The tsunami of 3 February 1605

Whether the origins of the tsunami of 3 February 1605 were separated ones or a joined one, is one of the most important problems for Japanese society. When the marine knowledge has not been popularized, it has been considered that the damage pattern on Hachijo Island (including Kojima) was an important key to solving this question. It resembles the situation that the reports concerning the tsunami of 1 April 1946 were introduced to Japanese society under an internal disturbance just after the war, and we overlooked the most important consideration on the combination of tsunami and storm waves caused by the trade wind, and received this tsunami as an extraordinarily huge one. We studied the statistics of recent wind directions around Hachijo Island in January and February 1973, 1974, 1977, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986 and 1987. And we believed that the probability was high that we could explain well that the damage pattern on Hachijo Island in 1605 was due to the combination of tsunami and storm waves caused by the monsoon. We need not, therefore, look back the damage pattern on Hachijo Island when we consider the fact that the necrologies of many temples in Shizuoka Prefecture record no death on 3 February 1605, proves to be the key to infer that the origins were separated ones.