The Gods of the Sea Whales and Coastal Communities in Northeast Japan, c.1600-2019

About this book

Japan is often imagined as a nation with a long history of whaling. In this innovative new study, Fynn Holm argues that for centuries some regions in early modern Japan did not engage in whaling. In fact, they were actively opposed to it, even resorting to violence when whales were killed. Resistance against whaling was widespread, especially in the Northeast among the Japanese fishermen who worshipped whales as the incarnation of Ebisu, the god of the sea. Holm argues that human interactions with whales were much more diverse than the basic hunter-prey relationship, as cetaceans played a pivotal role in proto-industrial fisheries. The advent of industrial whaling in the early twentieth century, however, destroyed this centuries-long equilibrium between humans and whales. In its place, communities in Northeast Japan invented a new whaling tradition, which has almost completely eclipsed older forms of human-whale interactions.

Contents

Part One. Living with Whales, 1600-1850
1. The Whale Pilgrimage
2. The Beached God
3. Bringing Sardines to the Shore
4. Establishing Whaling in the North

Part Two. Destroying the Cetosphere, 1850-2019
5. The Whaling Empire
6. The First Whaling Town
7. Burning Down the Whaling Station
8. Washing Away the Past

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Biography

Fynn Holm is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Economic, Social, and Environmental History department at University of Bern.