What Is Hirosaki? Apples, the Castle, Crafts and Festivals

Published 2026-10-04 · Sources checked 2026-10-04 · Treasure Hunting Co., Ltd.

This guide is for visitors who want an overview of Hirosaki, a castle town in Aomori Prefecture in northern Honshu. It covers apples, local crafts and food, the festivals through the year, and one new tax. Hirosaki is known in Japan for apples and for the cherry trees in its castle park.

We used the English pages of the Hirosaki Tourism and Convention Bureau. All pages were read on 2026-10-04. Event dates for 2027 are the bureau's planned dates. Check them again closer to the time.

Apples

The bureau says apples reached Hirosaki in 1875, when an American teacher at a local school shared apples with his students. Seeds were planted and the seedlings were grafted onto other trees, which began the breeding work. Today Hirosaki produces the largest volume of fresh apples in Japan, according to the bureau.

You can pick apples at the Hirosaki City Apple Park from August to October. The bureau also publishes an apple pie guide map and a list of apple pie spots, made by its tourist centre staff.

Crafts and music

The bureau lists these regional crafts:

• Tsugaru lacquerware. One style needs 40 applications of lacquer.
• BUNACO, a modern craft that shapes beech wood into bowls, vases and lamps.
• Akebi vine baskets, woven from vines that grow wild in the nearby mountains.
• Kogin embroidery, a geometric stitching once used by farm women to reinforce work clothes.
• Tsugaru pottery, once the official pottery of the Tsugaru domain.
• Tsugaru kumiko, a woodwork technique that fits thin wood pieces together without nails.

The Tsugaru shamisen is a three-stringed instrument with a thicker neck, played with fast, hard plucking. The bureau calls it about 100 years old as a folk tradition and links to bars that host live music, in Japanese only.

Local food

The bureau describes these dishes. Kenoshiru is a miso soup of finely diced root vegetables, wild plants and fried tofu. Jappa-jiru is a miso soup made with cod. Kaiyaki-miso is egg and miso cooked in a large scallop shell. Igamenchi is a fried dish of chopped squid and seasonal vegetables. Tsugaru soba uses soaked, ground soybeans mixed into the buckwheat dough. Dake-kimi corn is sold at roadside stands from late August to mid-October.

Festivals through the year

• Cherry Blossom Festival: 16 April to 5 May 2027, with about 2,600 trees in Hirosaki Park.
• Apple Blossom Festival: 3 to 5 May in 2026, at the Apple Park with Mount Iwaki behind it. The bureau lists live Tsugaru shamisen, apple flower pressing and a family apple-peeling contest.
• Neputa Festival: 1 to 7 August 2027, with lit floats and drums.
• Oyama Sankei: 30 August to 1 September 2027, a group climb of Mount Iwaki that is a nationally designated folk cultural property.
• Chrysanthemum and Autumn Foliage Festival: 30 October to 8 November 2026.
• Winter cherry blossom lights: 1 December 2026 to 28 February 2027.
• Snow Lantern Festival: 10 to 14 February 2027, with about 50 snow lanterns and 300 snow statues.

Hot springs near Mount Iwaki

The Iwaki-san tourist association says there are several hot spring areas around Mount Iwaki, mainly the Hyakuzawa and Dake hot spring villages. Each spring has different minerals, such as sodium, chloride and hydrogen carbonate. The Mount Iwaki bus from the station stops at Iwakiyama Jinja-mae for the Hyakuzawa area, according to the bureau's access page.

Staying overnight

From 1 December 2025 Hirosaki City charges an accommodation tax of 200 yen per person for stays in the city. The bureau says the money supports tourism and local resources. The bureau also lists an association of hotels and inns, and a temple stay, but does not take bookings. Reservations are made with the lodging.

Two tourist offices give information: the Hirosaki Municipal Tourist Center at Otemon Square, 2-1 Shimoshirogane-cho, and the Hirosaki Tourist Information Center on the first floor of JR Hirosaki Station, 1-1 Omote-machi. For lodging, they give information only. You make reservations yourself.

What we could not verify, and therefore left out

• Apple prices and the picking schedule at the Apple Park.
• Opening hours of craft museums and workshops.
• Which festivals have changed dates since the pages were written.

Related guides

• How do you get to Hirosaki and ride the Dotemachi Loop Bus?
• When can you see autumn leaves at Hirosaki Castle?

Sources

All URLs retrieved 2026-10-04.

1. Hirosaki specialities and local cuisine (Hirosaki Tourism and Convention Bureau) — (apples, crafts, food)
2. Apple Capital of Japan (Hirosaki Tourism and Convention Bureau) — (apple pie guide, offices)
3. Event and experience information (Hirosaki Tourism and Convention Bureau) — (festival dates)
4. Lodging and accommodations (Hirosaki Tourism and Convention Bureau) — (accommodation tax)