ANEYOSHI, Japan (AFP) – Weathered stone markers recalling the deadly tsunamis of centuries past dot the saw tooth coastline of northeast Japan, serving as silent warnings from the ancestors.

One of the monuments on a wooded hillside marks the limit of the tiny village of Aneyoshi, whose residents now credit it with saving them on March 11 when a giant ocean wave smashed into the fishing cove below them.
""A house on high ground will lead to peace and happiness for posterity,"" reads the inscription on the stone, which was erected after a massive tsunami in 1933 killed thousands along the rugged Pacific coast.
""Remember the calamity of the great tsunami. Never build houses from this point down.... No matter how many years pass, keep vigilance high,"" says the ominous warning carved into the one-meter (three-foot) tall stone.
Before the 1933 disaster struck in the Japanese year of Showa 8, the small coastal community had also been obliterated in Meiji 29 (1896). The first tsunami left just two survivors, and the second only four.
After the Showa disaster, Aneyoshi was rebuilt on higher ground, above where the stone now stands, and the villagers, who have traditionally made a living by growing seaweed and bearded clams, have stayed there ever since.
Both past tsunamis were triggered by offshore quakes stronger than magnitude 8.0 -- massive tremors, but still smaller than the magnitude 9.0 quake that struck below the seabed just over eight weeks ago.
The latest tectonic disaster sent water racing to a height of almost 39 metres here (130 feet) -- the highest level ever recorded in Japan, according to a university study -- as water was funnelled up between steep cliffsides.
While the population pressures of modern Japan make it inevitable that millions live in exposed coastal areas, the village of just 11 households has been able to follow the warnings from the past.
""To follow such a rule and live together like this is probably only possible in a small-size community,"" said Kei Maekawa, 40, whose family comes from the Iwate prefecture village.