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  • Fynn Holm, Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, Germany
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
August 2023
Print publication year:
2023
Online ISBN:
9781009305532
Creative Commons:
Creative Common License - CC Creative Common License - BY Creative Common License - NC
This content is Open Access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence CC-BY-NC 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/creativelicenses

Book description

Japan is often imagined as a nation with a long history of whaling. In this innovative new study, Fynn Holm argues that for centuries some regions in early modern Japan did not engage in whaling. In fact, they were actively opposed to it, even resorting to violence when whales were killed. Resistance against whaling was widespread especially in the Northeast among the Japanese fishermen who worshiped whales as the incarnation of Ebisu, the god of the sea. Holm argues that human interactions with whales were much more diverse than the basic hunter-prey relationship, as cetaceans played a pivotal role in proto-industrial fisheries. The advent of industrial whaling in the early twentieth century, however, destroyed this centuries-long equilibrium between humans and whales. In its place, communities in Northeast Japan invented a new whaling tradition, which has almost completely eclipsed older forms of human-whale interactions. This title is also available as Open Access.

Reviews

‘Holm provides a thoroughly researched, engaging, and welcome new perspective on northeastern Japan's relationships with whales, from respect and not hunting them in the Tokugawa period (when whaling was practiced in western Japan) through the human and ecosystem-level changes that transformed the region into a base for modern industrial whaling.'

Jakobina Arch - Whitman College

‘Gods of the Sea is a masterful and eloquent account of Japan's neglected northeast and that region's fascinating historical relationship with whales.  Holm goes beyond standard whaling histories to engage creatively and movingly with the larger oceanic ecosystems and human cultures that give this whale story deep meaning and wide resonance.'

Ryan Tucker Jones - University of Oregon

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Contents

Full book PDF
  • The Gods of the Sea
    pp i-i
  • Cambridge Oceanic Histories - Series page
    pp ii-ii
  • The Gods of the Sea - Title page
    pp iii-iii
  • Whales and Coastal Communities in Northeast Japan, c.1600–2019
  • Copyright page
    pp iv-iv
  • Contents
    pp v-v
  • Figures
    pp vi-vi
  • Acknowledgements
    pp vii-viii
  • Note on the Text
    pp ix-x
  • Introduction
    pp 1-16
  • Part I - Living with Whales, 1600–1850
    pp 17-106
  • 1 - The Whale Pilgrimage
    pp 19-38
  • 2 - The Beached God
    pp 39-61
  • 3 - Bringing Sardines to the Shore
    pp 62-81
  • 4 - Establishing Whaling in the North
    pp 82-106
  • Part II - Destroying the Cetosphere, 1850–2019
    pp 107-191
  • 5 - The Whaling Empire
    pp 109-127
  • 6 - The First Whaling Town
    pp 128-147
  • 7 - Burning Down the Whaling Station
    pp 148-168
  • 8 - Washing Away the Past
    pp 169-187
  • Epilogue
    pp 188-191
  • Bibliography
    pp 192-212
  • Index
    pp 213-224

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