Are They Still Here, or Have They Disappeared? Tsunami-associated Place Names Listed in Soshin Yamana’s Iwate Engan Kochimeikou: zen

Abstract

This study examines the degree to which tsunami-associated place names - a component of disaster culture - instill memories of tsunami disasters that can be passed down to following generations (i.e. cross-generational awareness of the links between tsunami disasters and tsunami-associated place names). It is believed that tsunami- associated place names play a role in reminding generations of local histories and places hit by disasters such as a tsunami. The data in this study comprises a set of forty tsunami-associated place names listed in Iwate Engan Kochimei Kou: zen (1897), all of which were confirmed as coastal areas in Iwate prefecture vulnerable to tsunamis. Iwate Engan Kochimei Kou: zen is a document produced by Soshin Yamana, known as a historical entrepreneur from that prefecture. Analysis of interview and survey data shows that 52.5% of the place names are known by informants, and 27.5% of the place names with their historical connection to a tsunami are known by informants. However, these place names (especially micro-scale place names which are not on topographic maps) are not well known by neighbouring residents. Furthermore, the study shows that knowledge of a place name is a prerequisite for knowledge of the historical link between that place name and a tsunami.