Namazu, Catfish of Doom

 

As you drive around Tokyo, (and other areas of Japan I imagine), you will see signs like these over some of the roads:                    

 

Why in the world, I wondered, was there a big Catfish on that sign? Turns out that while Japanese no longer believe a Giant Catfish causes earthquakes they once did.

According to Japanese myth the cause of earthquakes is the giant catfish Namazu living buried in the underground. Legend has it that by moving his tail he could shake the entire earth and

unfortunately he loves to cause trouble and havoc.

Namazu can be controlled only by Kashima, which with help of a powerful capstone, pushes the fish against the underground and immobilized him. However, 

Kashima sometimes got tired or was distracted from his duty and Namazu could move a bit and cause an earthquake.

 

Kashima with the capstone

 

 

So just yesterday morning Gary told me he had found an earthquake warning app for our tablets...called Namazu by the way.

 

 

 He set it all up, picked out an alarm ring and I told him it was good but knowing me I'd probably forget what it was for and just stare at the tablet wondering why it was being noisy!

 

Sure enough, yesterday evening while sitting in the dining room, Gary's tablet starts making the alarm sound and I just stared at it wondering why it was making that noise!

 

Fortunately, after the alarm sounded, a voice started talking in English to us warning that an earthquake was coming and sure enough about 30 seconds later we started to feel it. It was a pretty good shaker, and lasted a couple of minutes but it only generated a mild tsunami up the coast and there was  minimal damage or injuries.

Thank you Jesus!