Failure Knowledge Database / 100 Selected Cases

The Great Meiji Sanriku Tsunami
June 15, 1896 at the Sanriku coast of the Tohoku region
Masayuki Nakao (Institute of Engineering Innovation, School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo)
After a strong earthquake with a magnitude of 8.5 occurred 150 km off the Sanriku coast, a huge tsunami struck
the coast of Sanriku. The high tide and the rias shoreline magnified the tsunami. The highest wave reached 38.2
meters. The tsunami claimed 22,066 casualties and 8,891 homes.
1. Event
After the weak ground quake, a huge tsunami struck the coast of Sanriku. The highest wave reach ed 38.2
meters. The tsunami caused cons iderable da mage, k illing 2 2,066 peo ple an d des troying 8,8 91 ho uses.
Photo 1 is the press photo of the catastrophic tsunami.

Photo 1. Devastated region: Omori district, Shizugawa, Miyagi [1]1Failure Knowledge Database / 100 Selected Cases

Figure 1. Devastated region: Kamaishi, Iwate [1]2. Course
On June 15 1896 (Meiji 29), villages and towns were celebrating the return of the soldier who served in theSino-Japanese War. That day was also the d ay of the Boy s’ Festival under the lunar calendar. At 7:30 pm,
families were having dinner celebrating the Shinto holiday when they felt a little shock beneath their feet.
The cost towns had several little shocks of earthquakes since March of the same year. There were numbersof str ange p henomena r eported in th e area: dried u p wells, low wat er l evel of w ells, a lar ge s chool ofsardines off the coast and a large catch of tunas every day.
The towns had several little shocks o n that d ay since the morning. Before the tsunami, a few felt a weak
shock fo r 5 minutes an d another one 10 m inute later , but, no one was co ncerned too m uch abo ut thembecause they caused no damage and the area had so many little earthquakes by then.
(The earthquake that caused the ts unami was actually a strong one with a magnitude of 8.5 occurred 150
km off the Sanriku coast. The earthquake of this type later got the nickname “nuru-nuru (slow and muddy)
earthquake” in which the shock propagation is relatively moderated on the surface of the earth.)
At 8:07 pm, ab out 35 minutes after the weak earthquake, the first wave of the ts unami struck the Sanriku
coast. About 3 minutes lat er at 8: 15 p m, the se cond wave str uck t he c oast, des troying hous es tha t had
withstood the first wave. The high tide and the rias shoreline of the Sanriku coast generated exceptionallyhigh waves.
Some say th at it w as y oung s eafood merchants who noticed abnormal tide i n t he se a w hen they w ere
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Failure Knowledge Database / 100 Selected Cases
discharging ships. Following loud boom similar to distant roll of thunder, the sea ab ruptly withdrew awayfrom the shore, listing ships and completely exposing undersea rocks, then rushed back onto the shore.
The highest tsunami wave reached an incredible height of 38.2 meters in the then Ryouri village of Miyagi.
While vi ctims in most tsunami disasters di e by dr owning, the Sanriku tsuna mi caused a large n umber ofphysical damages to its victims, leaving their remains heavily scarred. The monument to the Meiji Sanriku
tsunami d isaster in R youri des cribes t he d evastation, “ In R youri, the v ictims w ere fo und w ith f ractured
skulls, broken legs or without arms”. No one at that time had even imagined that a weak earthquake would
cause such a strong tsunami. The same earthquake generated a tsunami in Hawaii. Its waves, 2.4 m – 9.1 m
in height and caused considerable damage in the coastal area.
The tsunami waves swept the Sanriku coastline, taking 8,891 homes and 22,066 lives.s
3. Cause
The Sanriku coastline i s especial ly tsunami-prone because of its complex topography. The Sanriku
coastline is well known for its distinctive rias shoreline that consists of many long and narrow coastal inlets,
which spreads out between the Same cape located east of Hachinohe in Aomori and the Ojika peninsula inMiyagi. Mountains lie close to th e coastline. Towns and villages are located at coastal inlets between thelong and narrow arms of peninsulas.
The of fshore is one o f th e most earthquake-prone zo nes in the world. The sh ocks of an earthquake arepropagated directly to the water in deep sea, and the pulse of displaced water in a tsunami wave extends all
the way to the bottom of the ocean. Tsunami waves then travel across the ocean basin towards the shore,shortening wavelength and growing destructive. The saw-tooth Sanriku coastline faces the Pacific Ocean.
As ty pically found i n r ias coasts, t he depth and width of coas tal inlets grad ually and uniformly di minish
inland. Once tsunami waves reaches the bay, their wavelength shrink as the sea becomes shallower towards
the shore, and the tsunami grows destructive.
This Sanriku tsunami was exceptionally destructive because its tsunami-earthquake broke out at the time ofhigh tide. Figure 2 shows the Sanriku coastline.
The heavy toll o f lives was attributed to the fact that few noticed little shocks of the tsunami-earthquakes
and thos e wh o noticed them were neither concerned ab out possible tsunami nor had th e slightest idea toevacuate to an elevated inland location.

