Kitaibaraki, city, northeastern Ibaraki ken (prefecture), northeast-central Honshu, Japan. It lies on the Pacific Ocean, about 25 miles (40 km) northeast of Hitachi. The western part of the city occupies hills that slope toward the rest of the city on the coast.
Agriculture (rice) and fishing (sardines and mackerel) are important. Coal mining was once important; with the closing of all the mines in the area, the city’s population decreased. Kitaibaraki is renowned for the Japan Art Institute, established in the former villa of the late 19th- and early 20th-century artists Okakura Kakuzō and Yokoyama Taikan. On March 11, 2011, the city and surrounding region sustained heavy damage from a severe earthquake in the Pacific off the northeastern coast of Honshu and from a subsequent large tsunami, generated by the quake, that inundated coastal areas. Recovery and rebuilding from the disaster progressed slowly, although the reconstruction of a small hexagonal-shaped seaside pavilion on the Okakura estate that was destroyed by the tsunami was completed in 2012. Pop. (2010) 47,026; (2015) 44,412.