In this article, written by Christian Dimmer and illustrated with photographs by Max Creasy, the post-earthquake and tsunami coastal architectural landscape of the Japanese Prefectures of Aomori, Iwate and Miyagi are presented and studied.

Tetra Pod / Omoe Miyako, Iwate Prefecture. Image © Max Creasy

In this article, written by Christian Dimmer and illustrated with photographs by Max Creasy, the post-earthquake and tsunami coastal architectural landscape of the Japanese Prefectures of Aomori, Iwate and Miyagi are presented and studied.Few disasters were as complex and their implications as hard to grasp as the compound calamity of earthquake, tsunami, nuclear meltdown that hit the North-East of Japan on March 11, 2011. While over 500 kilometers of coastline were devastated, the disaster unfolded in each of the hundreds of towns affected differently depending on local topographies, urban morphologies, existing landscape formations, collective memory of past disasters and preparedness, and the social ties within the communities.
Sea wall construction at Kabanosawa, Miyagi Prefecture. Image © Max Creasy

When travelling along the rugged coast of the Prefectures of Aomori, Iwate and Miyagi?with their tiny towns and fishery ports nestled into deep coves and then entering the vast agricultural planes near the big cities of Ishinomaki and Sendai, followed by the depopulated n...