Minamisōma can be explored through a wide range of themes: Soma Nomaoi, Buddhist stone figures, Jōmon archaeology and coastal activities. To start planning your trip, consider whether you’d rather focus on cultural heritage and history or on surfing and cycling.
Cultural heritage: Soma Nomaoi and historic buildings
Soma Nomaoi is designated as an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Japan in Minamisōma. A permanent exhibition is dedicated to the festival. It features a diorama of the flag race, armor and other festival equipment, as well as the Edo-period folding screen “相馬野馬追図屏風”, which depicts Soma Nomaoi. Individual exhibits may change.
Nomaoidori Meijōkan preserves and restores former sake storehouses and Western-style buildings from the Meiji, Taishō and early Shōwa periods. Another side of the tradition can be seen at the Soma Nomaoi Kitago Honjin Festival in the municipality: mounted warriors greet the supreme commander according to age-old custom, and visitors can watch the ceremony up close. Check whether it is currently being held before making plans.
Stone Buddhas in Izumisawa
The Daibisan Stone Buddhas in Izumisawa comprise the Yakushidō, Amidadō and Kannondō Stone Buddhas. Together with the stone sculptures at Usuki in Ōita Prefecture and Ōya in Tochigi Prefecture, they are counted among Japan’s three great groups of Buddhas carved into rock.
In the approximately 15-meter-wide rock cave of the Yakushidō Stone Buddhas, six figures are carved in relief and two others are depicted with incised lines. They are about 2 to 3 meters tall; traces of red and yellow pigment remain on some. The Kannondō Stone Buddha depicts the thousand-armed Kannon. It is about 9 meters tall, partly destroyed, lies northeast of the Yakushidō Stone Buddhas and is one of Japan’s largest stone Buddha figures.
A park offers walks past a wall telling the story of a great serpent, a serpent monument, the Daibisan Stone Buddhas and a large cedar about 1,000 years old. The path thus connects several different points of interest: the story on the wall, the monument, the stone Buddhas and the old tree.
Jōmon sites and archaeology
From about 5,700 to 3,000 years ago, spanning the Early to Late Jōmon periods, Urajiri Kaizuka was a settlement and shell mound covering approximately 7 hectares. This time span therefore extends from the early to the late phase of the period.
At the visitor center of Urajiri Kaizuka Jōmon Park, you can touch the three-dimensional artwork “貝塚の樹” and view an exhibition on environmental changes around Urajiri Kaizuka during the Jōmon period. At the observation house, you can experience a shell-mound profile exposed during excavations in its original condition. The environmental history exhibition and the actual profile offer different ways to explore the Jōmon period.
Coast, surfing and cycling
The Kitaizumi and Karasuzaki coasts in Minamisōma are suitable surf spots; conditions vary locally. Sun Marine offers surf lessons for beginners and provides wetsuits and surfboards. Lessons are available from June to October, and cancellations due to weather are possible. Check current lesson dates before making plans.
Alternatively, you could take the cycling path along the Mano River. Opened in 2021, it is about 11 kilometers long, mostly flat and connects Sedette Kashima with Karasuzaki Seaside Park on the Pacific Ocean. For surfing, local conditions, season and weather are important planning considerations; for the cycling path, its approximate length, mostly flat route and endpoints offer a concrete basis for deciding.
Discover more travel destinations: Kitakata, Minamiaizu District, Sōma, Iwaki, Aizubange, Nihonmatsu, Furudono, Yama District
For the main travel overview: Fukushima Prefecture.
