September 12, 1495 Earthquake: Kamakura, Japan
A magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck Kamakura, Japan on September 12, 1495. It killed 200 people, counting the tsunami it caused.
Map
Where it struck, with the other significant earthquakes within 200 km. Circles are sized and colored by magnitude; select one for its page.
The earthquake
- Date
- September 12, 1495
- Place
- Kamakura, Japan
- Magnitude
- 7.1 (Ms)
- Tsunami
- Yes: the tsunami it caused
- Epicenter
- 35.100° N, 139.500° E
- Country
- Japan
The toll
- Deaths
- Many (about 101 to 1,000); 200 with its tsunami and other effects
- Damage
- Limited (under about $1 million)
- Houses destroyed
- Few (about 1 to 50)
Where the literature gives no number, NCEI records a description on a scale of 1 to 4, printed here in its words. Damage is in millions of US dollars of the year of the event, not adjusted for inflation.
What the record says
NCEI’s account, from the sources it cites.
September 12, 1495, Kamakura, Sagami Bay, 35.1 N, 139.5 E, magnitude 7.1, tsunami intensity 2, validity 4. Daibutsu temple was destroyed by the earthquake. (reference #150)
September 12, 1495 (possibly 1494), 35.5 N, 139.2 E, validity 3. There was an earthquake in the region of Sanami Bay. The Daibutsu temple was destroyed and 200 people died. [35.5 N., 139.2 E.; m=2.5] (reference #414)
September 12, 1495, Japan, Kamakura, intensity I which corresponds to an earthquake of intensity sufficient to crack walls, break chimneys, to shatter old buildings or to produce cracks in the ground. (reference #1055)
This earthquake occurred on 12 September 1495 (Gregorian calendar) or 15 August Meio fourth year (Japanese calendar) […] However, the previous description of the earthquake and tsunami damage in Kamakura was based on a single chronological table. Therefore, it had been considered that the description was that of the 1498 great Tokai earthquake (M 8.2–8.4, according to Usami et al., 2013) along the Nankai trough with a possible clerical error in dates. Recently, the reliability of the previous chronological table has been confirmed, and this earthquake is considered independent of the 1498 Tokai earthquake (Kaneko, 2016; Ishibashi, 2020). (reference #13909)
Other significant earthquakes nearby
Within 200 km, the deadliest first.
- September 1, 1923, Tokyo, Yokohama, Japan
- May 27, 1293, Kamakura, Japan
- November 11, 1855, Tokyo, Japan
- December 30, 1703, Off SW Boso Peninsula, Japan
- September 20, 1498, Enshunada Sea, Japan
- October 28, 1707, Enshunada, Japan
- December 23, 1854, Enshunada Sea, Japan
- November 4, 1677, Off SE. Boso Peninsula, Japan
- November 25, 1930, Idu, Honshu, Japan
- July 29, 1649, Tokyo, Japan
- March 1, 1633, Odawara, Japan
- March 11, 1853, Odawara, Japan
- September 13, 1984, Mt Ontake, Central, Honshu, Japan
- May 8, 1974, Nakagi, Japan
- January 14, 1978, Tokkaido, Oshima, Japan
More
Significant earthquakes of 1495The 1400sRecent earthquakes near hereThis day in weather history
Sources
Significant earthquakes from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, Global Historical Hazard Database, cited as NCEI/WDS, doi:10.7289/V5PN93H7. Public domain. Read 2026-09-24. NCEI earthquake 651.