Namazu

Namazu is the giant catfish associated with earthquakes in Japanese folklore and early modern popular imagery. In the best-known version of the tradition, a huge subterranean catfish lies beneath the Japanese islands. When it thrashes its body or tail, the ground shakes. The deity of Kashima, usually identified with Takemikazuchi-no-kami or Kashima Daimyōjin, restrains the creature with a sacred stone called the kaname-ishi. If the deity is distracted or the stone is moved, Namazu can break free and cause an earthquake.

Namazu is not a clearly defined god from Japan’s oldest mythological texts. The figure belongs chiefly to folklore, religious legend, visual culture and popular explanations of earthquakes. The word namazu itself simply means “catfish” in Japanese, while ōnamazu means “great catfish” or “giant catfish.” As a result, not every reference to a namazu concerns the earthquake creature. The giant being is more precisely described as Ōnamazu, although English-language discussions commonly use Namazu as its name.

Origins and cultural setting

Japan has long experienced earthquakes, and communities developed many religious, folkloric and practical ways to understand sudden movement in the earth. Before modern seismology, earthquakes could be interpreted as acts of gods, disturbances caused by powerful animals, expressions of cosmic imbalance, or signs of political and social disorder. Namazu emerged within this broad environment of explanation rather than from a single canonical myth.

The strongest surviving evidence for the famous earthquake-catfish image comes from the Edo period, especially from the decades surrounding the Ansei Edo earthquake of 1855. The earthquake struck Edo, the city now called Tokyo, on 2 November 1855 and caused extensive destruction and loss of life. In the months that followed, artists and publishers produced a large number of inexpensive illustrated prints known as namazu-e, literally “catfish pictures.” These prints showed the giant catfish as the cause, victim, target or comic hero of an earthquake.

Beliefs connecting catfish with earthquakes appear to have circulated before 1855, but the earlier history is not completely clear. References, images and local traditions do not always agree about the catfish’s exact location, the deity restraining it, or the mechanism of the earthquakes. The popular image became especially powerful because a real disaster gave artists an immediate subject and audiences a familiar symbol through which to discuss fear, blame and recovery.

The tradition also drew on the religious importance of Kashima, a major shrine centre in present-day Ibaraki Prefecture. Kashima’s deity was associated with protection and with the power to control disturbances beneath the earth. Shrine tradition identifies Kashima-no-kami with Takemikazuchi, a martial deity who appears in the Kojiki and Nihon shoki, Japan’s early mythological and historical chronicles. However, the specific story in which Takemikazuchi pins down a giant earthquake catfish is not simply a scene taken from those classical texts. It belongs to a later combination of shrine legend, folk belief and popular print culture.

The name and identity of Namazu

Namazu is the ordinary Japanese word for catfish. The fish itself was familiar in Japan’s rivers, lakes and coastal waters, and its movements made it a plausible subject for traditional speculation about the natural world. Ōnamazu adds the prefix ō-, meaning “great” or “large,” and identifies the extraordinary creature of the legend.

Namazu is often called a yōkai in modern reference works because it is a supernatural animal linked to a dangerous phenomenon. That classification is useful but not absolute. Japanese categories such as yōkai, kami, spirit and legendary animal have never formed one rigid system, and historical sources do not always label Namazu in the same way. In some contexts the creature is a monstrous animal; in others it functions as a cosmic force, a scapegoat for disaster or a symbol in political satire.

The giant catfish should therefore not be treated as a universally standardized mythological being with one fixed biography. Its size, position and powers vary among images and stories. Some representations show a long fish extending beneath the land, while others portray a rounded, immensely powerful catfish held down by the Kashima deity. The basic connection with earthquakes remains the most consistent feature.

Appearance and supernatural powers

Namazu is generally imagined as an enormous catfish with a broad head, whisker-like barbels and a long, muscular body. Artists often exaggerate the animal’s eyes, mouth and fins to make it appear both frightening and absurd. The creature may be shown writhing beneath buildings, coiling around the foundations of the islands, or emerging into the human world.

Its defining power is the ability to produce earthquakes. Namazu may shake the earth by struggling against its restraint, lashing its tail or rolling its body. The folklore does not provide a single technical explanation of how the animal supports the land. Rather, the image turns an invisible geological event into a dramatic physical struggle between a monster and a guardian deity.

The stone used to restrain Namazu is usually called the kaname-ishi. The term can be translated as “keystone” or “pivot stone,” and it suggests a central point that stabilizes the land. In artistic representations, Kashima’s deity often presses the stone onto the catfish or holds a sword or other sacred implement over it. The stone is not merely a heavy object: it represents divine authority and the maintenance of cosmic order.

At the Kashima Shrine complex, the kaname-ishi has long been treated as a sacred object associated with the stability of the earth. Later descriptions of the stone sometimes claim that its true depth cannot be measured, but such statements belong to religious tradition and shrine lore rather than to geological evidence. The cultural importance of the stone lies in its symbolic role as a point of protection.

Kashima and the restraint of the earth

In the most familiar narrative, Kashima’s deity keeps watch over Namazu and prevents it from moving. The deity’s vigilance protects the human world from earthquakes. When the guardian leaves, becomes distracted, or fails to maintain pressure on the stone, the catfish takes advantage of the opportunity and causes destruction.

This story gives earthquakes a moral and religious structure. Disaster is not random in the narrative sense: it occurs when a dangerous force escapes control. At the same time, the story does not necessarily portray Namazu as purely evil. In many namazu-e, the catfish is beaten, pinned down or blamed, but it can also become a comic figure. The deity, the fish, merchants, labourers and townspeople may all be drawn into a crowded drama of responsibility and survival.

