The Skipjack i'^ishery 



Chapter I 

 Development of the Skipjack Fishery 



The skipjack fishery originated in ancient times and there are various 

 theories about its origin but no details are known c The skipjack is not to 

 be found among the names of fishes in Dr, Kishinouye's report of studies 

 based on findings in shell heaps o The fishes eaten by the people of that 

 period were probably limited to those which v;ere easy to catch aad did not 

 in all likelihood include many of the more active species-, Swift-moving 

 fishes like the skipjack were probably not made the object of a fishery 

 by the people of that time because it would be impossible for them to catch 

 such fisho 



iVith the later intellectual improvement of the human race methods were 

 devised for taking the skipjackj and probably the first to be discovered 

 was the use of hook and lineo This development can be pictured from the 

 legend of Umi-no-sachi and Yamano-sachio The skipjack fishery probably 

 originated as the race progressed from the prehistoric period when fish 

 and shellfish were taken with the bare hands to the period in which they 

 were attracted and taken with fishing gearo Conditions in this period can 

 be imagined on the basis of the mention made of skipjack in the Kojiki 

 and the Nihon Shoki fancient annals of Japan}* The skipjack fishing poem 

 of Urashima of kizunoe appears in the t^anyoshU j the most ancient anthology 

 of Japanese poetry, and it is recorded in the Yamatohime Seiki that when 

 the enshrinement of the imperial ancestors was celebrated at Ise, the chief 

 celebrant, Yamatohime^ offered a large quantity of skipjack at the main 

 shrine. This seems to show at any rate that the Japanese skipjack fishery 

 has been carried on since rather ancient times ^ and that at that time it 

 was prized a;, a valuable fisho 



The region in which skipjack were caught extended all along the 

 Pacific coast, and fairly large numbers seem to have been takeno About 

 twelve hundred years ago in June of the ninth year of the Tempy"o Era in 

 the reign of Emperor Shomu, because evil practices were rife, the Prime 

 Minister gave orders to the governors in the regions of Tokaij, Tozan, 

 Sanin, and Sanyo to take heed of the regulations on foodstuffs » The 

 eating of raw mackerel and scads was prohibited, but an exception was 

 -uade in the case of skipjack and it was permissible to eat them rawo From 

 this it is deduced that at that time the fish was widely used for food Eind 

 that it was produced in rather large quantities,, Judging from the fact 

 that skipjack were eaten raw in the localities mentioned above, we can infer 

 the following general state of affairs o In view of the transportation 

 situation of the time and the level of development of tecJ-iniques for pre- 

 serving the freshne_ss of the fish,, it appears that skipjack were taken on 

 the coasts of the Tc,_ai, J-ozan, Sanin and Sanyo regions and that the fish 

 were used to supply the demand within those regions,, The provinces men- 

 tioned in this connection in the Jingishiki are Shima, Suruga, Izu, Sagamij 



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