Kamaishi, city, eastern Iwate ken (prefecture), northern Honshu, Japan. It is situated about 100 miles (160 km) northeast of Sendai, Miyagi prefecture, facing Kamaishi Bay on the Pacific Ocean.
Kamaishi was a small fishing village until magnetite (a type of iron ore) was discovered in the area in 1727, and Japan’s first European-style blast furnace was constructed in the city in 1857. In 1885 a government-controlled iron foundry was built by using coal from Hokkaido and later by using ore from China after the Sino-Japanese War (1894–95). The city was heavily damaged by Allied naval bombardment during World War II, but mining and industrial production revived after 1945; steelmaking ceased in the 1980s.
In the 1970s the port facilities were reconstructed, and a large oil storage and industrial site were built on reclaimed land. Iron and steel, mainly from Britain, were imported through Kamaishi’s harbour, which was also an important fishing port. In March 2011 a massive underwater earthquake east of Sendai triggered a large tsunami that devastated much of the Pacific coast of Tōhoku (northeastern Honshu). In Kamaishi the tsunami inundated the port area and low-lying areas inland, killing hundreds of people and causing widespread property damage. Recovery and rebuilding following the disaster progressed slowly in the city.
Kamaishi is on the railway line along the Tōhoku coast, and another line runs inland. Its coastal area is part of Sanriku Fukko (Sanriku Reconstruction) National Park, which was established in 2013 and incorporated the existing Rikuchū-kaigan National Park as part of a larger entity stretching north and south along the coast. Pop. (2005) 42,987; (2010) 39,574.