TALES FROM HISTORY | TRAVEL IN JAPAN
Hiraizumi — Once a Fabulous City of Gold, Now a Quiet Home of Mummies
The rise and fall of the Northern Fujiwara family
Three generations of glory
Vanished
In the space of a dream
So wrote Japan’s most famous Haiku poet, Matsuo Basho, upon visiting Hiraizumi in 1689.
Located in Iwate Prefecture, Hiraizumi is a place you may never have heard of. But it was once the capital of northern Japan, rivaling Kyoto for size, splendor, and wealth.
The famed explorer Marco Polo described what he heard about it while in China:
They have gold in the greatest abundance, its sources being inexhaustible… The entire roof [of the sovereign’s palace] is covered with a plating of gold… The ceilings of the halls are of the same precious metal; many of the apartments have small tables of pure gold, of considerable thickness; and the windows also have golden ornaments. So vast, indeed, are the riches of the palace, that it is impossible to convey an idea of them. — The travels of Marco Polo, written 1300
This marvelous city of gold was founded by a member of the powerful Fujiwara clan…
