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Kuwagasaki IIIf Ihij The port of Kuwagasaki was administered from Miyako by district magistrates of a feudal domain, Morioka-han. Administrative records in a volume of Morioka-han "Zassho;' compiled by samurai in the domain's castle, mention the 1700 tsunami in Kuwagasaki. KUWAGASAKI had 281 houses a decade or two before 1700 (Takeuchi, 1985a, p. 321, citing Morioka-han "Zassho" for the years 1681-1691). It was then a major port for Morioka-han, as recounted by Iwamoto (1970, p. 116, 119) and implied by a shipping route on the shogunal map from 1702 (dull red line, p. 33). THE ABOVE VIEW of the village and its surroundings comes from a 1739 map of the Miyako district (p. 44). The tax office arose beside the port in 1701. Its map label reads jubun no ichi 0-yakuya ("ten-percent office") because Morioka-han levied a ten-percent tax on nonagricultural goods (Hanley and Yamamura, 1977, p. 129; Iwamoto, 1970, p. 49). 36 THE ORPHAN TSUNAMI OF 1700 Main pOints A nighttime flood and ensuing fires destroyed one tenth of the houses in Kuwagasaki. In response, officials issued food and sought wood for emergency shelters (p. 38-39). An account of these events, probably written in 1700, calls the flood a "tsunami"-a term used in no other account of the 1700 tsunami in Japan (p. 40-41). The reported hour of the tsunami in Kuwagasaki, identical to that reported from Otsuchi, 30 km to the south, pinpoints the 1700 Cascadia earthquake to the North American evening of January 26, 1700 (p. 42-43). A regional government run by samurai produced the main account of the 1700 tsunami in Kuwagasaki (p. 44-45). People went to high ground during the 1700 tsunami, as they did centuries later during the tsunami from Chile in 1960 (p.46-47). Waves of the 1700 tsunami directly destroyed 13 houses in Kuwagasaki. The damage in Japan helps define the size of the 1700 earthquake (p. 48-49). Setting From the nation's capital in Edo, later renamed Tokyo, the Tokugawa shoguns and their retainers ruled Japan between 1603 and 1867, the Edo period. Under their authority, the Nambu clan controlled much of the northeast part of the nation's main island, Honshu. The Nambu domain, Morioka-han, included several coastal districts. One of these districts was administered from Miyako. The village of Kuwagasaki, 1 km east of Miyako, adjoined the district's main harbor. The village contained close to 300 houses in 1700. Other tsunamis Tsunamis of nearby origin caused deaths in Kuwagasaki in 1611,1896, and 1933. A lesser near-source tsunami, in 1677, swept away five houses, flooded rice paddies, and damaged salt-evaporation kilns. Aside from the 1700 event, no tsunami of remote origin is known to have damaged Edo-period Kuwagasaki. The 1960 Chile tsunami entered 14 houses but destroyed none (p. 49). Documents Morioka-han "Zassho," an administrative diary compiled in Morioka castle, contains the main account of the 1700 tsunami in Kuwagasaki. The news originated with district magistrates in Miyako. Their report reached Morioka six days after the tsunami (p. 44). An independent report of the tsunami, dispatched from Otsuchi, reached Morioka a day later (p. 60). A merchant's account of the 1700 tsunami in Tsugaruishi mentions, as hearsay, the house fires in Kuwagasaki (p. 52, columns 3-5). MORIOKA-HAN "ZASSHO," in the volume at left, contains records from the 12th year of the Genroku era (defined p. 42). Each page is 30 cm (12 inches) long; the book weighs 1.26 kg (2.7 Ib). Morioka-han· Morioka· Otsuchi .. HONSHU 0 Q o o : Edo(now Tokyo) Pacific Ocean o 500 km I ' I N t Kuwagasaki L:? M· k 00 Iya 0 View on Miyako Bay facing page o Tsugaruishi o 5km I ' , , , I o Known site of 1700 Cascadia tsunami NOTABLE TSUNAMIS IN KUWAGASAKI AND MIYAKO SINCE 1600 (J) a: UJ ~ UJ :2 ~ ~ I 52 UJ I 1952 Kamchatka and 1960 Chile 10 IM1611 1896 M 5 1700 Cascadia 1933 M 1677 1968 II 0 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000 YEAR AD. '---------------.-'L Edo period 1603-1867 Height in Miyako (M) or in Kuwagasaki Tsunami generated near Honshu Tsunami from distant source I Annual volumes of Morioka-han "Zassho;' 1644-1840 Range of estimates or measurements SIMULATED WAVES OFTHE 1700TSUNAMIIN KUWAGASAKI Tsunami arrives around midnight Japan time, January 27-28, 1700 1" I I I I, I I I I I, I I...

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