Rikuzentakata: Japanese Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako visited the city of Rikuzentakata and other places in the northeastern Japan prefecture of Iwate on Saturday, setting foot in areas devastated by the March 2011 disaster for the first time since the Emperor’s enthronement in 2019.

Around 11 a.m., (2 a.m. GMT), the couple flew to Iwate Hanamaki Airport for a two-day trip to Iwate, one of the three prefectures hit hardest by the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami, for participation in events including the 73rd national tree-planting festival.

In the afternoon, the Emperor and the Empress moved to Rikuzentakata after dropping by the city of Kamaishi. Both cities were severely damaged by the tsunami.

At a memorial facility at Takatamatsubara Memorial Park for Tsunami Disaster in Rikuzentakata, the Imperial couple offered flowers including white lilies to the disaster victims and bowed deeply.

At the park, the couple also viewed a monument of “kiseki no ipponmatsu,” or the miracle lone pine tree, which survived the tsunami while all other pine trees along the coast were swept away. They listened to an explanation by Rikuzentakata Mayor Taku Sasaki about the tree.

In 2013, when he was Crown Prince, Emperor Naruhito played a viola made from part of the miracle pine tree, which withered and died after surviving the tsunami.

Later on Saturday, the couple visited the Iwate Tsunami Memorial Museum, also in Rikuzentakata, and interacted with disaster survivors.

On Sunday, the Emperor and the Empress are scheduled to inspect a commercial facility in the city of Ofunato, also hit by the tsunami, and then attend the tree-planting event in Rikuzentakata before returning to Tokyo.

The tree-planting festival is one of the major annual regional events usually attended by the Emperor and the Empress.

The couple are set to join the event in person for the first time in four years, after being unable to do so due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

JIJI Press