Kesen District, Iwate

Kesen (気仙郡; -gun) is a district located in Iwate, Japan. Kesen consists of 4 towns/cities (in order of population size): Ōfunato, Rikuzentakata, Sumita and Sanriku (although recently (2003) Sanriku officially became a part of Ofunato).

Ofunato is a port town where ships dock from many other countries. Squid fishing and other types of fishing take place off its coast.

Rikuzentakata (meaning "the land before the high rice fields") is a beach/fishing town, surrounded by low mountains and contains the mouth of the Kesen river as it flows into the ocean. Often called Takata, the population is around 26, 000 people and consists of many smaller villages including Takata-cho, Kesen-cho, Yonesaki-cho, Otomo-cho, Hirota-cho, Yokota-cho and Yahagi-cho. On August 7th Rikuzentakata hosts Tanabata (the Star Festival) including, in Kesen-cho, 'fighting Tanabata' where floats with large logs attached to them are rammed into each other. On October 20th of each year, Rikuzentakata hosts an amazing taiko (traditional Japanese drumming) festival that sometimes features international acts as well. It has been voted the 'Best Town in All of Japan' by the participants of the JET programme living there.

Sumita is 80 percent forest. It does not have access to the coast.

Sanriku is also on the coast and surrounded by mountains.

As of 2003, the district has an estimated population of 6,936 and a density of 20.71 persons per km². The total area is 334.83 km².

Towns and villages

*Sumita