Takahashi Shōtei studying art, Shotei and Terazaki Kogyo founded the Japan Youth Painting Society in 1889. In 1907, as a successful artist, he was recruited by Shōzaburō Watanabe to contribute to the Shin Hanga ("New Prints") art movement in Japan. Watanabe helped to fulfill the Western demand for Ukiyoe woodblock prints which would be similar to familiar historical masters of that genre, including Hiroshige. In about 1921 Shotei added the artistic name of Hiroaki. In 1923 the Great Kanto earthquake (and subsequent fire) destroyed Watanabe's facilities; this included all Shin Hanga woodblocks. Thus, Shotei recreated prior designs destroyed in the Great Kanto
2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami it is also assessed that a tsunami-earthquake with a tsunami magnitude scales (Mt) between 8.6 and 9.0 (Similar to 1896 Sanriku earthquake, the Mt for the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake is 9.1–9.4) will have a 30% chance to occur within 30 years. The quake gave scientists the opportunity to collect a large amount of data so as to model in great detail the seismic events that took place. This data is expected to be used in a variety of ways, providing as it does unprecedented information about how buildings respond to shaking, and other effects. Gravimetric data from the quake has