3Failure Knowledge Database / 100 Selected Cases

Figure 2. Local Death Tolls and Wave Heights of Meiji Sanriku Tsunami [4]4. Immediate Action
On June 16, the day following the tsunami disaster, a telegram reporting the disaster reached the Interior
4Failure Knowledge Database / 100 Selected Cases
Ministry. After reporting to the Meiji Emperor, the Minister of the Interior Ministry contacted all Ministries
to deliver relief andrescue for th e tsunam i victims. T he Emperor del egated Chamberlain V iscountMotonaru Higashizono to visi t th e dis aster site and ch eer up the sur vived with enco uraging words. The
governmental agencies dispatched inspectors. The seco nd division (Army) in Sendai sent the Army medic
to the d isaster s ite i mmediately after r eceiving the tsunami repo rt. I t also di spatched the military p olice
soldiers to s ecure pub lic order. Mi litary e ngineers worked to r ecover bo dies fr om the rubble. Th e N avy
dispatched three warships to search the water and recover bodies of th e victims. The Japanese Red Cross
Society, the Fukushima Office of the Red Cross Society and the Nurse Association sent doctors and nurses
to treat the injured.
5. Countermeasure
The Sanriku tsunami generated no tsunami disasters prevention measures.
It was 37 years later in 1933 (Showa 8) when another strong tsunami struck the Sanriku coast, that the local
governments played a c entral p art in installing tide e mbankments, tr ees and es cape r oads. The lo cal
government also dis tributed a b ooklet d escribing precautions against th e dan ger of tsu nami s o tha t theresidents may participate in preventing a disaster.
The booklet calls the public’s attention to the followings:(Precautions)• If weak earthquake shocks continue long, there may be a danger of tsunami waves. Watch any changes inthe surroundings at least for an hour.
• Loud boom or rumbling sounds similar to distant rolls of thunder may be the sound of tsunami waves.
• Watch the tide as a tsunami causes the sea to abruptly withdraw away from the shore.
(Evacuations)• Leave personal belongings behind and immediately evacuate to an elevated inland location.
• Sail far out to sea, if the ship on board is a few hundred meters off the shore.
6. Summary
Until the S anriku tsunami, there had been no record of tsunami generated by an ea rthquake that was f elt
week on land. The earthquakes that cause more damage by generating tsunami waves than shaking groundare now called “tsunami-earthquake”.
7. Knowledge
One cannot rely on history of incidents too much to prevent earthquakes and tsunamis from claiming lives.
The Sanriku tsunami proved that one must always take precautions to avoid the worst-case scenario.
All devastating disasters give us some kind of sign (small earthquakes in this case) before they happen. It is
fascinating that Heinrich’s Law applies to these cases as wel l. Alth ough t he m ethod to pred ict anearthquake is yet to be found, tsunami forecast has been vastly developed since then.
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8. Background
Before the ts unami in 1896, the S anriku coast alr eady had a long histo ry of tsunamis in cluding the o nes
occurred in 161 1 ( Keicho 16), 16 16 ( Genna 2), 1651 ( Keian 4), 16 76 ( Enpo 4 ), 16 77 (Enpo 5 ), 1 687(Jokyo 4), 1689 (Genroku 2), 1696 (Genroku 9), 1716 through 1735 (Kyoho), 1781 through 1788 (Tenmei),1835 (Tenpo 6), 1856 (Ansei 3), 1868 (Meiji 1), and 1894 (Meiji 27).
Past r ecords r eport that the 18 56 ( Ansei 3 ) t sunami also cau sed devas tating da mage to the commun ity.
Similarly to this one in 1896, numbers of st range phenomena were rep orted right before the tsunami suchas a large catch of tunas and sardines.
References[1] Akira Yoshimura (1970) Umi-no Kabe (Ocean Walls), Chuokoron-Shinsha, Inc.
[2] The General Insurance Association of Japan, Tsunami Bosai-o Kangaeru – Soozoo-shi Nikui Tsunami-noJitsuzo (Preventing Tsunami Disasters - Revelation of Tsunami), The General Insurance Association ofJapan.
[3] Yotaro Hatamura (Editor), Jissai-no Sekkei (Practical Design) Research Foundation (1996) Zoku-Zoku
Jissai-no Sekkei (Practical Design III), The Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun, LTD.
[4] F umio Yamashita (1995) Shashin-to E-de Miru (Photographs and Illustrations) – Great Meiji Sanriku
Tsunami, Exhibition of Photographs and Illustrations of Meiji Sanriku Tsunami.

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