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“Namazu-e” from Japan: Earthquake catfish prints

Categories: East Asia, Japan, Arts & Culture, Disaster

Pink Tentacle [1] posted numerous images of namazu-e (“catfish pictures”), a type of color woodblock print that became popular after the Great Ansei Earthquake, which struck current day Tokyo in 1855. The mythology namazu [2] and earthquakes is still prevalent in contemporary Japanese culture; one such example being the icon for the iPhone app [3] that gives earthquake warnings.