A New Addition to the Miyagi Shiryō Net  Series 'Historical Regeneration' 

We are happy to announce that No. 4 in the 'Historical Regeneration' Series has been published.

The new volume by Takahashi  Yō'ichi is entitled "Bringing Back the Steamy Mists: Recovery from Famines in the Edo Period."

In the Edo Period, the greatest cause of mass deaths was neither earthquakes nor tsunami, but famine. In the Tenmei Famine in Sendai （1782 to 1788) some 200,000 people are estimated to have died. People faced with the sudden depopulation of the towns and villages had to set about rebuilding their communities by themselves. One way they did this, where possible, was to use local hot springs as a way to revitalise their community.

A New Addition to the Miyagi Shiryō Net  Series 'Historical Regeneration' 

We are happy to announce that No. 4 in the 'Historical Regeneration' Series has been published.

The new volume by Takahashi  Yō'ichi is entitled "Bringing Back the Steamy Mists: Recovery from Famines in the Edo Period."

In the Edo Period, the greatest cause of mass deaths was neither earthquakes nor tsunami, but famine. In the Tenmei Famine in Sendai （1782 to 1788) some 200,000 people are estimated to have died. People faced with the sudden depopulation of the towns and villages had to set about rebuilding their communities by themselves. One way they did this, where possible, was to use local hot springs as a way to revitalise their community.

New Publications in the Miyagi Shiryō Net  Series 'Historical Regeneration' 


The second booklet in this series is about the Keichō tsunami of 1611. A concerted downplaying of this tsunami was necessary to justify the location of nuclear plants on low-elevations sites in Fukushima. This booklet by Ebina Yū'ichi examines the historical and archaeological evidence for this tsunami, and argues that the hackneyed claim that the tsunami of 2011 was 'a once in a 1,000 year event' is a gross mis-reading of the historical record.

 

For details on how to purchase this booklet, please see our earlier posting.

Further coming booklets with deal with the formation of villages on the Sendai Plain in the 17th century, and with the recovery of villages in the hotspa district of Akiu after the major famines of the later 18th century.

New Publications in the Miyagi Shiryō Net  Series 'Historical Regeneration' 

Miyagi Shiryō Net Announces its First Publication in a New Series 'Historical Regeneration' 

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Miyagi Shiryō Net Announces its First Publication in a New Series 'Historical Regeneration' 

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Part II Salvage Operations for Historical Materials after the Great East Japan Earthquake

Damage Assessment and Salvage Work within the Disaster Area

3.11. 2011: Disaster Hits for the Third Time

              At 2.40 p.m. on 11th March 2011, an earthquake of magnitude 9.0 on the Richter scale occurred offshore the Pacific seaboard of the Tōhoku Region (the northeastern part of the main island of Honshū). Soon after that, a gigantic tsunami hit the neighbouring coastline.

              The third major earthquake that we experienced, the Great East Japan Earthquake, was something that almost no one had predicted nor expected. It exceeded all prior estimates about the expected scale of the next Miyagi Offshore Earthquake, which occurs on an approximately 40 year cycle, and the tsunami that it caused wrought mass damage extending over 500 kilometres of coastline.

Documents Washed Away by the Tsunami

The Originals Have Gone, but the Digital Data Remains

              In the areas along the coast hit by the tsunami, countless historical materials were lost. The very first time we were able to enter the disaster area to visit a family in Ishinomaki City, the approximately 12,000 historical documents held there had all been washed away, along with everything else that the family owned.

              Despite this great loss to the historical heritage of the region, we had already photographed all these documents over a period of 10 years starting from 2000. It was a lesson learnt in the worst way possible, but this example demonstrates clearly the importance of conducting preservation activities for historical materials before disaster strikes.

Countless Historical Materials in Danger

Salvaging as Much as Fast as Possible

              From around the middle of April 2011, we started to receive urgent calls to come and salvage collections of historical materials, both from areas hit by the tsunami, and areas further inland. These calls not only came from people who held the materials, but also from people in local government and local citizens with whom we had established a working relationship in our years of activities throughout the region before the disaster.

              As of December 2013, we have conducted a total of 105 salvage operations in a total of 88 families and institutions throughout Miyagi and southern Iwate Prefectures (Note: the Wikipedia entries linked to here are highly unsatisfactory, but at least you can locate the prefectures on a map JFM). Notwithstanding the scope of this disaster, we have discovered many collections of historical materials which have miraculously survived, but which are in jeopardy, either due to immersion in seawater and silt from the tsunami, or by being housed in collapsed or condemned buildings damaged by the earthquake. It is a race against time to save as many of these materials as possible for posterity.

