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

Challenging portrayals of Japan as a whaling nation, Holm shows that anti-whaling protests were widespread in early modern Northeast Japan.

Fynn Holm (Author)

9781009305518, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 24 August 2023

240 pages
28 x 19 x 2.1 cm, 0.586 kg

'Gods of the Sea is a masterful and eloquent account of Japan's neglected northeast and that region's fascinating historical relationship with whales.  Holm goes beyond standard whaling histories to engage creatively and movingly with the larger oceanic ecosystems and human cultures that give this whale story deep meaning and wide resonance.' Ryan Tucker Jones, University of Oregon

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.

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.

Subject Areas: Asian history [HBJF]