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)

9781009305556, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 8 May 2025

234 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.2 cm, 0.345 kg

'This is a notable addition to maritime and environmental history, and while it is a microhistory of Japan's often-forgotten northeastern region, it will prove accessible and engaging to a wide array of readers. Well organized with clear and concise arguments, the text will prove engaging and accessible to both seasoned scholarly readers and more general audiences, who will almost certainly walk away more informed and with new lines of questioning and thought.' Michael Tóth, H-Net Reviews

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]