Esashi

Esashi's Iwayadō stronghold commanded the northern edge of the Sendai domain. In the sixteenth century the local Esashi family served the Kasai, but lost its lands in 1590 after failing to join Hideyoshi's Odawara campaign. Under the later domain order, Iwayadō became the centre of a network of fortified sites and roads protecting the frontier with Morioka.

The town also prospered as a collection and distribution point for goods carried on the Kitakami River. Its commerce depended on river transport as well as routes joining nearby strongholds. Fire posed a recurring threat: the great Iwayadō fire of 1731 began a remembered sequence of destructive blazes. Prayers for recovery and protection from fire became associated with the festival of Akiba Shrine, joining the town's commercial life to a distinctive local religious observance.