PlanetCatfish.com

In this playful article, Lee Kangwon invites us to follow “catfish” through Japanese social seismology. Edo-period popular belief that the activity of catfish could reveal when earthquakes might occur gave rise to Japanese scientific attempts to test and operationalize this proposition. Experiments tested the hypothesis that observation of the behavior of catfish in laboratory aquariums might predict seismic activity in the following days. Far more lasting and successful than those attempts has been the catfish as icon of earthquake foreknowledge, in the form of Yurerun, the mascot of the Japanese Earthquake Early Warning System, and the personal digital devices—the “digital catfish” of Lee’s title—through which Japanese citizens potentially receive some seconds’ notice of earthquakes to occur. Ultimately, then, Lee’s sojourn through and with catfish is an investigation of the condition of “life surrounded by devices” that in turn mediate human attunement to the environment.

Abstract
This article highlights the “life surrounded by devices” generated through association between humans and devices, by analyzing the process through which the Japanese Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) System was established. Focusing on the catfish logo designs on EEW posters and devices, I explain how the propositional feeling, affect, information, and emotion are organically connected. I seek to emphasize the fact that living (survival, livelihood, life, and ecology) is comprised of the connection of devices, and as such, I propose that “technological ritual” and “experimental rite” are two concepts that explain “how to live surrounded by devices.” The first proposition of this article is “catfish know before the quake comes.” The Japanese EEW service was launched in 2007, emphasizing an alternative approach to mitigation of earthquake disasters by means of a “warning” system that “knows before the quake comes.” Entities in the network are mediated through devices that act as digital catfish and constitute a unity that is co-affected by a feeling of possibility. The second proposition is “catfish restore world order.” The process by which the world order is restored is through differences borne out of the continued repetitions of certain rituals. I have named this process “technological ritual.” Each time an earthquake occurs, an EEW is issued. The EEW may be transferred from one place to another through the formalization of different entities’ actions. The experiments in technological rituals mediated by digital catfish go beyond mere demonstration, as they seek to test out a new world.

Abstract
Soon after the devastating Ansei Edo earthquake in 1855, popular prints known as catfish prints (namazu-e) circulated widely. These prints were rooted in the folk belief that a giant catfish beneath the earth caused earthquakes. Various types of catfish prints were published: some depicted a punished earthquake catfish and served as protective charms against future quakes, while others functioned as sharp social commentary. In the latter type, the catfish was portrayed as a popular deity capable of bringing favorable societal change for people in the lower social class, symbolizing hope for commoners through reduced economic disparities after the disaster. The print “Prodigal Buddha” positioned the catfish as an antihero, criticizing the Tokugawa government’s inefficacy and the failure of religious institutions to provide spiritual salvation. By juxtaposing the catfish—now a newly popular deity—with a thunder god, formerly a fearsome deity but now submissively obeying the catfish, the print effectively visualizes the shift in status between the two. This article examines the criticism directed at political and religious authorities in the aftermath of the disaster, analyzing the layered symbolism of the thunder gods in the print.