July 25, 1562 Tsunami: W. Kyushu Island, Japan

Name: July 25, 1562 Tsunami: W. Kyushu Island, Japan
Start: 1562-07-25
Location: W. Kyushu Island, Japan

July 25, 1562 · Very doubtful tsunami

A tsunami of unknown cause began at W. Kyushu Island, Japan on July 25, 1562. Its effects were recorded at 2 places.

Where the waves reached

The source (white) and every runup with a place, colored by the water height recorded there. A ring is a runup NCEI marks doubtful.

Under 1 m
1 to 3 m
3 to 10 m
10 to 30 m
30 m and more
Height not recorded

Tsunami warnings in force

Travel times

How long the first wave took to reach each part of the ocean, one line for each hour up to 24, estimated from the source and the depth of the sea.

The travel times are computed in your browser, which needs JavaScript.

1 to 4 hours
5 to 6 hours
7 to 14 hours
15 hours and more

Computed in your browser the way NOAA’s own travel time maps are: the wave travels at the square root of gravity times the depth, over NOAA’s ETOPO1 depths averaged to a 10 arc-minute grid. Checked against NOAA NCEI’s maps for 21 tsunamis over the first 24 hours, these lines fall within 10 minutes of NCEI’s at half the points compared and within 52 minutes at 9 in 10. They give when the first wave could arrive, not how high it is; bays, harbors and island chains finer than the grid can see it later. Not for use in a warning: see tsunami.gov.

The tsunami

Date: July 25, 1562
Source: W. Kyushu Island, Japan
Cause: Unknown
Runups recorded: 2
Waters: Ocean
How certain: Very doubtful tsunami
Source location: 32.500° N, 130.600° E

The toll

The record gives no deaths, injuries or damage for this tsunami.

What the record says

NCEI’s account, from the sources it cites.

July 26, (June 15, July 25) 1562. Japan, W. Kyushu, Yatsuhiro, Higo. No record of earthquake. Possibly tsunami of distant origin but more likely a storm surge. June date given by Iida is Japanese calendar date. Muaya (1941), Imamura, Honda and Heck use July 25 date. However, Muaya gives probably corrected date of July 26 in his summary table (1951). (reference #79)

July 25, 1562. Japan, coasts of Yatsuhiro and Higo. Three waves. (reference #132)

July 25, 1562. Sea waves on the coast of Yatsushiro, Higo; three waves counted; no recorded earthquake. (reference #1897)

1562, July 26 (or 25). There was a tsunami from a remote source or waves of storm origin at Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Prefecture (Higo) on the west of Kyushu Island (Reference #414).

Every runup

Nearest the source first. Heights are above sea level at the time; a tide gauge reads half the wave’s full height.

Where	Country	Km from source	Water height, m	Inland, m	Measured by	First wave, UTC	Deaths
Higo	Japan	0			Eyewitness observation of water height
Yatsushiro	Japan	4			Eyewitness observation of water height

Every tsunami in 1562 The 1500s Tsunamis of Japan This day in weather history Alerts in force

Sources

Tsunami events and runups from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, Global Historical Hazard Database, cited as NCEI/WDS, doi:10.7289/V5PN93H7. Public domain. Read 2026-10-01. NCEI tsunami event 176.