Namazu

In Japanese mythology, the Namazu is a giant underground catfish who causes earthquakes.

The creature lives under the islands of Japan and is guarded by the god Takemikazuchi enshrined at Kashima, who restrains the catfish with a stone. When the Kashima-god lets his guard fall, Namazu thrashes about, causing violent earthquakes.

## Myth

The legend or myth in Japan is that a gigantic *namazu* (catfish) lives inside or beneath the earth (or in the mud) which causes earthquakes.

The association of the *namazu* with earthquake seems to have first occurred in the area around Lake Biwa, around the 16th century. The *namazu* had been depicted in the *Ōtsu-e* ("pictures from the city of Otsu") which were manufactured in that area.

This earthquake-causing creature became associated with the deity and "foundation stone" in Kashima, Ibaraki. According to myth, the god Takemikazuchi enshrined at Kashima restrains the catfish underneath a stone (perhaps "foundation stone" but maybe more aptly "cap stone"). When the Kashima-god lets his guard fall, Namazu thrashes about, causing violent earthquakes.

### Explanation

Widespread connections between catfish and earthquakes in Japan were not present until the late 17th century, and only rose to popularity as symbolically causing or predicting earthquakes during the 19th century. Prior to the 1855 Edo earthquake, an eel fisherman reportedly spotted unusually active catfish in a river, which he took as a predictor of an earthquake. Later that night, the earthquake struck. The anecdote, recorded in an 1856 chronicle of journalistic reporting on the earthquake, is the earliest known claim that catfish can naturally predict earthquakes. In the 1930s, Japanese seismologists Shinkishi Hatai and Noboru Abe demonstrated that catfish in aquaria showed increased agitation several hours before earthquakes occurred, and were able to predict quakes with 80% accuracy.

## History

### Namazu-e

*Namazu-e* ("catfish prints") were a known item in the 19th century, and these broadsides were printed in great quantity following an earthquake near Edo (modern day Tokyo) in 1855 (one of the Ansei great earthquakes).

These *namazu-e* woodblock-prints encompass a large variety of scenes, typically depicting the god subduing the earthquake-causing catfish under a sword or the *kanameishi* stone. The creature is sometimes referred to as just the "earthquake fish" (*jishin-no-uo*), and despite the text calling it a catfish, the illustration may be that of a dragon-serpent.

Even though the Namazu was held responsible for the disaster, it was also ironically hailed as a *yonaoshi daimyōjin* (god of "world rectification"), that is to say, a sort of an "avenger of social injustice" which expressed the public's political sentiment at the time. The rich had hoarded their wealth but these were largely disgorged due to the earthquake, and redistributed to the world at large: such is the symbolism of the large gold coins (*koban*, etc.) scattered by the earthquake depicted in the pictures. A large amount of money went into the rebuilding effort, and the job opportunities resulted in a redistribution of wealth.

One picture is printed with a jingle with the refrain "*yo-naoshi, yo-naoshi, tate-naoshi*" (literally "world-fixing, world-fixing, re-building", which explicitly makes this connection.

## Appearance

As cited above, the Namazu's appearance is that of a gigantic catfish in Japanese mythology. Cementing so, it is a very large catfish with black scales and two, big, blue eyes with a thick, white ring within its middle, around the pupil.

From the texts, there are multiple colored scales of a deep blue or a bright pink on the Namazu's back, the colored scales appearing in wisp-patterns facing up or petal-like shapes.