CORMORANT FISHING IN JAPAN.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2707, 16 November 1889, Page 5 (Supplement)

CORMORANT FISHING IN JAPAN.

Whatever may be the degree of credence rightly permissible to the details of early Japanese chronology and history that aro set forth in Japan's most venerablo records—relating, as they do, to the dark ages of oral tradition, anterior to the seventh century of our era—there is no caiusayiug that those ancient chronicles shed a very interesting and true light on the manners, customs and language, as well as on the religious and political beliefs, of the early Japanese. Prominent in this respect is the Ilojiki, or Records of Ancient Matters, compiled in A.l>. 712, and translated into English a few years ago by that most accomplished scholar, Mr Basil Hall Chamberlain. The Hnjild is, in fact, the oldest existing Japane-o book. It is, further, the second historical work of which mention has been preserved. And it is to it, among a very few other ancient volumes, that the student naturally turns in his investigation of old time Japanese subjects. In the Kojilci, for example—to come at once to the subject of this letter— the searcher after knowledge about the past of cormorant fishing in Japan may read that on a certain occassion in the ages before books were written, during a campaign in the land of Yamato, the Emperor Jimmu, of deathless memory, with his centurions and his fighting men, fouud themselves exhausted and hungry on the slopes of Mount Inasa. Whereupon, addressing some fishermen who wore working their cormorants along a neighbouring stream, the Heavenly Sovereign

sang — Ye keepers of cormorants, Ihs birJs of the island, Coine ve now to our rescue !

Here, then, we have evidence from a book 1177 years old that the sport of Ugari, or cormorant fishing, was at that epoch at least already established in Japan, while, if the story and the orthodox tradition as to the period of Jimmu Tenno's reign are to be accepted, we must assign to it an antiquity more than twice as great. In a few parts of the country it is still kept up, notably on the Nagara River at and near Gifu, in the province of Mino, where this hoary pursuit has always had a stronghold, and where the seven hamlets bordering on the choicest part of the stream enjoy to the present day the exclusive fishing rights that were conveyed to them early in the fourteenth century by the Emperor Daigo, himself on one occasion a beholder of the sport. All through the middle ages, and, indeed, up to this current Meiji era, which has witnessed the death of so many old customs, offerings of dried cormorant caught trout, or "ayu" (salmo altivalis), from the Nagaragawa were sent yearly to the Court of the Emperor or the Shegun. For then, as now, the fish from that river enjoyed a high character for flavour and excellence, their fine quality being due, it is supposed, partly to the water and food of their hnbitut and partly to the painless method of capture. In return for these offerings grants of rice were made to the hamlets aforesaid, and in course of time the special degree of Usho, or Master of Cormorants, came to bo established for the 21 greatest living experts in the guild, a step which naturally gave a lively stimulus to the cultivation of the utmost possible skill in the cormorant fishing art.

Gifu, then, is the place to go to if you wish to see in all its perfection one of the oldest extant forms of piscatory craft. They who go will certainly not bo disappointed. The people of Gifu—a clean country town, situated at the threshold of the Mino mountains, and little known as yet to ordinary tourists—are proud of their beautiful fabrics of silk and crape. They are proud of their tasteful circular fans ; prouder still of their reuowed and most gracefully decorated lanterns, framed with rare bamboo from the lower slopes ®f the famed Mount Kinkwa hard by, and encased in wrinkled bark made paper, delicate yet durable withal, which sheds a light no soft and soothing as to have earned for them the name of the "air cooling lantern," from the pretty fancy that they convey no sense of heat to the eye. But it is on their time honoured Ugari and all its traditions that the Gifu townsfolk especially plume themselves. Add to this that they are—as what unspoiled Japanese are not?—the very pink of politeness, ever ready with a graceful welcome to visitors bent on doing the wonders of the neighbourhood, and it will be your own fault if you come away without witnessing to your heart's content a spectacle which, though hardly to be called fine or stirring, has at least the merits of picturesqueness, rarity and most uncommon antiquity. To sec the fishing at all you must be there between May and October, which are the limits of the season. To see it to full advantage you should choose a time when the river is free from turbidity and when there is no moonlight—the darker the night the better. Further, if you are wise, you will take care to see it after the manner of the country and in the company of a pleasant party of Japanese.

