71 



fishing- is carried out by men whose sole business it is 

 and who pass their Hves in it from boyhood to old age ; 

 they are invariably robust, hardy, seafaring men whose 

 lives are one long toil amidst great hardships, climatic 

 and otherwise, and dangers. In Great Britain and 

 America the fishermen, other than the inshore men, not 

 only go habitually with their lives in their hands, but 

 endure incredible hardships ; for much of the year, the 

 mere work and discomfort of stormy weather is most 

 serious, but a considerable part of the best catching- 

 season (autumn to spring) is so rigorous that none but 

 the most hardy can stand the exposure ; it is common 

 for decks and rigging to be a mass of ice with the 

 thermometer far below freezing point, and icy seas con- 

 tinually breaking over the boats ; only the hardiest men 

 born in the climate and inured to hardship can survive. 

 In Japan the same is the experience (see my note, 

 paragraph 7) ; the storms are most serious and severe ; 

 except in the extreme south the cold in winter is intense, 

 while the boats are far less suited to the exposure 

 than the staunch British and American smacks or 

 steamboats ; the Japanese can only stand it, when they 

 do, by their extraordinary powers of endurance and 

 resistance to exposure, as shown, for example, in the 

 late war. 



5. But if in Great Britain, America or Japan a man 

 intends to become an experienced sailing master and 

 deep-sea fisherman, he 7nust go through a long course 

 of these risks and hardships, entering the service while 

 young and gradually working up to the higher posts 

 of master and skipper. The young men who, in Japan, 

 attend the Institute are of this sturdy fishermen class, 

 and the training in the Institute is merely supplementary 

 to ordinary practice ; just as in England, etc., young men 

 of the artisan class attend technical institutes to o-ain a 

 more complete and scientific grounding in the principles 

 of their art. The catchino- of sea fish cannot be taueht 

 on dry land ; the only school is at sea ; hence, in Japan 

 the fishermen class, compulsorily educated as all Japanese 

 are, go for a while to a training Institute and are 

 educated in the principles of their art, very largely at 

 sea, while those who are to take a higher place, extend 

 their sea training to long deep-sea voyages to Korea, 

 Saghalien, Siberia, etc., like ordinary fishermen. 



