, sometimes known as , lies on the northeastern side of the island of

Honshu , historically known as , is the largest of the four main islands of Japan. It lies between the Pacific Ocean (east) and the Sea of Japan (west). It is the list of islands by area, seventh-largest island in the world, and the list of islands by ...

, corresponding to today's

Aomori , officially Aomori City (, ), is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Aomori Prefecture, in the Tōhoku region of Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 264,945 in 136,781 households, and a population density of 321 people per squa ...

, Iwate and parts of

Miyagi Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Miyagi Prefecture has a population of 2,265,724 (1 August 2023) and has a geographic area of . Miyagi Prefecture borders Iwate Prefecture to the north, Akit ...

and has a long history. The 36 bays of this irregular coastline tend to amplify the destructiveness of tsunami waves which reach the shores of Sanriku, as demonstrated in the damage caused by the

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami On 11 March 2011, at 14:46:24 Japan Standard Time, JST (05:46:24 UTC), a 9.0–9.1 Submarine earthquake, undersea megathrust earthquake occurred in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region. It lasted approx ...

History

On January 19, 1869, in the aftermath of the

Boshin War The , sometimes known as the Japanese Revolution or Japanese Civil War, was a civil war in Japan fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and a coalition seeking to seize political power in the name of the Impe ...

, the provinces of Mutsu and Dewa were divided. Mutsu was split into new five provinces: Rikuō (also read ''Mutsu''), Rikuchū,

Rikuzen is an old province of Japan in the area of Miyagi Prefecture (excluding Igu, Katta and Watari Districts) and parts of Iwate Prefecture (specifically Kesen District). Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Rikuzen''" in . It was sometimes c ...

, Iwashiro and Iwaki. The first three of these collectively known as the "Three Riku", or ''Sanriku'', with san (三) meaning "three." The new provinces became quickly obsolete in July 1871 when the

abolition of the han system The in the Empire of Japan and its replacement by a system of prefectures in 1871 was the culmination of the Meiji Restoration begun in 1868, the starting year of the Meiji period. Under the reform, all daimyos (, ''daimyō'', feudal lords) ...

divided Japan into its present

prefectures A prefecture (from the Latin word, "''praefectura"'') is an administrative jurisdiction traditionally governed by an appointed prefect. This can be a regional or local government subdivision in various countries, or a subdivision in certain inter ...

that became the sole divisions used by the government. However, the label lives on in common usages such as the Sanriku Coast, which extends along Japan's Pacific coastline from Aomori in the north down to the

Oshika Peninsula The also pronounced "Ojika" is a peninsula which projects southeast into the Pacific Ocean from the coast of Miyagi Prefecture in northeast Honshu, the main island of Japan. The peninsula is most often visited as the gateway to the island of Kin ...

in Miyagi.Japan-i
Sanriku Coastline/Kamaishi Daikannon

Notes

{{Japan-geo-stub Regions of Japan Geography of Japan

History

See also

Notes