Vol. XVI, No. 5 WASHINGTON 



May, 1905 



THE 



ATHONAL 



©(SnyypiHiffiD 



m. 



0 



THE FISHERIES OF JAPAN* 



By Hugh M. Smith, Deputy U. S. Fish Commissioner 



THE Japanese farmer has been 

 called the root of the Empire. 

 The Japanese fisherman is a 

 hardly less important member of the 

 body politic, and, as it is quite likely 

 that fishing antedated agriculture as an 

 industry in Japan, it is not inappropriate 

 that the fisherman's story be heard be- 

 fore the farmer's this evening. 



Recent developments on land and 

 water in the Far East have led to in- 

 creased study of things Japanese, and 

 we have learned of so many matters in 

 which the Japanese people are eminent 

 and preeminent that we are perhaps 

 prepared for the statement that Japan in 

 various important respects is today the 

 leading fishing nation and has many 

 branches of the fishing industry which 

 are unique. 



Probably in no other country of equal 

 rank has fishing occupied a more promi- 

 nent place in the material and esthetic 

 development of a people. A mere 

 glance at the map of Japan suggests the 

 r61e which would be played by the sea. 

 A numerous population, combined with 

 a very limited area of arable land, at a 

 very early period led to the development 

 of important maritime interests. Centu- 



ries ago the Japanese had become the 

 Phoenicians of the Far East. Their fish- 

 eries grew side by side with their navi- 

 gation and shipping and became rela- 

 tively more and more important with 

 the more complete occupation of the 

 agricultural land, so that at the dawn 

 of the twentieth century we have seen 

 the nation blossom out not only as a 

 leader in the coastwise and foreign ship- 

 ping trades and in fishing, but as one of 

 the great naval powers of the world. 



To quote an American student long 

 resident in Japan, ' ' Japanese art, poetry, 

 romance, and folklore are full of the sea, 

 its wonders and its possibilities for man. 

 Even the ancient Shinto liturgies cele- 

 brate the blue plain of the sea, the ship 

 and her equipment, the fishers and their 

 spoils. Of the two gods of daily food 

 seen in nearly every Japanese house 

 one sits on two bags of rice, the native 

 staff of life, and the other holds a tai or 

 bream fish under his left arm, while his 

 right hand grasps a fishing pole. These 

 gods are not Buddhist or continental, 

 but are of pure Japanese origin." 



The fisheries of Japan are less valu- 

 able than those of several other coun- 

 tries, but they take first rank over 



Abstract of an illustrated address to the National Geographic Society, March 17, 1905. 



