Takata Matsubara

or Takata Pine Forest was a pine grove located on the Pacific seashore of the city of Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, Japan. It was designated a nationally designated Place of Scenic Beauty in 1940 and one of the 100 Landscapes of Japan during the Shōwa era. After the grove was destroyed during the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, tree planting efforts commenced in 2017 and 2018.

==History and overview== thumb|Rikuzentakata city center with Takata Matsubara in 1977|left The Takata Matsubara was planted by local merchant-magnate Kanno Mokunosuke in 1667, under the instruction of Date Tsunamune, the daimyō of Sendai Domain, and initially consisted of 6200 Japanese red pine trees, and was intended to form a living sea wall to protect the port village from high winds, high tides and tsunami. The pine grove was expanded in the Kyōhō period (1716–1736) by his son Shichizaemon and grandson Hachisaburo with an additional 70,000 trees, which were a mixture of Japanese red pine and Japanese black pine along a two kilometer stretch of beach.