12 meters tall to protect Rikuzentakata from future tsunamis. The park occupies much of what was once the Takata Matsubara, a forest of tens of thousands of pine trees destroyed by the tsunami. The park extends all the way to the Miracle Pine, the only tree that initially survived the tsunami but later died from salt toxicity and was turned into a permanent monument.

On the opposite side, the park extends to the ruined buildings of the former Michi-no-eki roadside station, which were severely damaged by the tsunami and preserved for visitors to view from the outside.

The "Kiseki no Ipponmatsu" bus stop on the JR Ofunato BRT line is right in front of the Iwate Tsunami Memorial. Alternatively, it is a five-minute bus ride (160 yen one way) or a 20-minute walk from the Rikuzentakata bus stop in the city center.

How to get to and around Rikuzentakata