photo #1468041

The Catfish’s Seppuku 1855In 1855 a big earthquake hit Edo and over 7000 people died. This seemed to be telling people that the 250 year rule by the Bakufu government was coming to an end.Following this earthquake “catfish art” became popular.The reason for this is that a giant catfish was thought to be the source of earthquakes. Specifically the one that resided at Kashima shrine that had a huge boulder holding it down, preventing earthquakes.The people seem to quite enjoy the catfish art and actually thought the catfish kind of cute. In this scene the catfish has been shot in the back with an arrow and has confessed to causing earthquakes. Thus he is committing Seppuku. Gold coins are pouring out of his stomach and he is packing them into 1000 coin boxes and handing them to the victims of earthquakes.