41Kitahara.qxd 909 ANNALS OF GEOPHYSICS, VOL. 47, N. 2/3, April/June 2004 The exhibition «Documenting Disasters: Natural Disasters in Japanese History 1703- 2003» was held at the National Museum of Japanese History located in Sakura, from 8 Ju- ly to 21 September 2003. This was a unique and innovative project, documenting a truly collab- orative research between scientists and histori- ans in Japan. The project started in the summer of 2000, when our application was accepted by the Na- tional Museum of Japanese History. As a gen- eral director of this project, I firstly aimed at searching for a new approach to the study of historical disasters. Japan has been struck by various and numerous natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions, which were documented in a variety of ways, such as disaster maps, private diaries and mon- uments. We planned to collect these materials from all over the Japanese Islands, and to ex- hibit selected ones for the audience to deepen their knowledge about various types of the his- torical disasters of Japan. Here, introducing the exhibits, I examine whether they could make the audience easily understand the aim of the exhibition. 1. The committee and the exhibits The committee for the exhibition project comprised 24 members, 16 natural scientists, 6 historians, and 2 staff of the National Museum faculty. The exhibition was composed of four sections, that is, tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and recoveries from them, selected from the big historical disasters in Edo period of Japanese History. The entrance hall and the stairs leading to the courtyard were reserved for the exhibition, occupying more than 1500 m2. 2. Galleries for special exhibits Tsunami section (entrance hall and stairs) (fig. 1a). Located at the subduction zone of oceanic plates, Japan frequently experiences earth- quakes, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis, the earliest recorded disaster being that of the 684 Hakuho Quake. The number of tsunamis in Japan totals 196 over a 1320 year period, aver- aging one event every 6.7 years, the highest rate of occurrence in the world. This figure is small in comparison with floods and earth- quakes, anyway, it accounts for the low level of tsunami awareness among Japanese people. Fortunately, Japan’s historical record, com- bined with scientific insights and technological advances, such as computer simulation, pro- vides a rich body of information and perspec- tives on their hazards. Review of Exhibition on «Documenting disaster: natural disasters in Japanese history 1703-2003» by Itoko Kitahara Kanagawa University, Yokohama City, Japan Mailing address: Dr. Itoko Kitahara, Kanagawa Universi- ty, Yokohama City, Japan; home address: Aobadai 2-33-2- B502 - Aoba-ku, Yokohama City, 227-0062, Japan; e-mail: itoko@kk.iij4u.or.jp 910 Itoko Kitahara Earthquake section (first Gallery for the special exhibits) (fig. 1b). Earthquakes have been recorded in Japanese historical documents for over 1300 years. In ad- dition to the official chronicles written by the officers of the imperial court in the ancient cap- itals of Nara and Kyoto, diaries of noblemen and priests make frequent mention of past earthquakes and tsunamis. For this exhibition, we selected five his- torical earthquakes, between 18th and 20th centuries. The 1847 Zenkoji Quake and the 1858 Hietsu Quake represent typical inland earthquakes. The exhibition also presented detailed distributions of seismic intensity in the Edo-Tokyo area for the 1703 Genroku Quake, the 1855 Ansei-Edo Quake (fig. 2), and the 1923 Great Kanto Quake. We tried to make clear not only the seismological fea- tures of these earthquakes, but also the social attitudes toward these natural disasters among people in the past. Volcano section (second Gallery for the spe- cial exhibits). There are many volcanoes in the Japanese ar- chipelago. Of the roughly 1500 active volcanoes in the world, 108 are in Japan. This exhibition seeked to illustrate important features of vol- canic disasters by focusing on the representative cases of the Mounts Fuji, Unzen, and Asama. Mt. Fuji is the largest volcano in Japan. Dur- ing a very large eruption that occurred about 300 years ago (1707), abundant ash and scoria were ejected over an area reaching as far as Edo. Mt. Unzen in Kyushu is another active volcano. It had been quiet for 192 years before it erupted again in 1990. Mt. Asama is yet another example of very active and dangerous volcano. Its erup- tion in 1783 caused enormous disaster. This exhibition aimed at showing that the more the people are aware of the nature of vol- canic eruptions, the less they will suffer from them. Volcanic landscapes and hot springs are a pleasure to enjoy, but we must also have wis- Fig. 1a-d. a) Stairs to the special exhibits: the banner shows the actual heights of the big tsunamis from the Edo period to nowadays. b) Entrance to the Gallery on Earthquakes. c) Entrance to the Gallery on Recovery. d) The Namazu-e, woodblock prints of the giant subterranean catfish, believed to be the source of earthquakes. a b c d 911 Exhibition on «Documenting disaster: natural disasters in Japanese history 1703-2003» dom to foretell dangers and to mitigate their damage as much as possible. Recovery section (third gallery for the spe- cial exhibits) (fig. 1c,d) Relief to natural disaster victims is a recur- ring subject of administrative records through- out Japanese history. But such records do not often provide detailed descriptions of recovery from the perspective of ordinary people. This exhibition seeked to demonstrate the ways by which the ordinary people have recovered from natural disaster. It focused on three major dis- asters from the Edo period: the Kisakata Quake of 1804, the Zenkoji Quake of 1847, and the Ansei-Edo Quake of 1855, and on the recent Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. 3. Conclusions The year 2003 was the 80th anniversary of the Great Kanto Earthquake, and the 300th an- niversary of the Genroku Earthquake, which al- so struck the Kanto area together with a tsuna- mi. Three more museums in the Kanto area held exhibitions on these earthquakes. Newspa- pers and magazines had a number of articles in- troducing these disaster exhibitions, and they seemed to be effective for drawing more than 40 000 people to our museum. Anyway, we can say that this exhibition was successful. Our memories of disasters fade away quite quickly, as we can see in the case of the Great Kobe Earthquake occurred in 1995. No wonder people forget the historical disasters which oc- curred centuries ago. One of the purposes of the exhibition was to let people know more about the prevention measures for disasters. Along with the scientific description of the disasters, these historical materials about indi- vidual efforts to reconstruct their own families, villages, and communities, probably gave more personal and sympathetic impression to the au- dience. Even if there is no indication of definite ways to prevent disasters, exhibiting the histor- ical materials could be effective and persuasive. REFERENCE Documenting Disaster, Natural Disasters in Japanese History 1703-2003 (2003), Catalogue of the Exhibition, National Museum of Japanese History, Sakura, pp. 167. Fig. 2. The Great Ansei-Edo earthquake (11 November 1855) in a section of a coeval painted scroll.