Did all the common (non-samurai) people of Edo benefit from the earthquake?

No. The first namazu-e on this page is entitled Ō-namazu-go no namayoi 大鯰後の生酔い (Tipsiness following the great namazu [=earthquake]). It depicts a large group, still somewhat disoriented, in the immediate wake of the earthquake. The Kashima deity vigorously skewers the namazu with a sword, and the huge fish, laid out on a table, divides the print into upper and lower sections. The dozens of people depicted in the print thus divide into two groups. Those at the top are “smiling,” while those at the bottom are “weeping” and “have plenty of free time” that is, they are unemployed. The smiling group includes a carpenter, a plasterer, a seller of lumber, a blacksmith, a roof tile merchant, an elite courtesan, an ordinary prostitute, a physician, and sellers of certain types of foods that could be eaten without preparation. In total, the print depicts about 30 specific occupations as profiting from the earthquake. The crying group includes a teahouse proprietor, a seller of eels, a variety of entertainers such as musicians, comedians, and storytellers, a seller of luxury goods, a diamond seller, and a seller of imported goods—25 specific occupations in all. Other namazu-e taking up the theme of society divided along the lines of winners and losers portray similar sets of occupations, though the elite courtesan sometimes ends up in the “idle” category (the second image on this page is an example: winners on the left, losers on the right). Notice the social complexity of Tokugawa urban society as expressed in a wide variety of  specialized occupations.

Although the earthquake has divided this society, it has also brought it together. In Ō-namazu-go no namayoi, the people on each side of the namazu are dressed similarly and assume similar postures. The winners are not celebrating, and everyone looks more dazed than anything else. The earthquake has united them in a common terrifying experience. Certainly the sellers of luxury goods, for example, will suffer from the diversion of money to such basics as building supplies and constructing work. There is no suggestion in this print, however, of censure or that those on the crying side of the namazu deserve any sort of cosmic punishment. Instead, the earthquake is an example of the instability of the material world, a basic tenet of Buddhism. Those on the losing side of the namazu deserve compassion and assistance—a point to keep in mind when looking at the third image on this page.

Other than a clear disdain for the extremely wealthy members of society, the 1855 namazu-e do not reflect any strong sense of class antagonism. Even though, for example, sellers of Chinese imported goods suffered as a result of the earthquake, no namazu-e celebrates their plight. As we have seen, many namazu-e do celebrate the newly-acquired wealth of those workers who have profited from the earthquake, and the overall impression from the prints in total is that the earthquake was a terrifying but necessary medicine to rectify a sick society. Even this point, however, is not without ambivalence. In addition to the death and destruction of the earthquake itself, some namazu-e are clearly critical of the newly-rich construction trades workers and others who have benefited from the earthquake. The message is not so much that they do not deserve the economic benefits that have come their way, but that they should not flaunt their wealth while others fellow commoners in different occupations are still suffering.

Nangichō 難儀鳥 (Hard-to-figure-out bird) is a good example of namazu-e critical of the newly-rich (third image on this page). In this print, five tradesmen are sitting around a namazu in an expensive restaurant. The namazu is going to be their feast during a night of drinking and revelry. A giant bird, however, swoops down and snatches the namazu away from them. The reason that the bird is “hard to figure out” is that it consists entirely of tools and objects from occupations adversely effected by the earthquake. Its tail feathers are oars for small boats, and its wings are books, dry goods, abacuses, and tall geta shoes. Its neck and crown are the hairpins of elite courtesans and tea ceremony whisks. In other words, the bird represents such professions as tea ceremony teachers, courtesans, and small boat operators. It also includes booksellers, pawn shops, and clothing stores. The basic message: members of occupations profiting from the earthquake should at least have the decency to refrain from public displays of wealth while others are suffering.

Incidentally, The broader theme of insensitivity to the suffering of others is common in Buddhism generally and in popular Japanese visual art. One of the best examples is a scene from a medieval picture scroll depicting Buddhist hells. One of these hells is “the place of puss and blood” (nōketsusho), into which fall “those who in a previous life, owing to delusions of stupidity, offered foul or polluted things to others as food.” In the depiction of this hell in the Jigoku-zōshi (Hell picture scroll), sinners swim in a giant vat of puss while melon-sized giant wasps descend from time to time to sting their exposed heads (see the last image on this page). A woman in the foreground is pointing at another woman being stung by a wasp and laughing at this sufferer’s misfortune. The laughing woman seems oblivious to the wasp that is about to descend onto her own head.