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Hamaguchi Goryou and Inamura-no-Hi

Wakayama National College of Technology

Emcee (1): Good morning, everyone. Thank you for watching WNCT Television. This is “Lessons from History” with Uemae Narumi. Each time, our program invites great people in history and focuses on their experiences. Today’s topic is “Hamaguchi Goryou and Inamura-no-Hi”. Have you ever heard of Hamaguchi Goryou? Yes, I am sure almost everyone in Wakayama Prefecture knows about this great person. Some 160 years ago, he saved the people of his home village from a big tsunami and devoted himself to the village’s recovery. So today’s honorable guest is Mr. Hamaguchi Goryou. We are very happy to have you here. Would you mind if we called you Goryou-san?

Goryou (1): No, not at all. Go ahead.

Emcee (2): Thank you, Goryou-san. We have another guest. Here is Mr. Ui Tomoaki, specialist of disaster prevention. Thank you for joining us, Mr. Ui.

Ui (1): It is a great honor to meet you, Goryou-san. I’ve heard a lot about you since my childhood. You were born in 1820, here in Hiro-mura, now Hirogawa-cho, Wakayama Prefecture. In 1854, when you were 35 years old, a big earthquake and tsunami hit Hiro-mura. How could you save the villagers from the tsunami?

Goryou (2): I just obeyed the old people’s warning. They had often said a tsunami would come after a strong earthquake. That day, in the morning, the village was hit by an earthquake. It was the strongest that I had ever experienced. So I ran throughout the village shouting, “A tsunami is coming. Quick! Run to Hachiman-sama!”

Ui (2): Hachiman-sama is this shrine standing on a hillside.

Goryou (3): It is. The shrine was located at an adequate altitude and particularly familiar to all of us. It was the best place for evacuation. That day the tsunami didn’t come after all, so we returned home. The next day, in the evening, we were struck by another quake. This was much stronger than the previous one. In a while I heard a strange sound from far away. It was like the sound of big cannons. I was convinced that a tsunami was coming, and told the villagers to evacuate again. In fact, it didn’t take long time before awful waves swallowed everything.

Ui (3): It is said that you burned rice sheaves in order to guide people to the safe ground.

Goryou (4): It had gotten dark. Some villagers who had failed to escape were floating in the waves. In the complete darkness they didn’t know in which direction to swim. So we set fire on the rice sheaves around Hachiman-sama.

Emcee (3): Thanks to the fire, the people left in the dark found the way to go. Thus your leadership, your prompt decision and action kept the number of victims to a minimum. Lafcadio Hearn introduced your great acts in his story “A Living God” in 1898. Based on Hearn’s story, a local schoolteacher, Nakai Tsunezou, wrote a story for children in 1934. Nakai’s story, entitled Inamura-no-Hi, was adopted as a teaching resource in the elementary school textbook. Inamura-no-Hi (fire of rice sheaves), symbolizing your deeds, has greatly contributed to increasing awareness of tsunami disaster prevention.

Ui (4): Let us come back to the year 1854. The earthquake and tsunami left severe damage to the village. How was the recovery carried out?

Goryou (5): Oh, it was really hard work. Houses, fields, roads, bridges, … everything was lost or damaged. People were losing hope. I was really afraid that they would leave the village. The first thing I did was to give them food and shelter. Then I made all efforts to help the villagers stand on their own feet.

Ui (5): That required a huge amount of money.

Goryou (6): Yes. But fortunately, I could afford it. Do you know what my business was?

Ui (6): Yes. You were the owner of the present Yamasa-Shoyu, which is still one of the major soy sauce manufacturers.

Goryou (7): I got the money from my company.

Ui (7): Among various recovery activities, building a seawall was the most important project.

Goryou (8): That project had three main purposes. The first was to protect the village from future tsunamis. The second was to give jobs to the people who had lost their jobs. But the most important objective was to implant in the villagers’ minds a strong will to reconstruct the village themselves.

Emcee (4): Look at this picture. This is “Hiromura Bank”, present figure of the seawall that Goryou-san built.

Ui (8): It is a really massive embankment: 5 meters high, 20 meters wide, and 600 meters long. This embankment admirably met its mission to protect the village when it was hit by the tsunami generated by the Nankai Earthquake in 1946.

Emcee (5): Goryou-san, to be prepared for earthquakes and tsunamis, we are armed with various techniques and measures that did not exist in your days: TV, radio, school education, tall concrete seawalls, early earthquake warnings, tsunami alarms, etc.

Ui (9): Still, our knowledge and awareness of disaster prevention has never been enough. On March 11th, two years ago, the Great East Japan Earthquake caused devastating damage in Tohoku regions and left nearly 20,000 casualties. Of the dead, more than 90% are the victims of the tsunami. According to a survey of survivors’ behaviors after the quake, more than 40% did not evacuate immediately after the quake.

Goryou (9): More than 40%! What were they doing? In 1854, we had no seawall. We had no such sophisticated techniques and measures as you do. But almost all of us survived. This was because we all thought of nothing but running away. If you want to save your life from a tsunami, immediate evacuation is quite a simple principle, isn’t it.

Ui (10): Yes. In this regard, there was an exemplary case. The survival rate of the school children in Kamaishi City was almost 100%. It was due to their swift evacuation. Though it is often said “a miracle of Kamaishi”, this case was not a miracle, but a result of disaster prevention education in schools.

Emcee (6): In the case of Kamaishi as well as in the case of Hiromura, we have learned how important immediate evacuation is. As for the people in Hirogawa-cho, they have carried out a variety of activities to succeed what Goryou-san did. They celebrate an annual Tsunami Festival in order to respect the souls of those who were killed by the tsunami. During the festival, each participant puts soil on the seawall, thus imitating Goryou-san’s deeds. Since 2003, they have held a ceremony called “Inamura no Himatsuri”. As its final event, they hold torches, that is, each one holds one’s own inamara-no-hi, and walk all the way to the Hiro Hachiman Shrine. It is the same route as the evacuation route from the tsunami in 1854.

Ui (11): In 2007, an establishment, named “Inamura-no-Hi no Yakata”, was founded at the place where Goryou-san was born. The establishment consists of Hamaguchi Goryou Archives and Tsunami Educational Center. We can get systematic information about tsunami here.

Goryou (10): I’m impressed that you have such facilities. Everyone should visit this center.

Emcee (7): Actually, the visitors of Inamura-no-Hi no Yakata have greatly increased in number since the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred. The end of the program will come soon. Goryou-san, do you have any words to close today’s program?

Goryou (11): OK. What is the best behavior after a big earthquake?

Emcee (8): Immediate evacuation is!

Goryou (12): That’s right. Good luck, and farewell!

Emcee (9): Thank you so much for your grateful time and words. Inamura-no-Hi no Yakata is embracing the following slogan and trying to spread it all over the country. And we would like to end today’s topic with this slogan: “light a fire of rice sheaves that will last forever”.