History
Morioka Station opened on 1 November 1890 as the northern terminus of Nippon Railway and joined the national network upon nationalisation in November 1906. The Hashiba light railway, today's Tazawako Line, arrived on 25 June 1921 and the Yamada Line on 10 October 1923. A Western-Japanese-fusion second station building of 1917 was succeeded by a third in November 1959 — the first Minshu-eki in Tohoku — and the fourth, the present building with the Fezan retail complex, opened on 10 April 1981. The Tōhoku Shinkansen reached Morioka on 23 June 1982 and the Akita Shinkansen began joint operation here on 22 March 1997. Suica acceptance on the Tōhoku Main Line and Tazawako Line followed on 27 May 2023.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
Since 1 November 2019 the Shinkansen platforms have used Kazumasa Oda's song Daijōbu — theme music for the Morioka-set NHK serial Dondo Hare — as the departure melody, with usage extended indefinitely after its initial 2021 sunset.