Historically, Japanese earthquake folklore has depicted mythical creatures as the causes of tremors, such as a mythical earthquake worm, and later catfish (namazu). The latter is the one that is most familiar to the Japanese even today, whose depiction circulated in large numbers as namazu-e prints during the Ansei Edo Earthquake. These images conveyed not only resentment toward the disaster but also hopes for social rectification (yonaoshi), imagining the earthquake as a catalyst for leveling inequality.

Creep Beneath the Earth explores an imaginary journey from the Shitamachi lowlands of eastern Tokyo to the nest of the earthquake worm. If what lies in the direction from which tremors arise is not the worm or the catfish but the continuous movements of subterranean rocks, then it is human activity at the surface that transforms recurring shaking into disasters that rock society. So that all may be saved equally, from both high and low, Banzai-raku, Banzai-raku, Yonaoshi, Yonaoshi. *Banzai-raku, Yonaoshi: A charm to ward off earthquakes

Funded by Toshiaki Ogasawara Memorial Foundation

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