The identity of the restraining deity can vary in popular material. Kashima Daimyōjin is the most important guardian in the earthquake tradition, but names and visual conventions were not always consistent. Some images emphasize the Kashima connection through inscriptions, shrine symbols or the deity’s name; others focus on the catfish itself or on the social consequences of the earthquake. These variations are one reason it is safer to speak of a family of related traditions rather than a single canonical story.

Namazu-e and the Ansei earthquake

The 1855 earthquake transformed Namazu from a relatively specialized folkloric image into one of the most recognizable symbols of disaster in late Edo popular culture. Publishers rapidly issued illustrated sheets for a wide audience. The prints were often sold cheaply and circulated as topical entertainment, religious protection, political commentary and visual news.

Many prints show Kashima’s deity trying to pin down the fish. Others show people attacking Namazu with tools, pleading with it, or forcing it to compensate those harmed by the earthquake. Some make the creature responsible for destruction; others depict it as a force that redistributes wealth by destroying the houses of wealthy merchants and creating work for builders, carpenters and labourers.

This social dimension is especially important. The rebuilding that followed a major earthquake created opportunities for some groups even while causing terrible suffering for others. In certain prints, Namazu becomes connected with the idea of yonaoshi, often translated as “world renewal” or “social renovation.” The disaster could be imagined as an upheaval that overturned established hierarchies, punished corrupt elites or redistributed money through reconstruction.

Such images should not be read as straightforward evidence that people welcomed earthquakes. The loss of homes, livelihoods and lives was real and deeply traumatic. Humour and satire offered ways to address an event that was otherwise overwhelming. A print might mock government failures, criticize wealthy urban residents, express anger at profiteering or provide a protective charm, all while using the same giant catfish motif.

The political meaning of the prints was also shaped by censorship. Direct criticism of the shogunate and public officials could be dangerous, especially during a period of political tension. Allegories involving Namazu allowed artists and publishers to comment indirectly on authority, inequality and the government’s response to the disaster. Not every print was politically subversive, but the creature’s flexibility made it an effective vehicle for social criticism.

Symbolism and interpretation

Namazu embodies the fear that the ground beneath ordinary life is never fully secure. Houses, roads, temples, markets and political institutions can appear stable, yet a hidden force may overturn them in an instant. The catfish’s concealed position beneath the land makes this fear visible: danger is present below the familiar world even when no warning can be seen.

The legend also expresses a desire for protection. Kashima’s deity and the kaname-ishi offer an image of order holding back chaos. Shrines, talismans and sacred images could provide emotional support in a society repeatedly exposed to earthquakes, fires, floods and other disasters. The story does not eliminate uncertainty, but it gives uncertainty a recognizable form and places it within a relationship between dangerous nature and protective sacred power.

Namazu can also represent anger at human institutions. When an earthquake was explained as the work of a monstrous fish, attention could shift from the natural event itself to the question of who had failed to protect the population. In this sense, the creature was not only a supernatural cause but also a metaphor for corruption, social pressure and pent-up resentment.

The creature’s comic treatment is part of this symbolism. A terrifying earthquake could be made slightly more manageable when represented by a giant fish with whiskers, bulging eyes and an exaggerated expression. Laughter did not remove the suffering, but it allowed people to negotiate fear, criticize authority and imagine the restoration of balance.

Catfish and signs of changing weather

Real catfish also appear in Japanese traditions about environmental signs. Their movements were sometimes thought to change before earthquakes or severe weather, although such beliefs belong to folk observation and have not established catfish as reliable earthquake predictors. The popularity of this idea helped make the animal suitable for earthquake imagery, but it should not be confused with modern seismological evidence.

Some modern experiments and public discussions have revisited claims that animals may respond to subtle changes before earthquakes. These claims remain controversial and do not turn Namazu’s legend into a scientific account. The traditional story is best understood as folklore shaped by lived experience, religious imagination and visual satire.

Distinction from related figures

Namazu should not be confused with every giant fish or earth-supporting animal in world mythology. Several cultures have stories in which the earth rests on a fish, turtle, serpent or other immense creature, but these traditions developed in different religious and historical settings. Similar imagery does not prove a common origin.

Namazu is also distinct from Jinmenju, the tree with human faces, Kappa, the water-dwelling creatures of Japanese folklore, and Ryūjin, the dragon-like deity of the sea. A catfish may appear as an ordinary animal, a local spirit or an artistic symbol without becoming the earthquake Namazu. Likewise, Kashima’s deity is not itself Namazu: the deity is the guardian who restrains the catfish in the best-known version.

The Japanese word namazu can also occur in modern names, expressions and fictional characters unrelated to earthquakes. Context is essential when identifying whether a reference concerns a real catfish, the traditional giant creature or a later adaptation.

Later reception and modern culture

After the Edo period, modern geology and seismology provided natural explanations for earthquakes, and the literal belief that a giant catfish physically causes them became less central to official knowledge. The image nevertheless remained culturally recognizable. Namazu continues to appear in books on Japanese folklore, museum exhibitions, historical studies of disaster and reproductions of Edo-period prints.

In modern Japan, the catfish may be used humorously in cartoons, mascots, games and other popular media. It can also appear in public discussions of earthquake history as a familiar symbol of older attempts to explain seismic danger. These uses do not necessarily express religious belief. Often, Namazu functions as an emblem of earthquakes, a reference to Edo visual culture or a reminder of how communities once represented forces they could not yet explain scientifically.

The enduring image of a giant catfish beneath the land preserves several layers of Japanese cultural history at once: shrine traditions centred on Kashima, folk ideas about animals and natural signs, the trauma of repeated earthquakes, and the political satire of nineteenth-century print culture. Namazu is therefore more than a monster causing tremors. It is a changing symbol through which people have imagined hidden danger, divine protection, social upheaval and the fragile stability of the human world.