Inawashiro Tourist Assosiation

Inawashiro/Bandai is almost in the center of Fukushima Prefecture; on the north is Mt. Bandai with its southern slope dotted with ski resorts and on the south is Lake Inawashiro where visitors can enjoy swimming, fishing and other water sports. Numerous onsen (hot springs), owing to the abundance of natural springs in the area, and a wealth of scenic beauty spots add to the area’s attractiveness and charm visitors.Inawashiro/Bandai is almost in the center of Fukushima Prefecture; on the north is Mt. Bandai with its southern slope dotted with ski resorts and on the south is Lake Inawashiro where visitors can enjoy swimming, fishing and other water sports. Numerous onsen (hot springs), owing to the abundance of natural springs in the area, and a wealth of scenic beauty spots add to the area’s attractiveness and charm visitors.

An old legend tells the story of the deity Iwahashi Myojin cultivating rice with the help of a wild boar. The combination of the characters for “boar” (猪) and “bed for rice seedlings” (苗代), hence “Inawashiro” (猪苗代). An alternative theory finds the word to have its origin in the language of the Ainu people, but in any case it points to a deep connection with the cultivation of rice. Present day Inawashiro owes its form to a large-scale eruption of the Mt. Bandai and Mt. Nekoma volcanoes that occurred between 40,000 and 50,000 years ago. There are also indications that the area around Lake Inawashiro was already inhabited by indigenous peoples 12,000 years ago. Especially in the southeast base area of the mountain facing the lake, ruins from the Jomon and Paleolithic/Pre-Jomon periods are still visible. The ruins that have been found in the bottom of the lake in the Nagahama, Kanisawahama and Sanjogata areas have been dated back to the Jomon and Kofun periods.

Hideyo Noguchi was born the eldest son of a farmer family on November 9, 1876 in Inawashiro. Around the town several places related to him and his family still exist. He took his basic education here before going abroad to study and become a world-renowned doctor and three-time Nobel Prize candidate.

One of Aizu district’s “Five Famous Cherry Trees” or “Aizu no Gozakura,” the “Oshika Zakura” (elk cherry tree), a multi-petal variety of the satozakura cherry tree, is seen on the left side of Iwahashi-jinja Shrine’s main building. “Mine no O-ishi” (great rock of Mine) a big mass of pyroxene andesite originally from Mt. Bandai’s crater that got separated during the great eruption of 1888. Also, the Tatsuzawa hamlet, the “Gods’ Forest” and “Tatsuzawa Virgin Forest” which, according to the legend, must never be lumbered, features the “Ohara Kannon Pine,” a pine tree presumed to be 300 years old with a height of 29 m (95 ft) and a chest-level circumference of 4.2 m (13.7 ft). Nestled in the heart of the Otaki mountain range towering over the northeast side of Lake Inawashiro and near the forest of the Tatsuzawa Oyamazumi Shrine is a mountain village community with a long wood-turning tradition.