https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/earthquakes-in-japanese-woodblock-prints/ * Home * Essays * Collections * Explore * Shop * Support PDR * About * Blog Search Search The Public Domain Review [ ][View All Results] The Public Domain Review The Public Domain Review PDRSupport PDR * Essays * Collections * Explore * Shop * About * Blog * * * * * Collections / Images Tales of the Catfish God: Earthquakes in Japanese Woodblock Prints (1855) Woodblock of earthquake catfish Buy as a Print 1855 woodblock print of an earthquake catfish (namazu) and a celebratory crowd commonly featured in this genre of image. Legend has it that when the tremors of the 1855 Ansei Edo earthquake had finally subsided, there were so many dead that survivors were forced to carry their loved ones' bodies away in sacks of coal and sake barrels. With much of the city having been built on reclaimed marshland -- often using heavy, rigid materials -- Japan's capital was a sitting duck for what was then the worst natural disaster in living memory. As aftershocks continued to roil the city for weeks on end, even those whose houses had miraculously escaped collapse took to living in the streets rather than chance having the ceiling fall down around them as they slept. All the same, these dramatic conditions did not prevent a new genre of artwork from flourishing amid the rubble: a type of woodblock print known as namazu-e. Rooted in a myth that earthquakes were caused by the movements of a great catfish (or namazu in Japanese), these prints typically feature one or more of the titular creatures being set upon by angry humans or subdued by the gods. Associations between catfish and natural disasters predate the 1855 earthquake, with popular tales relating how the Shinto deity Kashima kept seismic shifts in check by pinning down the fish's head with a stone. (Other versions show the creature being trapped by a gourd, visually referencing an idiomatic expression related to accomplishing a seemingly impossible task.) But it was only in the aftermath of the Ansei Edo earthquake that the idea surged to prominence in Japanese visual culture. Hundreds of these prints were issued between when the earthquake struck Edo on November 11 and when the government issued an official ban in December of the same year. Within that narrow sliver of time, anonymous printmakers across Edo -- themselves still reeling from the calamity -- managed to produce a truly remarkable range of images within the confines of the genre. The namazu sprout human limbs; they are led around by the "reins" of their whiskers or served up as a meal. They visit Edo's red-light district; they dress as swordsmen and sumo wrestlers. Purchasers would typically have displayed these prints in their homes (or what was left of them), where the images acted as protective charms casting their apotropaic power over the building and those who inhabited it. What is perhaps most striking about these post-earthquake prints is the incongruity between the devastation wrought by the disaster and the emotional tenor of the images that symbolically depict it. Walleyed, their mouths stretched into toothy grins, the catfish seem unbothered by the chaos they leave in their wake -- and oblivious to the mob that sets about bashing and slicing them along the way. As a genre, namazu-e prints refuse the mournfulness one might expect, instead embracing an anarchic sense of humor that transforms the unpredictable ferocity of the natural world into an almost loveable -- and ultimately placable -- rascal. Woodblocks of earthquake catfishScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Three 1855 woodblock prints of earthquake catfish, all depicting the motif that namazu generate both wealth and destruction as forces of yo-naoshi, or world-rectification -- Source: left, centre, right. While many histories of the Ansei Edo earthquake have emphasized its disproportionate impact on the city's poor, the scholar Gregory Smits writes that the actual data is not so clearcut. Joto Sanjin, who published a written account of a walk he took in the aftermath of the earthquake, describes the wealthy area of Daimyo kojo (Lords' Lane) as being not only flattened but burnt over -- many of the aristocratic manors having contained stores of imported saltpeter. If certain upper-class districts were particularly hard hit, by contrast, commoners across various professions stood to benefit both from the widespread rebuilding projects and aid monies splashed out by a central government anxious to head off potential discontent (natural disasters being commonly read as signs of cosmic discontent with the powers that be). This itself would become a favored theme of namazu-e artists, who satirically depicted firefighters, builders, and the like praying for earthquakes out of selfish greed. Here is another attempt to take what might be moments of profound rupture and reconcile them with familiar schemas: the avarice of our fellow mortals, not the apathy of the gods, is ultimately to blame for the calamities that befall us all. It is the socially leveling aspect of the earthquake's impact that is to account, at least in part, for the celebratory spirit that characterizes so many of the prints created in the weeks following the disaster. In one memorable example, a catfish commits seppuku, only to have money spill out of the slash in his belly instead of blood. In another, the artist has endowed the catfish with a whale-like blowhole out of which it expels a shower of coins, to the delight of onlookers on the shore. In this subgenre of namazu-e, writes Smits, the fish are imagined as forces of yo-naoshi, or world-rectification, restoring balance to society by redistributing wealth hoarded by the rich. Beneath the rubble of the old world, a new and fairer one perhaps lay waiting -- for those willing and able to bring it into being. The following examples of namazu-e come from a collection titled "Ansei ojishin-e" (Ansei Great Earthquake Pictures), courtesy of Japan's National Diet Library. The artist names are unknown as most of these catfish prints were published illegally and without artist signatures to evade censorship from the shogunate. Text by Erica X Eisen Medium * Images Theme * Animals & Beasts * Death * Religion, Myth & Legend Style * Printmaking & Line Epoch * 