Ainu oral traditions and historical records on earthquakes in Hokkaido, Japan

Niizato, Tadafumi  ; Shigeno, Kiyoyuki*; Takashimizu, Yasuhiro*

In this paper, Ainu oral traditions and historical records on earthquake events in the Ainu Cultural period were investigated, and the reliability of occurrence of the past earthquake events happened in Hokkaido was examined. As a result of investigation, 28 oral traditions and historical records were collected from the Ainu-related literatures. Based on the examination, we interpreted 24 traditions and records as results of ancient earthquakes, and the others were not related to earthquakes. The inferred areas hit by earthquakes in the Ainu Cultural and its before period were mainly distributed around the Pacific coastal area of Hokkaido. It may be presumed that future distribution of earthquake will be same as present-day distribution for a same future period of Ainu Cultural period on the basis of distribution of the past to present earthquake.