August 29, 1769 Tsunami: SW. Kyushu Island, Japan

Name: August 29, 1769 Tsunami: SW. Kyushu Island, Japan
Start: 1769-08-29
Location: SW. Kyushu Island, Japan

August 29, 1769 · 2.5 m · Definite tsunami

A tsunami caused by a magnitude 7.4 earthquake began at SW. Kyushu Island, Japan on August 29, 1769. The water rose as high as 2.5 meters. Its effects were recorded at 5 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: August 29, 1769
Source: SW. Kyushu Island, Japan
Cause: Earthquake
Earthquake: Magnitude 7.4
Maximum water height: 2.5 m (8.2 ft)
Runups recorded: 5
Tsunami intensity (Soloviev-Imamura): 1
Tsunami magnitude (Iida): 1
Waters: Ocean
How certain: Definite tsunami
Source location: 32.300° N, 132.000° E

The toll

Damage: Moderate (about $1 to $5 million) with the earthquake or eruption that caused it
Houses destroyed: Some (about 51 to 100) with the earthquake or eruption that caused it

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.

Reference #150:

Oita, Kitsuki, in Oita Pref. Nobeoka, Takanabe in Miyazaki Pref. Castles, temples, shrines, houses damaged by shock. Tsunami along the coast from Oita to Kagoshima Pref.

Reference #132:

Japan. Sea wave in Satsuma.

Reference #414:

1769, August 29, about 15:00 local time. There was a strong earthquake at Hyuga-Nada. A tidal wave was observed on the Satsuma Peninsula (Kagoshima Prefecture). An earthquake occurred during a typhoon, and Japanese specialists surmise, considering the location of these places, than the wave was of storm origin.

Reference #13673:

The inundation heights of the 1769 Hiuganada tsunami (Aug. 29, 1769) were 2~2.5 meters at the Oita coast and the tsunami magnitude was m=1.

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	Measured by
Nobeoka	Japan	45	2	Eyewitness observation of water height
Kamae	Japan	56	2	Eyewitness observation of water height
Saeki	Japan	74	2	Eyewitness observation of water height
Usuki	Japan	93	2.5	Eyewitness observation of water height
Satsuma	Japan	180		Eyewitness observation of water height

Every tsunami in 1769 The 1700s Tsunamis of Japan The earthquake 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 2026-09-24. NCEI tsunami event 499.