page_title: Kamaishi, Iwate
section_title: Early modern Kamaishi
hierarchical_section_title: Kamaishi, Iwate / History / Early modern Kamaishi
caption_attribution_description: English: 1933 Sanriku Earthquake damage at Kamaishi日本語: 釜石における昭和三陸地震の被害
context_page_description: Kamaishi is a city located on the Sanriku rias coast in Iwate Prefecture, Japan. As of 31 March 2020, the city had an estimated population of 32,609, and a population density of 74 persons per km², in 16,230 households. The total area of the city is 441.43 square kilometres
context_section_description: In the Meiji period establishment of the modern municipalities system, the town of Kamaishi was established within Minamihei District, Iwate on April 1, 1889. Minamihei and Nishihei Districts merged to form Kamihei District in 1896. Kamaishi attained city status on May 5, 1937, and expanded in 1955 with the absorption of the neighboring villages of Kasshi, Unosumai, Kurihashi from Kamihei District and the village of Tōni from Kesen District.
  In 1875, the newly established Meiji government bought all of the furnaces and created the Kamaishi Iron Works. They also put Ōshima and a German engineer in charge of its modernization. The German director imported two large steam-driven blast furnaces of the latest design from Britain and set up a railway with 15 miles of track and a locomotive purchased from Manchester to deliver the ore. Production began in 1880 but had to be stopped soon after due to a lack of charcoal. An attempt to resume operations in 1882 by replacing charcoal with coke failed and the plant was closed.
  There were cholera outbreaks in Kamaishi in July 1882 and April 1884. The first left 302 people dead and warnings about the drinking water were posted throughout the prefecture.
  In 1885, a new foundry was established which used coal from Hokkaido and iron ore from China.
  The 1896 Sanriku earthquake struck on June 15 at 7:32 pm while families were celebrating Boy's Festival on the beach. The earthquake measured magnitude 8.5 while the tsunami on the Iwate coast reached as high as 24 meters in places – the highest ever recorded in Japan at the time. The city of Kamaishi was completely destroyed. The French Catholic missionary Henri Lispard was also swept out to sea and died when the wave struck.
caption: A devastating earthquake and tsunami affected Kamaishi in March 1933
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