According to villagers in Aneyoshi, in the region of the recent Japanese tsunami, it was warnings written in stone by their ancestors that saved their village of 11 households from devestation. The stone tablets planted on the forested hillside in an area where the recent tsunami rose to record heights, are warnings across generations telling descendants to avoid the same suffering as their ancestors. Some tsunami stones are up to six centuries old, but most were erected about a century ago when two deadly tsunamis killed 22,000 people. They warn where not to build houses, point to places of safety beyond the tsunami’s reach or tell of previous disasters.