History of Whaling - Japanese Open-boat Whaling

Japanese Open-boat Whaling

Because of some evidence of whaling found such as hand harpoons and porpoise skulls in burial mounds, hunting of cetaceans possibly began in the Jōmon period (10,000-300 BC) according to The Institute of Cetacean Research.

The oldest written mention of whaling in Japanese records is from Kojiki, the oldest Japanese historical book written in the 7th century AD. In this book whale meat was eaten by Emperor Jimmu. In Man'yōshū, the oldest anthology of poems in the 8th century, the word "Whaling" (いさなとり) was frequently used in depicting the ocean or beaches.

One of the first records of whaling by the use of harpoons are from the 1570s at Morosaki, a bay attached to Ise Bay. This method of whaling, known as the harpoon method (tsukitori-ho) spread to Kii (before 1606), Shikoku (1624), northern Kyushu (1630s), and Nagato (around 1672).

Kakuemon Wada, later known as Kakuemon Taiji, was said to have invented net whaling, or the net method (amitori-ho) sometime between 1675 and 1677. This method soon spread to Shikoku (1681) and northern Kyushu (1684)

Using the techniques developed by Taiji, the Japanese mainly hunted four species of whale, the North Pacific right (Semi-Kujira), the humpback (Zato-Kujira), the fin (Nagasu-Kujira), and the gray whale (Ko-Kujira or Koku-Kujira). They also caught the occasional blue (Shiro Nagasu-Kujira), sperm (Makko-Kujira), or sei/Bryde's whale (Iwashi-Kujira).

Whaling has been frequently mentioned in Japanese historical texts.

• Whaling history (鯨史稿), Seijun Ohtsuki, 1808.
• Whaling Picture Scroll (鯨絵巻), Jinemon Ikushima, 1665.
• Whale Hunt Picture Scroll (捕鯨絵巻), Eikin Hangaya, 1666.
• Ogawajima Whaling Wars (小川島鯨鯢合戦), Unknown, 1667.

In 1853, the US naval officer Matthew Perry forced open Japan's doors to the world. One of the purposes of this was to gain access to ports for the American whaling fleet in the north-west Pacific Ocean. The traditional whaling was eventually replaced in the late 19th century and early 20th century with modern methods.