19th Century Tags earthquake5japan29fish11 Source Source National Diet Library of Japan * National Diet Library of Japan logo More National Diet Library of Japan content on PDR (1) Rights Underlying Work PD Worldwide Rights No Additional Rights Digital Copy * Source states "may be reproduced Rights freely" * See their general rights page * We offer this info as guidance only Download Download Right click on image or see source for higher-res Found Found Via Wikimedia Commons Via Japanese woodblock print of catfishScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "Catfish Extermination" Japanese woodblock print of catfishScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "The Earth of Daikoku" Japanese woodblock print of catfishScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "A Competition of Catfish Strength" Japanese woodblock print of catfishScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "Three Great Earthquakes Caught Alive" Japanese woodblock print of catfishScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "The Catfish Trembles with a Brush" Japanese woodblock print of catfishScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "The Story of Ebisu-Tenjin's Apology" Japanese woodblock print of catfishScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "A World That Quickly Turns" Japanese woodblock print of catfishScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "The Affliction of Wealthy Gold" Japanese woodblock print of catfishScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "Divine Horse" Japanese woodblock print of catfishScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Buy as a Print "Grilled Catfish" Japanese woodblock print of catfishScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "Gourd Catfish" Japanese woodblock print of catfishScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "Gourd Pair" Japanese woodblock print of catfishScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "Stones to Attach an Amulet to a Catfish" Japanese woodblock print of catfishScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "The Elegant Dance of the Catfish" Japanese woodblock print of catfishScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Buy as a Print "Untitled" Japanese woodblock print of catfishScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "Demon, Stone, Monkey, Catfish" Japanese woodblock print of catfishScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "Endless Metropolis" Japanese woodblock print of catfishScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "Investigation of the Earthquake Catfish" Japanese woodblock print of catfishScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "The Transformation of Otsu into an Earthquake Temple" Japanese woodblock print of catfishScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "Divine Horse" Japanese woodblock print of catfishScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "Large House Destroyed by a Catfish" Japanese woodblock print of catfishScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "The Regret of the Catfish in the Ten Thousand Year Festival" Japanese woodblock print of catfishScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "Staged Great Earthquake and Sumo Wrestling Contest" Japanese woodblock print of catfishScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Buy as a Print "Staged Great Earthquake and Sumo Wrestling Contest" Japanese woodblock print of catfishScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "Staged Great Earthquake and Sumo Wrestling Contest" Japanese woodblock print of catfishScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "Catfish's Liquidation" Japanese woodblock print of catfishScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "Fearful Impression of the Stone" Japanese woodblock print of catfishScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "Record of Earthquake and Peace" Japanese woodblock print of catfishScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "Large-scale Grilled Catfish Banquet" Japanese woodblock print of catfishScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "A Story of One Earthquake" Japanese woodblock print of catfishScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "Stone" Japanese woodblock print of catfishScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "Temporary Residence for Comfort and Rest" Japanese woodblock print of catfishScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "Catfish's Greetings" Japanese woodblock print of catfishScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "The Cause of Peace and Safety" Japanese woodblock print of catfishScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "Questions and Answers of the Catfish on the Night of October 2nd in the Second Year of Ansei's Earthquake" Japanese woodblock print of catfishScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "Catfish That Came for Extortion" Japanese woodblock print of catfishScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "The Earthquake and Lightning Incident, Father" Japanese woodblock print of catfishScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "Catfish's Flowing Things" Japanese woodblock print of catfishScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "Ebisu Suppressing the Catfish" Japanese woodblock print of catfishScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "The World is Enlivened by the People of Ansei" Japanese woodblock print of catfishScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "Catfish's Enjoyable Pastime" Japanese woodblock print of catfishScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "It's Been a While" Note: The English versions of the titles are by machine translation and so likely far from perfect. Want these images on your wall? We've a selection of images from this post in our online prints shop--all custom made to the highest standards, framed or unframed, and shipped to your door. Buy Prints Published Feb 21, 2024 If You Liked This... Hand holding envelope Get Our Newsletter Our latest content, your inbox, every fortnight Privacy Policy More Info [ ][ ] HP[ ] [Subscribe] Become a Friend of the PDRPostcardsWe rely on our annual donors to keep the project alive. 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