Qualla: 1888 Eruption of Mount Bandai

1888 Eruption of Mount Bandai: Introduction

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. The locals called it Aizu-Fuji. With its symmetrical cone rising above the Aizu basin in what is now Fukushima Prefecture, Mount Bandai earned the comparison to Japan's most sacred peak. Four summits formed its crown: O-bandai at 1,819 meters, Kushigamine, Akahaniyama, and Ko-bandai, nearly as tall as its big sibling. The mountain's last eruption had been in the year 806 -- over a thousand years of silence. Earthquakes rattled the region through early July 1888, but in a country where the ground trembles as a matter of course, nobody thought much of it. Then, at 7:45 on the morning of July 15, Ko-bandai blew itself apart.

Image: Public domain

1888 Eruption of Mount Bandai: Twelve Minutes of Thunder

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Hōsui Yamamoto / Gōda Kiyoshi, Public domain. The morning began with three sharp earthquakes, the last one reaching roughly magnitude 5. While the ground still shook, superheated groundwater flashed to steam at the fumaroles above the Kaminoyu hot spring resort on Ko-bandai's flank, triggering a phreatic eruption -- an explo...

Image: Hōsui Yamamoto / Gōda Kiyoshi | Public domain

1888 Eruption of Mount Bandai: A Mountain Unmade

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. Roughly 1.5 cubic kilometers of Ko-bandai's summit had collapsed and flowed northward in a massive debris avalanche. Entire villages vanished beneath the landslide. At least 477 people perished and hundreds more were left injured and homeless. Hundreds of square kilometers of for...

Image: Public domain

1888 Eruption of Mount Bandai: A Landmark for Science

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. Geologists Seikei Sekiya and Y. Kikuchi of the Imperial University of Tokyo arrived within days. They spent months mapping the new crater and documenting the devastation, publishing their findings in English in 1890. Their report, 'The Eruption of Bandai-san,' became a foundation...

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1888 Eruption of Mount Bandai: Beauty from Catastrophe

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. The rivers dammed by the collapse gradually filled their new basins, and the wasteland began its slow transformation. Today, the lake district born from the 1888 eruption is known as Urabandai, or Bandai Highlands. Its centerpiece is Goshiki-numa -- the Five Colored Marshes -- a ...

Image: Public domain