Ainu Fishing Methods
John Batchelor demonstrates the fishing techniques and equipment of the Hokkaido Ainu.
Location: Hokkaido, Japan
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
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Fishing
The general name among the Ainu for fish is chep, called also by some chi-ep, especially when using emphatic, legendary, or polite language. Chi-ep, of which chep is a contraction, means "food," and this fact goes toward showing that the Ainu were originally a fish-eating people, or perhaps one would say that fish was the staff of life among them.
Among fresh-water fish the salmon and salmon-trout hold the highest place. This is what one would expect, inasmuch as these are the largest and most useful fishes to enter the rivers. The true salmon is called shibe, and this word means either "the great thing" or "the chief food." It is also known as kamui chep besides, and that means "divine food," or "divine fish," and it is reported to have originally come down from Paradise.
Salmon fishing is a very favourite pursuit among the people during the season, and some of them are very clever at spearing them, for they commence to use the fish-spear very early in life. I knew a lad only twelve years of age who sometimes would start off to the river at daybreak and return by eight o'clock with six or eight fine fish. The spear used for this purpose is called a marek, and the illustration is that of one I had formerly in my collection. The pole to which the hook is attached is about eight feet long, and the marek itself is about eighteen inches in length.
The hook (1) is of Japanese manufacture, and is so fixed that when a fish is struck it enters the flesh, and is drawn over in such a way as to keep the fish between it and the end of the pole (2); and so it happens that the more the fish struggles to get free the more thoroughly the hook transfixes it. The string (3) at the back is made in this instance of sea-lions' skin.
When using this instrument the people usually stand along the banks of the rivers (sometimes up to their knees in water), and when they see a salmon coming along they cast their spears at it. At times, however, they fish from their boats. About the middle of November, or the beginning of December, they fish by torchlight, one person holding the lighted torch over the river's bank to attract the fish while another strikes the unsuspecting creature with his spear.
Nets made of hemp and mugwort fiber used formerly to be used ; but when I first came among them these were only used at night, not by preference, so it was told me, but for fear of the Japanese authorities, who had forbidden nets to be used.
The men formerly made a kind of fish-trap they called urai, but they are no longer allowed to do so. These traps were generally placed across the rivers near the various tributaries. They were made of stakes driven into the river bed, the spaces between the stakes being filled in with a kind of willow wicker-work. This served as a fence to keep the fish from passing. They were made in the shape of an arrow head, and always pointed down stream. At the end or point of the arrow head a doorway was made, and a kind of square net which was made to slip up and down at will was fitted into it, whilst over the top was a platform upon which the fisherman sat. The top bar of the net was allowed to rest in a notch left in the door-posts for its reception, whilst the bottom part, to which the handle was attached, rested upon the bed of the river.
As soon as a fish was seen to enter the net, the person upon the platform drew the lower portion of the net up till it met the upper, and thus the fish was caught. Various other little wicker-work traps are still baited and placed along the streams for the smaller fry. There is a very curious thing, however, connected with killing the salmon well worth telling here. It is this:- When the Ainu go salmon fishing they always provide a thick willow stick about two feet long with which to strike the salmon's head and kill it. This stick is called Isapa-kik-ni, "the head-striking wood."
The Ainu say that the salmon do not like being killed with a stone or any wood other than good sound willow, but they are very fond of being killed with a willow stick. Indeed, they are said to hold the isapa-kik-ni in great esteem. If anything else is used the fish will go away in disgust.
An Ainu once talking to me on the subject of salmon, said: "Some of the smaller salmon are called inao-kot-chep, i.e. the fish which have inao (given them)." There is another kind named kamui koitukka chep, which are very precious indeed, for their heads are great charms. These have short snouts and their heads are fashioned something in the shape of a cup. When such fish are killed they must be placed on a tray, set before the fire and worshipped. The head must then be cut off and inao offered to it, after which the body may be cooked and eaten. The stick also with which salmon have been killed should also be worshipped and inao offered it.
My informant, continuing, said: "There are also many kinds of witch fish. Some of these have eyes red and bright like the Adonis amurensis. These, however, are not really fish, but mermaids changed into fish. Others have lumps like boils upon their bodies. These are called Tenki sei chep, and that means small-pox fish. These are dreadful creatures, and if eaten will cause small-pox. Others are rotten inside, and whoever eats these will quickly dies of stomach disease."
Mud trout and large pike are caught with a spear called chinininiap or apininiap. The handle of this instrument is about eight or nine feet long, and when fitted up ready for use it is fully ten feet in length. As it will be seen from the figure (1) this spear has two heads to it, which are fastened to the pole by means of a string. These heads (2) are barbed, and consist of two parts - an iron point (3) and a bone foundation (2). As soon as the fish is struck with this spear, the barbed heads come off the points of the pole (4), but the fish is secured by means of the strings (5) which are attached to the spear heads and back part of the shaft. Figure (6) represents a bait or decoy which is drawn along the bottom of the river. This is nothing but a piece of iron wrapped in blue material bound on with white bark. At the end of this is a piece of white bone (a) two inches long, which is furnished with a tail (b) made of pieces of bark and a red piece of cloth
Harpoons used in catching sharks, sea-lions and sword-fish are like those shown at (2) above.
John Batchelor, The Ainu and Their Folk-lore (London: The Religious Tract Society, 1901).
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