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Sanriku Fukkō NP, Miyagi
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Before the 2011 tsunami, more than 200 black brant were sometimes seen at the Kitakami mouth just before dawn, drinking fresh water from a sandbar before flying north. Researchers believe many were wintering in Shizugawa Bay.
The Kitakami estuary’s shijimi clams are prized locally for their plump flesh and tortoiseshell-colored shells. Ishinomaki connects their brackish-water habitat with the river-mouth reedbeds.
Local schoolchildren harvest reeds by the Kitakami, then make paper from them for their graduation certificates. Cutting and using the reeds also continues a human tradition that helps care for this wetland.
At nearby Tsurishi Shrine, a winter ring is made not from the usual chigaya grass, but from reeds harvested at the Kitakami estuary. It’s a striking way this riverside plant becomes part of local life.
The Kitakami’s present course is partly human-made: a flood-control project begun in 1911 and completed in 1934 sent the river to Oppa Bay here, while the old channel continues through Ishinomaki to Ishinomaki Bay.
Wind sets the estuary’s broad reeds rustling, joined by calls from waterbirds. This soundscape was selected for Japan’s “100 Soundscapes”; the reeds stretch for about 15 kilometers along the river mouth.
The brackish-reed damselfly called Hinuma-itotombo reaches its northern limit at the Kitakami estuary. The 2011 tsunami and land subsidence erased its mouth-side habitat, but reed marshes farther upstream helped the river-system population survive.
Nearby Oppa Bay is where Kitakami’s fresh water meets the Pacific. Ishinomaki says nutrients from both river and sea help give local Jūsanhama wakame its pleasantly springy texture.
In 2011, tsunami waves traveled nearly 50 kilometers inland up the Kitakami River. The estuary is a reminder that a river can carry the ocean’s force far beyond the shoreline.
