is a Japanese geographical term. It means both an ancient division of the country and the main road running through it. The road connected provincial capitals in this region. It was part of the

Gokishichidō was the name for ancient administrative units organized in Japan during the Asuka period (AD 538–710), as part of a legal and governmental system borrowed from the Chinese. Though these units did not survive as administrative structures beyon ...

system. The Nankaidō encompassed the pre-Meiji provincial lands of Kii and Awaji, plus the four provinces that made up the island of

Shikoku is the smallest of the List of islands of Japan#Main islands, four main islands of Japan. It is long and between at its widest. It has a population of 3.8 million, the least populated of Japan's four main islands. It is south of Honshu ...

: Awa, Sanuki, Tosa, and Iyo. The road extended from

Nara The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent agency of the United States government within the executive branch, charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It is also task ...

to the seacoast to the south on the

Kii Peninsula The is the largest peninsula on the island of Honshū in Japan and is located within the Kansai region. It is named after the ancient Kii Province. The peninsula has long been a sacred place in Buddhism, Shinto, and Shugendo, and many people wou ...

of the island of

Honshū , historically known as , is the largest of the four main islands of Japan. It lies between the Pacific Ocean (east) and the Sea of Japan (west). It is the seventh-largest island in the world, and the second-most populous after the Indonesian ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

and crossing the sea, extended to Yura (nowadays Sumoto) and then

Nankaidō earthquakes

:''See List of tsunamis for a full list of Nankai quakes with tsunami.'' Many historic earthquakes bear the name "Nankai" or "Nankaido", as specific

epicenter The epicenter (), epicentre, or epicentrum in seismology is the point on the Earth's surface directly above a hypocenter or focus, the point where an earthquake or an underground explosion originates. Determination The primary purpose of a ...

s were known at the time. Often quakes take on the

Japanese era name The or , is the first of the two elements that identify years in the Japanese era calendar scheme. The second element is a number which indicates the year number within the era (with the first year being "", meaning "origin, basis"), followed b ...

along with location such as Nankaido. These include: * 1498 Meiō Nankaidō earthquake * 1605 Keichō Nankaidō earthquake *

1854 Ansei-Nankai earthquake The 1854 Nankai earthquake occurred at about 16:00 local time on 24 December. It had a magnitude of 8.4 and caused a damaging tsunami. More than 30,000 buildings were destroyed and there were at least 3,000 casualties. It was the second of the ...

* 1944 Tōnankai earthquake * 1946 Nankai earthquake (南海地震) measuring 8.4 hit at 4:19 ocal timethere was a catastrophic earthquake on the southwest of Japan in the Nankai area. It was felt almost everywhere in the central and western parts of the country. The tsunami washed away 1451 houses, caused 1500 deaths in Japan, and was observed on tide gauges in California, Hawaii, and Peru.JNOAA Earthquake Database Query
/ref>

Notes

References

* Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005)
''Japan encyclopedia.''
Cambridge:

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is an academic publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University. It is a member of the Association of University Presses. Its director since 2017 is George Andreou. The pres ...

.
OCLC 58053128
* Titsingh, Isaac. (1834)
''Annales des empereurs du Japon''
(''

Nihon Odai Ichiran Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea in t ...

''). Paris: Royal Asiatic Society, Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland
OCLC 5850691
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nankaido Regions of Japan Road transport in Japan Former provinces of Japan Nankaido

Nankaidō earthquakes

See also

Notes

References