Shiraishi River embankment — Hitome Senbonzakura

photo by Tomofumi Sato · CC BY-SA 3.0

photo by Tomofumi Sato · CC BY-SA 3.0

Planted in 1923 and 1927 by a businessman from the town: today there are 1,200 along 8 km.

You walk under a tunnel of flowering branches eight kilometres long, with the Zaō still covered in snow in the background. The row began in 1923, when the businessman Takayama Kaijirō, a native of the town, donated the first trees; others followed in 1927, up to today's twelve hundred. In the evening an illumination stays on, and a boat takes you to see them from the water as well.

The embankment of the Shiraishi River, between the municipalities of Ōgawara and Shibata, carries about 1,200 Somei Yoshino cherry trees along an eight-kilometre stretch. The first planting (over a thousand trees) was donated in spring 1923 (Taishō 12) by Takayama Kaijirō, a native of Ōgawara and at the time head of a newspaper in Tokyo; a second batch followed in 1927 (Shōwa 2). In 1990 (Heisei 2) the row was chosen as one of the ‘hundred famous cherry-blossom spots of Japan’ (さくら名所百選) by the Japan Cherry Blossom Association. In 1995 a 1.6 km stretch received another 400 trees of different varieties (beni-yamazakura, somei-yoshino, yae-zakura), as a demonstration project for a flowering embankment.

ℹ️ Access to the embankment is unrestricted, free of charge and always open. In 2026 the Ōgawara Sakura Matsuri is scheduled from 1 to 14 April, subject to change depending on the blossom. The boat runs 10:00–16:00; the evening illumination starts at 18:00, while the stated switch-off time varies between 21:00 and 22:00. During the festival the car park in the riverbed costs 1,000 yen per car. The area is three minutes' walk from the JR stations of Ōgawara or Funaoka.

🚉 Ogawara · in front of the station

Sources: town.ogawara.miyagi.jp · oogawara.or.jp · miyagi-kankou.or.jp

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