december 08, 2009 by Harcsabajusz Namazu

So why the sobriquet/nom de plume (írói álnév) 'Catfish'? Well, it's true that before I came to Hungary I certainly never ate catfish (can you believe it but there are whole websites dedicated to catfish recipes), but it's pretty common here due to the lack of access to fresh salt water fish - not my favorite dish, to be honest.

In Hungarian culture, apart from recipes and as a name for a type of mustache (through a visual bon mot), the 'catfish' isn't much of an emblem or symbol of anything. There is the phrase 'öreg harcsa', which literally means 'old catfish', but is army slang for an old soldier or veteran. Apart from that it doesn't have much social or cultural resonance.

Self-important (puffed-up) government officials

However in Japanese culture the catfish (鯰 なまず namazu) has, since the 15th Century, been used to symbolize disorder, both physical and social. During the Meiji (明治時代 めいじじだいfrom 23 October 1868 to 30 July 1912) and Taishō (大正時代 たいしょうじだい from July 30 1912 to December 25 1926) eras the catfish was used in political cartoons to stand for self-important (puffed-up) government officials, sometimes symbolizing upheavals such as a shake-up in the cabinet.

Namazu-e (鯰絵 なまずえ)

Catfish were used to depict upheaval, particularly earthquakes and marked social unrest, which led to a genre of Catfish paintings or 'Namazu-e' (鯰絵 なまずえ) paintings. You can see a reasonable selection of these on Google's image search for 'namazu-e'. 

Often the paintings depict someone trying to pin a catfish down with either a stone or gourd. This represents the effort and determination needed to achieve something seemingly impossible as, due to their slippery skin, catfish are not the easiest things to get hold of. Such images of namazu (catfish) suppressed by a bottle gourd date back to 15th Century, but became much more popular in 17th century in Ōtsue (大津絵) folk paintings - named after the city port of Ōtsu (大津市) which is the capital city of Shiga Prefecture (Japan, of course).

Gourd-namazu (hyōtannamazu 【瓢箪鯰】 ひょうたん.なまず)

The image of someone, typically a monkey, trying to contain and pin down a catfish with a water gourd was so common that it lead to the phrase 'gourd-catfish' or 'hyōtan namazu'. Hyōtannamazu is a contraction of the phrase 'hyōtan de namazu wo osaeru' meaning 'to pin down a catfish with a gourd'. It still has this meaning in modern Japanese: hyōtannamazu 【瓢箪鯰】 ひょうたんなまず would be something equivalent to 'as slippery as an eel, evasive, hard to pin down' in English. Hungarian words and phrases along the same lines would be: dörzsölt, agyafúrt, ravasz; nehéz megfogni, elkapni, elcsípni, kézre keríteni; mindig kicsúszik valakinek a kezei közül.

Catfish: destructive and restorative kinds

At about 10pm on November 11, 1855, in Edo 江戸 (meaning bay-door, 'estuary'; Edo is the former name of the Japanese capital Tokyo, 東京) the ground shook violently. An earthquake with a magnitude estimated between 6.9 and 7.1 was in progress and would be followed by aftershocks over the next 80 days. An estimated 14,000 structured were destroyed in the initial concentrated Ansei Earthquake, with around 7-10,000 people perishing.

However the damage caused by the Great Edo or Ansei Earthquake was not evenly distributed. Due to geography many of the richer districts, those with prime real estate, were decimated, whilst poorer districts suffered comparatively little.

The working classes had in fact been through years of hardship, whilst the affluent class had prospered. With the earthquake there was more work and, due to scarcity, prices for their labor, services and goods rose - again profiting the poor more.

At that time, understanding of the causes of earthquakes ranged from an imbalance of the five elements or in an imbalance in the forces of yin 陰 and yang 陽, to the movement of an enormous subterranean dragon or catfish.

Within days popular posters depicting the namazu (catfish) were on sale. For poor people the earthquake was more of a blessing. To such an extent that authorities even tried to suppress the printing, distribution and sale of namazu art ('namazu-e', 鯰絵 なまずえ).

