Namazu

The creature lives under the islands of Japan and is guarded by the god Takemikazuchi enshrined at Kashima, who restrains the catfish with a stone.

The legend or myth in Japan is that a gigantic namazu (catfish) lives inside or beneath the earth (or in the mud[1]) which causes earthquakes.

[7] In the 1930s, Japanese seismologists Shinkishi Hatai and Noboru Abe demonstrated that catfish in aquaria showed increased agitation several hours before earthquakes occurred, and were able to predict quakes with 80% accuracy.

[11] These namazu-e woodblock-prints encompass a large variety of scenes, typically depicting the god subduing the earthquake-causing catfish under a sword or the kanameishi stone.

[2] Even though the Namazu was held responsible for the disaster,[b] it was also ironically hailed as a yonaoshi daimyōjin (god of "world rectification"), that is to say, a sort of an "avenger of social injustice" which expressed the public's political sentiment at the time.