The Gods of the Sea
Whales and Coastal Communities in Northeast Japan, c.1600-2019
Part of Cambridge Oceanic Histories
- Author: Fynn Holm, Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, Germany
- Date Published: August 2023
- availability: Not yet published - available from October 2024
- format: Hardback
- isbn: 9781009305518
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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.
Read more- Highlights the importance of nonhuman actors in the Anthropocene debate
- Presents a more nuanced discussion of Japan's past and present whaling policies
- Shows that the human-whale relationship was in the past often mutually beneficial
- Available as Open Access
Awards
- Winner, 2024 John R. Lyman Book Awards, North American Society for Oceanic History
Reviews & endorsements
'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
See more reviews'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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×Product details
- Date Published: August 2023
- format: Hardback
- isbn: 9781009305518
- length: 240 pages
- dimensions: 235 x 160 x 18 mm
- weight: 0.47kg
- availability: Not yet published - available from October 2024
Table of Contents
Part One. Living with Whales, 1600-1850
1. The Whale Pilgrimage
2. The Beached God
3. Bringing Sardines to the Shore
4. Establishing Whaling in the North
Part Two. Destroying the Cetosphere, 1850-2019
5. The Whaling Empire
6. The First Whaling Town
7. Burning Down the Whaling Station
8. Washing Away the Past.
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