‘Do not build any houses below the stone monument!’
Predecessors’ precept saved a village in Miyako, Iwate
East Japan Rarthquake & Tsunami
The monument stands on the village of Aneyoshi where was utterly destroyed twice by the past tsunamis.
All 12 house in a small village survived the tsunami, where is located at the eastern tip of Shigemo peninsula in Miyako city, Iwate prefecture. All other seaside areas of the city except Aneyoshi were swallowed up by the tidal wave on March 11.
People living at the top of the hill observed the warning inscribed on the stone monument that was built at the place 60 meters above the sea level after the Showa Sanriku Tsunami in 1933. They thanked for their predecessors’ precept once more.
‘A house on a high land makes your children and grand children harmonious. Please remember suffering the ravages of tsunami.’ The monument is inscribed with the above words. It stands on the sharp slope extending from the port of Aneyoshi where is the about 4 km far away from the Todogasaki lighthouse located in the most eastern tip in Honshu island. The warning closes with the last line in saying, ‘Do not build any houses below the stone monument.’
Aneyoshi had fatal damages by the Sanriku Tsunami twice in 1896 and 1933. Survivors counted only 2 people in 1896 and 4 people in 1933. Soon after the tsunami in 1933, residents of Aneyoshi built the stone monument. Later people have lived in upper area of the monument.
A huge earthquake suddenly occurred on March 11. People in the port ran up an about 800 meters winding path in the slope toward their houses soon after the tsunami warning was issued. Huge wave of dark waters accompanied with fishing boats rushed up the land, but it stopped just in front of the monument.
‘We have persuaded as ‘’Never brake the precept on the monument” since our young days. Our village could survive under the predecessors’ precept.’ Mr. Tamishige Kimura, the chairman of the neighborhood self-governing body thanked for the monument once more.
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