In ancient Japanese lore, earthquakes are caused by the movements of a giant catfish. This idea got an artistic renaissance following the 1855 Edo earthquake close to what is now Tokyo. That earthquake leveled 14,000 buildings and between 7,000 and 10,000 people died. Immediately afterward, artists began producing woodblock prints called Namazu-e that illustrated the earthquake, the populace’s reaction to it, and the catfish at the heart of it.
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Many people bought these prints and displayed them in their homes as a charm against another quake. And quite a few of them are rather lighthearted. This was because the greatest damage came to those who had the most to lose, and the earthquake was seen by some as a “great leveling” of social classes. Therefore, the authorities banned the production of Namazu-e within weeks of the earthquake. Some were still produced afterward, but almost all the surviving examples are from late 1855. See a gallery of 45 of these unique artworks at the Public Domain Review. -via Nag on the Lake
Source: neatorama