Urban Districts of Taro were completely destroyed by a mega tsunami in March, 2011.   The district had remained vacant, surrounded by coastal levees raised approx. 70cm higher. But Taro Baseball Ground was finally completed in April 2016. When we visited, a junior high school baseball tournament was being held. Echoing cheers in the town sounded like a cheering song for the town and people who are recovering from the disaster. As a group relocation project f...

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Professor Kawashima “The next disaster happens when people have forgotten about the last one.” Passing on disaster lessons to the next generation is one of IRIDeS’s missions. Based on field studies on disaster monuments, festivals, and ceremonies all over Japan, the folklorist Professor Shuichi Kawashima has been examining how these are utilized to pass on disaster recollections. Case 1: Nagasaki City’s Nenbutsu-kou Manju (steamed buns) In 1860, a fatal landslide occurred in the Sa...

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Assistant Professor Amano and others at the conference Fifty years have passed since the major floods at Venice, Italy. The year 1966 was a turning point in the restoration of cultural properties. In May 14–17, 2016, a joint Canadian–American conference on the restoration of cultural properties was held in Montreal, with countermeasures for disasters as the theme. Along with his group, Assistant Professor Masashi Amano of IRIDeS (specializing in the field of preservation of historical ...

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Upon request, IRIDeS screens the 3D documentary film “The Great Tsunami in Japan: reflecting on the 2011 disaster” (80min/25min, Japanese/English). The film was created by NHK Media Technology and supervised by IRIDeS Director and Professor Fumihiko Imamura, to pass on memories and experiences of the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. The film won an AIS Lumiere Japan Award (award category: Documentary) in 2014.   IRIDeS is equipped with the largest 3D screen among Japanese rese...

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The IRIDeS Public Relations Office features a special issue of photographs and a video of disaster areas of the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. We will continue to introduce how affected areas are today, occasionally from here on. In late April, 2016, we visited Rikuzentakata City, Iwate Prefecture, and Kesennumua City and Minamisanriku Town, Miyagi Prefecture, all of which were heavily affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011. Engineering works to reconstruct these plac...

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