It was but a short drive from our inn at Gifti to the riverside tea house that served as the real starting point of the expedition. Embarking there after nightfall in a roomj pleasure barge, we set off on an up stream voyage, in which our craft was alternately poled and towed over the shoals and rapids of the wide and shallow' Nagaragawa. Outside the night was darkness itself and profoundly still. Only with difficulty could we make out the hugo profile of Kinkasan, rising black and gloomy from the east margin'of the stream. Not a star was to be scon, nor any light at all save from the soft flashes of occasional fireflies, or the twinkling of some stray passer's lantern on tho distant, bridge of Gifn. Inside, on tho contrary, there was neither silence nor darkness. The cabin or deckhouse of tho Ivorio Maru is, in truth, a pretty little Japanese room, with its accompaniments of sliding doors, clean, soft mats, decorated coiling and beautiful woods—tho whole brightly lit up by a many coloured galaxy of " air cooling" lanterns. On tho mats sit a cheery party, talking and joking with all the abandon of Japanese out for a holiday, drinking tea, it hardly need bo said, and smoking diminutive pipes the while. Aft of our saloon a tiny kitchen, from which, as time wears on, attendants bring relays of tea, and fruits and sweetmeats, and finally sundry bottles of hot -salr, followed by a great jnbneo, or provision box of gilded lacquer, with its trays upon trays of dainty eatables, among which last are spitch cocked eels, piping hot and cooked as only Japanese can cook them, After perhaps an hour of struggle up stream the barge is brought to rest at a convenient place in mid-channel, there to await the arrival of the cormorantfishers we have come to see. Presently the first sign is detected—a spot of hazy red glow, shining over tin trees from a reach two or three miles above us. Hereupon our chief bo:itman erects his private signal—a mighty paper hmtcrti of a red and white basket pattern. Steadily the "■low spreads and deepens, until, as the last iutervnniug point is cle ired, we descry its cause—a constellation of shifting, flickering lights, drifting down tho dark river towards us. ]}y degrees these develop into balls of fire, seven in number, casting as many long coruscations of light before them, from their reflection in the waters of the stream. Then sounds are heard—sounds of much beating, shouting and splashing. Next appear the forms of boats and the swarthy figures of men. thrown up with weird, Rem-

brandt-liko effects against the inky blackness of tho night ; and in the water round about the boats are numbers of cormorants, behaving to all appearance in tho maddest fashion. The fires, we now see, are great cages of blaziug pine-knots, suspended over tho bow of each boat, darting forth flames and sparks, and for ever dropping embers, which fall with loud hissiug into the steam. Nearer still they come. The men have seen our signal and are manceuvring so as to .surround us ; which being done we find ourselves in tho midst of all the uproar and excitement of cormorant-fishing n tti Japoiiaisc. Now describe the sport. There are, to begin with, 1 men in each of the 7 boats, one of whom, at. the stern, has ho duty but that of managing his craft. In tho'bow stands tho master, distinguished by the peculiar hat of his rank, and handling no fewer than 12 trained birds with the surpassing skill and coolness that have earned for the sportsmen of Gifu their unrivalled pre-eminence. Amidships is another fisher, of tho second grade, who handles -i birds only. Between them is the fourth man, called kuko, from the bamboo striking instrument of that name, with which he makes the clatter necessary for keeping the birds up to their work ; he also encourages them by shouts and cries, looks after spare apparatus, &c, and is ready to give aid if required. Each cormoraut wears at the base of its neck a metal ring, drawn tight enough to preveut marketable fi.-h from passing below it, but at tho samo timo loose enough—for it is never removed—to admit the smaller prey, which serves as food, Round the body is a cord, having attached to it at <he middle of the bac't a short strip of stiffish whalebone, by \\l io'i the great awkward bird may

