Problems were also recorded in China, Japan, and Korea. In Japan, the Azuma Kagami chronicle mentions that rice paddies and gardens were destroyed by the cold and wet weather, and the so-called Shôga famine – which among other things stimulated the Japanese religious reformer Nichiren – may have been aggravated by bad weather in 1258 and 1259. Monsoon anomalies triggered by the Samalas eruption may have also impacted Angkor Wat in present-day Cambodia, which suffered a population decline at that time. Other effects of the eruption included a total darkening of the Moon in May 1258 during a lunar eclipse, a phenomenon also recorded from Europe; volcanic aerosols reduced the amount of sunlight scattered into Earth's shadow and thus the brightness of the eclipsed Moon.
