The Fisheries of Japan 



tion of the streams, the government 

 sent a representative to this country 

 twenty years ago to study our hatching 

 methods. It goes without saying that 

 he took home with him a well-filled 

 note book, and, in addition, the plans of 

 one of our salmon hatcheries, and shortly 

 afterwards from those plans built in 

 Hokkaido the first salmon hatchery in 

 Asia. With this as a model and center, 

 salmon culture in Japan has steadily 

 grown, until there are now eighteen 

 salmon hatcheries in Honshu and Hok- 

 kaido, and Japan has become the only 

 competitor of the United States in the 

 artificial propagation of salmon. 



The carp has been cultivated from 

 very ancient times and now receives 

 much attention. In the Tokyo district 

 alone 225 acres of ponds are devoted to 

 carp culture, and the annual crop is up- 

 ward of 400,000 pounds, valued at 

 $15,000. In one village in the Gifu pre- 

 fecture 250 acres of paddy fields, in 

 which there is growing rice, have re- 

 cently been devoted to carp culture 

 by the local agricultural society, and 

 25,000,000 young fish are now procured 

 there annually and sold for stocking 

 purposes. It is a significant fact that 

 the carp not only does not injure the 

 rice plants, but benefits them by devour- 

 ing destructive insects, whereas in this 

 country one of the very loudest and 

 longest wails against the carp is that it 

 uproots aquatic vegetation. 



GOLDFISH FARMS 



The goldfish receives more attention 

 than any other species, and the place it 

 holds in the affections of the masses 

 illustrates one of the racial character- 

 istics of the Japanese — namely, the love 

 for the beautiful and ornamental, and 

 the time and money all classes bestow 

 on things that appeal to the esthetic 

 rather than to the mercenary and prac- 

 tical. Although the goldfish occurs in 

 a wild state in Japan, it is probable that 

 China some 400 years ago furnished the 



stock from which the wonderful varie- 

 ties of Japanese goldfish have been bred. 

 It is reported that in feudal days, even 

 when famine was abroad in the land and 

 many people were starving, the trade in 

 goldfish was nourishing. The demand 

 at present appears to be without limit, 

 and the output shows a substantial in- 

 crease each year. Many thousands of 

 people make a living by growing gold- 

 fish for market, and hundreds of ped- 

 dlers carry the fish through the streets 

 and along the country roads in wooden 

 tubs suspended from a shoulder bar. 

 The leading goldfish center is Kori- 

 yama, near the ancient capital city of 

 Nara. Here are 350 independent breed- 

 ing establishments, whose yearly product 

 runs far into the millions. One farm 

 which I visited was started 140 years 

 ago ; at first it was conducted merely 

 for the pleasure of the owner, but it 

 eventually became a commercial enter- 

 prise and is now very profitable. The 

 history and methods of goldfish culture 

 in Japan constitute a very engaging 

 theme, not less interesting to the biol- 

 ogist than to the fish culturist. Some 

 of the current American ideas of the 

 manner in which the remarkable varie- 

 ties have been produced are preposter- 

 ous, and evoked much merriment among 

 the Japanese when I mentioned them. 



FAMOUS WOMEN DIVERS OF SHIMA 



Shima, the smallest of the Japanese 

 provinces, has been celebrated from the 

 earliest times for its women divers, and 

 more recently has acquired other dis- 

 tinctions connected with the fisheries. 

 The divers have inherited, through 

 many generations, an aptitude for water 

 life which makes them veritable human 

 ducks. The principal objects of their 

 attention are pearl oysters, which exist 

 in bays in all parts of Japan, but 

 are particularly abundant in the cold 

 clear waters of this province. The 

 valuable pearl - oyster grounds have 

 gradually passed under control of a 



