Abstract
The Yubari River is a tributary of the Ishikari River, which flows through Central Hokkaido. In 1898, 30 years after the Meiji Governmenlaunched the policy of encouraging migration to Hokkaido, a historically disastrous flood struck the Ishikari River Basin. Of the 112 people killed in this flood throughout the Ishikari River Basin, 82 fatalities were in or near Kuriyama in the Yubari River Basin, which is part of the Ishikari River Basin. No other recorded flood in the Ishikari River Basin has claimed as many victims. In Kuriyama Town, word of this disaster has been passed down in oral tradition and written records. However, because little hydraulic data is available to estimate the scale of the 1898 flood, including the flood discharge, the flood mechanism and damage have not been adequately investigated. This study aims to elucidate the mechanism of this flood through detailed examination of accounts of flood damage that have been orally transmitted for more than a century.
