S P O T ／ SPOT-336

Omura Shrine (Kaname-ishi / Shrine of the Catfish)

大村神社（要石・なまずの宮）おおむらじんじゃ かなめいし なまずのみや

Omura Shrine, in the Abo district of Iga City, is an ancient shrine listed in the 10th-century Engishiki registry and revered for centuries as a guardian against earthquakes. Behind its main hall sits its strangest object of worship: the kaname-ishi, or "keystone"—a stone said to reach deep underground and pin down the giant catfish whose thrashing causes earthquakes. The belief belongs to the same family as the famous keystones of Kashima and Katori shrines, and Omura wears the cult openly: a stone catfish statue is set before the keystone, and worshippers pour water over it as they pray, while the shrine issues ema (votive plaques) painted with a catfish, earning it the nickname "Shrine of the Catfish." The cult was sharpened by memory: when the great Iga-Ueno earthquake of 1854 killed hundreds and flattened thousands of houses in the surrounding region, the Abo district was said to have been spared by the keystone's power. The result is a working folk shrine where the abstract terror of earthquakes has been bound, quite literally, to a stone and a fish.