The gods of the sea : whales and coastal communities in Northeast Japan, c.1600-2019
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The gods of the sea : whales and coastal communities in Northeast Japan, c.1600-2019
(Cambridge oceanic histories / edited by David Armitage, Alison Bashford, Sujit Sivasundaram)
Cambridge University Press, 2023
- : hbk
Available at 6 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Bibliography: p. 192-212
Includes index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
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 worshiped 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. This title is also available as Open Access.
Table of 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.
by "Nielsen BookData"