bo conveniently lowered into the water or lifted out when at work ; nnd to this whalebone is looped a thin rein of spruce fibre, 12 feet long, and so far wanting 1 in pliancy as to minimise the chances of entanglement. When the fishing ground is reached the master lowers his 12 birds one by one into the stream and gathers their reins into his left hand, manipulating the latter thereafter with his right as occasion requires ; No. 2 does the same with his four birds; the kuko starts in with his volleys of noise, and forthwith the comorants set to at their work in the heartiest and jolliest way, diving and duckiug with wonderful swiftness as the astonished fish come flocking towards the blaze of light. The master is now the busiest of men. He rnunt handle his twelve strings so deftly that, let the birds dish hither and thither as they will, there shall be no impediment or fouling. He must have his eves everywhere, and his bands following his eyes. Specially must he watch for the moment when any of his flock is gorged— a fact generally made known by the bird itself, which then swims about in a foolish, helpless way, with its head and swollen neck erect. Thereupon the master, shortening in on that bird, lifts it aboard, forces its bill open with his left hand, which still holds the rest of the lines, squeezes out the fish with his right, and starts the creature oft' on a fresh foray—all this with such admirable dexterity and quickness that the eleven birds, still bustling about, have scarce time to get things into a tangle, and in another moment the whole team is again perfectly in hand.

As for the cormorants they are trained when quite young, being caught in winter with birdlime on the coasts of the neighbouring Owari Gulf, at their first migration southward from the summer haunts of the species on the northern seaboard of Japan. Once trained they work well up to 15, often up to 19 or 20 years of age ; and, though their keep in winter bears hardly on the masters, they are very precious and profitable hunters during the five months' season and well deserve the great care that i* lavished upon them. From four to eight goodsized fish, for example, is the fair result of a single excursion for one bird, which corresponds with au average of about 150 fi-h per cormorant per hour, or 450 for tbe three hours occupied in drifting down the whole course. Every biid in a flock has and knows its number ; aud one of the funniest things about them is the quick - witted jealousy with which they invariably insist, by nil that cormorant language and pantomimic piotest can da, on due observance of the recognised rights beloncing to their individual numbers, No. 1, or '"Ichi," is the (!o;/c)i of the corps, the senior in years, as well as rank. His colleagues, according to their age, come after him in numerical order. Iclii is the last to ho put into the water and the first to be taken out, the first to be fed, and the last to enter the baskets, in which, when work is over, the birds are carried from the boats to their domicile. Ichi, when aboard, has the post of honour at the eyes of the boat. He is a solemn, grizzled old follow, with a pompous, noli mc tnngem air that is almost worthy of a Lord Mayor, The rest have place after him, in succession of rank, alternately on either side of the gunwale. If, haply, the lawful order of precedence be at any time violated—if, for instance, No. 5 be put into the water before No. G, or No. 4 be placed before No. 2—the rumpus that forthwith arises in that family is a sight to see and a sound to hear.

But all this while we havfi been drifting down, with the boafc-i about us, to the lower end of the course, and are again abreast of Gifn, where the whole squadron is beached. As each cormorant is now taken out of the water the master can tell by its weight whether it has secured enough supper while engaged in the hunt.; failing which, he makes the deficiency good by feeding it with the inferior fish of the enroll. At length all are ranged in their due order, facing outwards, on the gunwale of each boat. And the sight of that array of {front ungainly sea birds— staking themselves, flapping their wings, gnwgawing, malting their toilets, clearinsr their throats, looking about thorn with a stare of stupid ,'olomnity, and now ami then indulging in old maidish tiffs with their neighbours -is quite the strangest of its little ehiss I have ever Hen, except, perhaps, the wonderful penguinry of the Falkland Islands, whereat a certain French philosopher is said to have even wept. Finally, the cormorants are sent off to bed, ami we ourselves follow suit. There is a chorus of grateful " sayonaras :" from those politest of fishermen, accompanied by a tub of choice ayu, as, after bestowing a modest gratuity on o'ir entertainers, we are carried ashore on the boatmen's hacks, and (.hence on wheels to the sign of "The Jewel Well"—to our mo-quito curtains and dreams of Ugari. — Times.