A 32-ton boulder commemorating the 1933 Sanriku tsunami is seen in the Yoshihama district of Sanrikucho in Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture, in November 2016. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
In June 2011, a giant boulder emerged from a tsunami-gouged slope in the Yoshihama district of Sanrikucho in Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture.
When locals scrubbed it clean, they saw the words "Tsunami Kinen-seki" (Tsunami memorial stone) etched into it.
The boulder, weighing 32 tons, had been washed ashore from the mouth of a river by the Sanriku tsunami in the spring of 1933, and was later memorialized with the inscription.
"This is a miraculous stone that reappeared after remaining buried and forgotten for decades," said Hideto Niinuma, 68, director of a local community center.