Iwate Prefecture is home to famous attractions such as Morioka Castle, the Buddhist temples of Hiraizumi including Chūson-ji and Mōtsū-ji, the Fujiwara no Sato movie lot and theme park in Ōshū, and the Tenshochi park in Kitakami known for its huge, ancient cherry trees.

Iwate has the lowest population density of any prefecture outside Hokkaido, 5% of its total land area having been designated as National Parks.

There are several theories about the origin of the name "Iwate", but the most well known is the tale Oni no tegata, which is associated with the Mitsuishi or "Three Rocks" Shrine in Morioka.

There are many present-day cultural foods popularly eaten in Iwate Prefecture, some of which include walnuts, wanko soba (meaning "bowl noodles") and hittsumi-jiru (meaning "pull and tear", in reference to the way the dough is pulled and torn into oval shapes before being turned into noodles).

[5] Iwate's prefectural capital Morioka is also popular for its apples, blooming in May and ready for harvest from September to November.

[6] Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō visited Iwate and wrote about it in the journey described in his major work Oku no Hosomichi.

While the entire island of Honshū was claimed by the Japanese, or Yamato, government from earliest times, the imperial forces were unable to occupy any part of what would become Iwate until 802 when two powerful Emishi leaders, Aterui and More, surrendered at Fort Isawa.

The Kunenbashi site in Kitakami City has yielded stone "swords", tablets and tools as well as clay figurines, earrings and potsherds from the Final Jōmon Period (1,300–300 BC).

Little is known about relations between these Japanese frontiersmen and the native Emishi but in 776 they took a turn for the worse when large forces of the Yamato army invaded Iwate attacking the Isawa and Shiwa tribes in February and November of that year.

This situation continued until March 787 when the Yamato army suffered a disastrous defeat in the Battle of Sufuse Village in what is now Mizusawa Ward, Oshu City.

There the Emishi leaders and Aterui leading a large cavalry force trapped the Yamato infantry and pushed them into the Kitakami River where their heavy armour proved deadly.

Trade for superior quality iron wares and sake made the Emishi dependent on the Japanese for these valuable goods.

Finally a campaign of burning crops and kidnapping the Emishi women and children and relocating them to Western Japan was adopted.

The captives were taken to Kyoto for an audience with the emperor and beheaded at Moriyama in Kawachi Province against the wishes of General Sakanoue.

[8] Iwate Prefecture was created in 1876, in the aftermath of the Boshin Civil War, which heralded the beginning of the Meiji Restoration.

Iwate faces the Pacific Ocean to the east with sheer, rocky cliffs along most of the shoreline interrupted by a few sandy beaches.

But the Kitakami Mountains running through the middle of the prefecture from north to south are much older and have not been active for thousands of years.

The basin of the Kitakami is large and fertile providing room for the prefecture's largest cities, industrial parks and farms.

In the past Iwate has been famous for its mineral wealth especially in the form of gold, iron, coal and sulfur but these are no longer produced.

Before World War II the forests were mainly composed of beech but since then there has been a huge swing towards the production of faster growing Japanese cedar.

Finally, Iwate has a net negative migration rate (-2.8) with 21,265 permanently leaving the prefecture and 16,795 entering.

In July 1882, a cholera outbreak in Kamaishi left 302 dead and warnings about drinking water were posted throughout the prefecture.

The ensuing tsunami sent waves onto the coast of Iwate at Yoshihama, in what is now Sanriku town, reaching 24 metres (79 ft) in height.

On Friday, 11 March 2011, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake hit this area, triggering a large tsunami and extensive damage.

The Tōhoku Shinkansen has stations at Ichinoseki, Oshu, Kitakami, Hanamaki, Morioka, Iwate Town and Ninohe.