Mount Unzen on Kyushu Island in Japan erupted in 1792, triggering a massive landslide and tsunami that killed approximately 15,000 people in the Shimabara Peninsula region. This remains Japan's deadliest volcanic disaster. The collapse of part of the mountain created new islands in Ariake Bay.

Japanese poets of the Edo period, including those in the haiku tradition, responded to natural disasters with verses reflecting Buddhist impermanence and the power of nature. The Unzen disaster appears in local folk poetry and memorial inscriptions, contributing to the Japanese literary tradition of mono no aware—the pathos of things—that emphasizes transience and natural beauty intertwined with destruction.