Incoming boating season in riverside spa town in southwestern Japan gives rare view of cormorant fishing

April 28, 2015

Incoming boating season in riverside spa town in southwestern Japan gives rare view of cormorant fishing

The boating season in the riverside Harazuru spa town in Fukuoka Prefecture, southwestern Japan, opens on May 20, timed to coincide with the start of "ayu" sweetfsh catches in the area. This means that busy days will start for "usho" cormorant fishermen in the area, including Noburo Usui, who is 30 years old and the youngest among them.
Cormorant fishing in Harazuru, facing Chikugo River, the biggest in Kyushu, has been inherited by three different clans over generations. The three families each keep five or so cormorants.
Usui and his 33-year-old brother keep five birds.Their cormorants include a couple of five-year-old birds which are at very good terms with each other, according to Usui. They raise their cormorants since they are young, but they do not name the birds. "We haven't named our birds, because they are not pets," he said. "They are rather co-workers for us."
Cormorant fishing, or "ukai" in Japanese, can be seen at 12 places across Japan at present, but birds used for such fishing are wild cormorants caught in a certain designated seaside in eastern Japan.
The oldest usho man in Harazuru had died after the end of the last cormorant fishing season, but the remaining five members are relieved to hear that a friend of his has come forward to fill his place, making it possible to carry out this year's nightly fishing performance with six men for tourists as before.
Cormorant fishing in Harazuru involves three boats, each with the boatman and the cormorant operator aboard.
The three  boats stream down the river one by one, and the first one drives fish off their nest on the riverbank, while the second and third boats catch the fish. Usho men operate two or more cormorants, with their throat bound in neck, and let them catch ayu and other fishes while tourists watch them from aboard different boats.
One of the most famous ukai performances takes place on
Nagaragawa River in Gifu Prefecture, central Japan. Most ukai performances have been inherited over years with the patronage of the rulers and warlords in the respective regions. Those engaged in the performance in the Nagaragawa area belong to the Board of Ceremonies of the Imperial Household Agency, as the tradition is seen as part of historically important court assets.
The ukai fishing in the Harazuru area has no prestigious background; the practice has been continued as a kind of fishing method, not a tourist performance, by river fishermen over centuries.
Unlike those in other regions, cormorant fishermen in Harazuru do not wear special ukai costumes, nor do they use torches and other items. Ukai fishermen in the area feel it is becoming more difficult to maintain the tradition, as is the case with those in many other regions, but they are proud that their practice can be traced back to the ancient days. Two wooden items excavated from one of the eighth century ruins in the ancient capital of Nara indicate that ayu fish preserved in salt, believed to have been caught in cormorant fishing near Harazuru, had been presented to the court.

During the off-season, Harazuru usho fishermen live on different jobs, such as fruit growing. "Our ukai performance maybe looks less impressive (than those in other regions), but this is just because we're basically river fishermen," Usui said.
Usui started learning about cormorant fishing from his father when he was 17. "When I started learning it, my brother had already been working as a cormorant fisherman. So, I just followed suit, telling myself 'this is my family's business, if not easy,'" he said.
A headache for them is the fact that river fish is becoming less available in recent years. During the season, they feed their birds with the catches during the performance on Chikugo River, but in the winter season, they have to procure sea fish. They freeze it and give it to the birds piece by piece.
Usui lets his birds swim in the river sometimes toward the start of the ayu fishing season. He is also ready to show the ukai performance, upon request, on various occasions in neighboring regions, He and other usho fishermen in Harazuru hope that these off-season activities will make Harazuru more widely known, helping them to preserve the centuries-old practice over the years.