Morioka History and Culture Museum (もりおか歴史文化館)

The Iwate Prefectural Library opened in Morioka in April 1922, after Takashi Hara gave it 10,000 yen for book purchases. The museum building is its second home: completed on 27 December 1967, it moved the library into Iwate Park, which is the park of the castle ruins, and the opening ceremony took place on 10 February 1968. Kiyonori Kikutake was its architect. The library left it in 2006 for the Aiina centre, its third building.

In March 2003 the 45th head of the Nanbu family gave the city of Morioka 1,877 sets of items handed down in his family, 8,361 pieces in all. The basic design for converting the old library was delivered in March 2007 and the working drawings in March 2008. In November 2008 the city took over the building as a free transfer. Works ended in March 2010 and the museum opened in July 2011.

The older part is the library drawn by Kiyonori Kikutake: a reinforced-concrete building with one basement and two storeys above ground, completed in 1967 and fully refurbished in 2010. A new reinforced-concrete wing of two storeys above ground, also finished in 2010, was added to it.

The museum's roof has a distinctive shape that evokes Mount Iwate. It carries a ridge ornament, Futaba, by the sculptor Yasutake Funakoshi, who comes from Iwate Prefecture.

The complex covers 2,534 m2 on the ground and has 4,676 m2 of floor area. The permanent exhibition rooms total 1,433 m2 across both levels, and the temporary exhibition room has 169 m2 on the upper floor.

The ground floor is a welcome and tourist exchange zone. A town information centre there presents certified Morioka-brand local products and suggests walking routes; the museum shop and a temporary exhibition room for the city's festivals are on the same floor. A permanent room shows the Chagu Chagu Umakko and the Morioka Sansa Odori on video, with a model of a horse in festival dress. One hall displays a 9 m float of the Morioka Fall Festival, a reconstruction of a Meiji-era float, alongside a contemporary one.

The upper floor is the history and culture zone, where visitors see items connected with the Nanbu family of Morioka, who governed the domain in the Edo period. The permanent history room is made up of six parts: Morioka before the castle, the castle town, the castle and the Nanbu family, the Nanbu family's objects, a themed room, and the move into modern Morioka.

The ground floor is free to enter; the exhibition rooms upstairs charge admission. The museum opens at 9 am and closes at 7 pm or 6 pm depending on the season, with upstairs admission until half an hour before closing. It closes on the third Tuesday of each month (the following day if that Tuesday is a public holiday) and from 31 December to 1 January.

Allow twenty minutes on foot from JR Morioka Station. Ramps and a lift serve the building.