Catfish as bringer of yonaoshi (世直しよなおし) or 'world/social reformation'

After the quake of 1855 two different types of namazu were considered: the destructive and the restorative. Because of the destruction of the prime real-estate there was lots of work and opportunities for the poorer people. The social imbalance before the quake underwent restorative shock. And this fitted well with common ideas of the cause for the quake of 1855. It was considered in terms of righteousness, justice and goodness. The earthquake created the opportunity for social re-adjustment or re-alignment.

The earthquake was caused, according to popular folk tales, by a giant catfish and led to a form of yonaoshi (世直し よなおし), or 'world/social reformation'.

1989 there was no yonaoshi (世直し よなおし) or 'world reformation' in Hungary

1989 brought enormous social, political and economic changes. Despite all that, it being 20 years on now, Hungary has pretty much the old elite ruling over it. As corrupt as ever, but with far more to steal and profit from.

It is common for simple government contracts to be put under 10 year 'secrecy' orders, if not longer - for no obvious reason. The ownership of the media is decided in back room meetings between the main political parties. And so on...

To all intents and purpose there was no yonaoshi (世直し よなおし), or 'world/social reformation', here. The elite know it and the people feel it. Hungary needs a metaphorical catfish to shake its shimmy ('riszálja a fenekét') and finally bring about restorative social change.

p.s. Just as a side note, 'Harcsa' (catfish) does also crop up as a surname in Hungarian. In fact, there is the singer/performer Harcsa Veronika (Hungarians write their names in the order 'Surname Given-name') who also sings with a band called the Erik Sumo Band which I like. Check out their websites and music, if you have time.

január 06, 2006 by Harcsabajusz Namazu

Just thought we'd start the New Year (hope it's a good one for you all) by introducing a new blogger to CentralBudapest.com: Catfish or 'Harcsabajusz', as he is known in his native Hungarian.

Just to state the (hopefully) obvious, Catfish is not your average blogger, but his creation serves a useful purpose. Through Catfish I can offload all the theories, observations and various polemical epistemic detritus (e.g. ideas, passing thoughts etc...) that pass through my head and have no other outlet. It gives me a chance to simply brainstorm and explore these ideas, whilst using this place as a disembodied memory.

Obviously, I'd also be interesting in knowing if anyone else has similar interest, thought or ideas.

Disclaimer

All the thoughts, ideas,  and writings here come with absolutely no warranty or implied fitness for any purpose whatsoever, but are almost certainly guaranteed to annoy you and get your back up in one way or another.

The Content is provided "AS IS" and "WITH ALL FAULTS," without warranty of any kind, including without limitation the warranties of credibility, fitness for any particular purpose and non-infringement. The Writer makes no warranty that the Content is free of defects or is suitable for intelligent discourse. In no event shall the Writer be responsible for loss or damages arising from the reading of the Content, including but not limited to any indirect, punitive, special, incidental or consequential damages of any character including, without limitation, damages for loss of goodwill, work stoppage, brain failure or mood malfunction, or any and all other mental damages or losses. Neither CentralBudapest.com, nor the Writer (Catfish), shall be held responsible for any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages, that may result from anything that is viewed on this web site, or anything you do as a result thereof. It is up to the reader to determine the suitability of any directions or information viewed here. The entire risk as to the quality and performance of the Content is borne by you. Should the Content prove defective, you and not the Content assume the entire cost of any psychiatric treatment, counseling, service and repair.

Credits, and why 'Catfish'?

Just to give credit where it is due, the mustache on the dummy was borrowed from Norbert Wiczek (for some freakish facial hair, just look at the winner of the 'freestyle' category).  This type of mustache is called a 'catfish' mustache, known by its Hungarian name, harcsabajusz and is an accepted separate category in the world championships, for those that compete on these things. There is a more meaningful reason why I have called the dummy Catfish/Harcsabajusz, but I'll save that for the next post.

n.b. To be honest, I find ventriloquists' dummies, clowns, puppets etc... pretty disturbing, so am not entirely sure this semantic proxy is a good idea. I'm still haunted from watching Magic and the dummy Corky years ago. Still, as far as I know, Catfish will be the world's first blogging ventriloquist's dummy.