Read More:

Assesing Damage to Historical Buildings and Emergency Repairs

The Tea chest that was Washed Ashore: Saving the Documents of the Kimura Family, Onagawa

Salvage Work after the Tsunami: The Honma Family, Ishinomaki

Restoration Work on the Padding from Sliding Doors: A Time Capsule

Treating Water-Immersed Documents

Conclusion: Why our Work Must Go On

Epilogue

Why all this Paper? Japan's Unknown 'World Heritage'

Part II Salvage Operations for Historical Materials after the Great East Japan Earthquake

Damage Assessment and Salvage Work within the Disaster Area

3.11. 2011: Disaster Hits for the Third Time

              At 2.40 p.m. on 11th March 2011, an earthquake of magnitude 9.0 on the Richter scale occurred offshore the Pacific seaboard of the Tōhoku Region (the northeastern part of the main island of Honshū). Soon after that, a gigantic tsunami hit the neighbouring coastline.

              The third major earthquake that we experienced, the Great East Japan Earthquake, was something that almost no one had predicted nor expected. It exceeded all prior estimates about the expected scale of the next Miyagi Offshore Earthquake, which occurs on an approximately 40 year cycle, and the tsunami that it caused wrought mass damage extending over 500 kilometres of coastline.

Documents Washed Away by the Tsunami

The Originals Have Gone, but the Digital Data Remains

              In the areas along the coast hit by the tsunami, countless historical materials were lost. The very first time we were able to enter the disaster area to visit a family in Ishinomaki City, the approximately 12,000 historical documents held there had all been washed away, along with everything else that the family owned.

              Despite this great loss to the historical heritage of the region, we had already photographed all these documents over a period of 10 years starting from 2000. It was a lesson learnt in the worst way possible, but this example demonstrates clearly the importance of conducting preservation activities for historical materials before disaster strikes.

Countless Historical Materials in Danger

Salvaging as Much as Fast as Possible

              From around the middle of April 2011, we started to receive urgent calls to come and salvage collections of historical materials, both from areas hit by the tsunami, and areas further inland. These calls not only came from people who held the materials, but also from people in local government and local citizens with whom we had established a working relationship in our years of activities throughout the region before the disaster.

              As of December 2013, we have conducted a total of 105 salvage operations in a total of 88 families and institutions throughout Miyagi and southern Iwate Prefectures (Note: the Wikipedia entries linked to here are highly unsatisfactory, but at least you can locate the prefectures on a map JFM). Notwithstanding the scope of this disaster, we have discovered many collections of historical materials which have miraculously survived, but which are in jeopardy, either due to immersion in seawater and silt from the tsunami, or by being housed in collapsed or condemned buildings damaged by the earthquake. It is a race against time to save as many of these materials as possible for posterity.

Read More:

Assesing Damage to Historical Buildings and Emergency Repairs

The Tea chest that was Washed Ashore: Saving the Documents of the Kimura Family, Onagawa

Salvage Work after the Tsunami: The Honma Family, Ishinomaki

Restoration Work on the Padding from Sliding Doors: A Time Capsule

Treating Water-Immersed Documents

Conclusion: Why our Work Must Go On

Epilogue

Why all this Paper? Japan's Unknown 'World Heritage'

Half-Yearly Report for June to December 2013 from Miyagi Shiryō Net

　Introduction

At the time of writing, over 1,000 days have passed since the events of 3.11. However, as time passes, the number of requests to conduct emergency rescue operation for endangered historical materials that we are receiving shows no signs of decreasing, and we are still receiving requests to provide emergency rescue operations.

              This report will be divided into three parts, respectively covering (1) Rescue Operations, (2) Ongoing Tasks at the Network’s Main Office, and (3) A Variety of Activities and Tasks. 

1) Rescue Operations includes a summary of the 9 different rescue operations we conducted between July and December of 2013. Six of these operations were in tsunami affected areas, and 3 in areas suffering earthquake damage. This part also includes a short analysis of the channels through which we gather information about heritage at risk. This section also includes a glimpse into the faces of the people who are the holders/owners of the various kinds of heritage we are working to salvage, and what our work means for them. 
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2) Ongoing Tasks at the Network's Main Office contains a summary of the work that goes on after the initial salvage work is done. The main tasks of cleaning, restoring, digitally recording and cataloguing the mass of documents that we are recovering is a huge task involving large amounts of continuing work. This section gives a glimpse into the physical and technical challenges we face.
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3)A Variety of Activities and Tasks covers the many salvage operations that we also conduct but which are not directly disaster-related, and the various educational, outreach and publicity activities in which we also engage.
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(Please note that all linked sites marked  (J) are  in Japanese. Also, all Japanese personal names are given in Japanese order, with the surname first.)

Translation: J.F. Morris（J), Miyagi Gakuin Women's University

Member of the Board of Directors of Miyagi Shiryō Net

(NPO) Miyagi Shiryou Net（J)

Telephone/Fax (81) (0)22-795-7693/7546

Email: office@miyagi-shiryounet.org

URL: http://www.miyagi-shiryounet.org/

Credits: Miyagi Shiryō Net would like to thank Dr Guven Wittenveen for suggesting to set up this English-language blog on our activities, and for providing invaluable advice on how to proceed with this.