Abstract

In Japan, calls for the discovery, preservation, and translation of old documents that mention past earthquakes only intensified after the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster of March 2011. A closer look at the original record and archival processes that have gone into the historical account of the earthquake and tsunami of 9 July 869 reveals the ways in which the “memory” of the Jōgan tsunami depends as much on modern seismic archaeology and educational institutions as ancient documents. Historical risk assessment, therefore, must draw on both old and new technologies of the archive.

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