Pure Land Buddhism and Whaling Culture in the Chūgoku Region

Itoh, Mayumi

doi:10.1007/978-981-10-6671-9_7

Pure Land Buddhism and Whaling Culture in the Chūgoku Region

Mayumi Itoh²

Chapter
First Online: 06 December 2017

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Abstract

This chapter investigates the whaling culture of the Chūgoku Region (western Honshū) on the coast of the Sea of Japan. Field research in this region features Kayoi on Ōmi Island, Nagato, which was one of the main stations for the Chōshū-Kitaura Classical Whaling Base. Because it has religiously preserved the memorial rites for whales, Kayoi is referred to as the “Mecca of the Japanese culture of mourning the deaths of whales.” This chapter presents the locale’s fascinating whaling culture and analyzes the relationship between the local belief in Pure Land Buddhism and the area’s whaling culture.

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Notes

1.
“Kujira bunka: Kujira o tomuratta kujira-baka ⋅ kujira-zuka nado” (Whale Culture: Whale Graves and Monuments to Mourn the Deaths of Whales), http://www.geocities.co.jp/NatureLand-Sky/3011/kujirahaka.html, accessed November 14, 2015; “An’yō-ji” (An’yō Temple), http://www.eonet.ne.jp/%7Ea-honda/anyojitera/simane2822.htm, accessed December 19, 2015.
2.
Yoshihara Tomokichi, “Kujira no haka” (Graves of Whales), in Tanigawa Ken’ichi, ed., Nihon minzoku bunka shiryō shūsei (Collection of Documents on Japanese Folk Culture), Vol. 18, Tokyo: San’ichi-shobō, 1997, 441; “Itae-choshiki Setogashima hogei-zu” (Wooden Plaque Picture of Whaling at Setogashima), http://www.city.hamada.shimane.jp/www/contents/1001000002430/index.html, accessed December 20, 2015.
3.
“Hagi-shi” (Hagi City), http://www.city.hagi.lg.jp, accessed July 25, 2012.
4.
Ibid.
5.
Yoshihara, 448.
6.
Kawano (not Kōno) Ryōsuke, Chōshū ⋅ Kitaura hogei no aramashi (Introduction to Chōshū Northern Bay Classical Whaling), Nagato: Nagato-Ōtsu kujira-shokubunka o keishō suru-kai, 2005, 4–22.
7.
Ibid.
8.
Tsunoda Fusako, “Ōmi-jima: Nisō no iru chi no hate” (Ōmi Island: The Edge of the World Where Nuns Live), Tabi, September 1969, 70–74.
9.
Kawano 5, 10–13, 81–82, 86–120; Kobayashi Takako, “Kujira hakubutsukan” (Whale Museum), Shōhisha, December 2004, 58.
10.
Kawano, 80–81; Kobayashi, 59.
11.
Fujii Fuminori, “Ōhibi Amadera Hōsen-an no rekishi: Jikō-Shōshin anshu no inori” (History of Nunnery Hōsen-an in Ōhibi: Prayer of Abbess Jikō-Shōshin), Kyōdo Bunka Nagato, No. 26, 2014, 78–87; Kawano, 58.
12.
Fujii, 78–87; Kawano, 78.
13.
Kawano, 79–80; Fujii Fuminori, email to author, February 5, 2016.
14.
Kawano, 79–80.
15.
Ibid.
16.
Kawano, 78–79.
17.
Ibid., 79–80; Fujii Fuminori, author interview, August 9–10, 2012.
18.
Kawano, 83–84.
19.
Ibid., 78, 83–84.
20.
Ibid., 58; Hosokawa Takao, “Nagato kujira-zuka tanbō-ki” (Journal of a Visit to the Whale Grave at Nagato), Part 3, Yamaguchi Shimbun, March 1, 2010.
21.
Kon’no Tsutomu, Kaneko Misuzu futatabi (Revisiting Kaneko Misuzu), Tokyo: Shōgakukan, 2007, pbk., 2011, 43–44, 113–119, 252–254; Kon’no Tsutomu, “Kaneko Misuzu ga nokoshita-mono” (Legacy of Kaneko Mizusu), Kyōdo Bunka Nagato, No. 24, 2012, 134–149.
22.
Fujii, author interview.
23.
Ibid.; Kawano, 83–84.
24.
Ibid. (both); Fujii Fuminori, photocopies of the Death Register for Whales, provided to author, August 2012.
25.
Kawano, 83–84; Yoshihara, 450.
26.
Ibid. (both).
27.
Kawano, 78, 83–84; Fujii, photocopies of the Death Register for Whales.
28.
Ibid. (both).
29.
Kawano, 83–84.
30.
Fujii, “Ōhibi Amadera Hōsen-an no rekishi:…,” 88–89; Iwamoto Chigusa, “Jōdo-shū Amadera: Hōsen-an no seikatsu to shokuji”(Jōdo School Nunnery: Life and Diet of Hōsen-an), Kyōdo Bunka Nagato, No. 20, 2008, 82–83.
31.
Ibid. (both). Charles J. Dunn is the author of Everyday Life in Traditional Japan, North Clarendon, VT: Tuttle Publishing, 1969, pbk., 2008.
32.
Iwamoto, 85–90; Tsunoda, 73–74.
33.
Ibid. (both).
34.
Fujii, “Ōhibi Amadera Hōsen-an no rekishi:...,” 90–94; Kumi Kato, “Prayers for the Whales: Spirituality and Ethics of a Former Whaling Community—Intangible Cultural Heritage for Sustainability,” International Journal of Cultural Property (2007), No. 14, 283–313.
35.
Ibid. (both).
36.
Ibid. (both); Kawano, 42–52; “Nihon kindai-hogei no chichi Oka Jūrō-shi shikyo” (Father of Japanese Modern Whaling, Mr. Oka Jūrō, Dies), January 7, 1923, http://www.town.abu.lg.jp/sys/topics/detail.php?detailID=394
37.
Kawano, 42–52; “Nihon kindai-hogei no chichi Oka Jūrō-shi shikyo.”
38.
Fujii, “Ōhibi Amadera Hōsen-an no rekishi:...,” 91, 93.
39.
Ibid., 70.
40.
Fujii Fuminori, “141-nen-buri ni nemuri kara sameta o-jizō-sama” (Stone Statue of Guardian Deity that was Awaken after 141 Years), Nagato kōhō, December 2004.
41.
Ibid.
42.
Ibid.; Fujii, author interview.
43.
Ibid. (both).
44.
Kawano, 78, 84.
45.
Fujii, author interview.
46.
Hosokawa Takao, “Koshiki-hogei no machi ⋅ Kaneko Misuzu no kokyō dearu Nagato-shi o otozure kujira-bunka ni fureru” (Visit to Nagato, Town of Classical Whaling and Birthplace of Kaneko Misuzu, to Observe Whale Culture), Geiken tsūshin, No. 447, September 2010, 9–18.
47.
Fujii Fuminori, “‘Nagato gei-rei sūhai densetsu’ o tadasu” (To Question the “Legend about the Whale Spirit in Nagato”), Kyōdo Bunka Nagato, No. 25, 2013, 56–64.
48.
Ibid.
49.
Ibid., 34–64.
50.
Ibid.
51.
Ibid.; Kon’no (2007), 2011, 213–214, 232.
52.
Kawano, 83–84; Fujii, email to author.
53.
Ibid. (both).
54.
Kawano, 83–84; Fujii, author interview.
55.
Ibid. (both).
56.
Hosokawa, “Koshiki-hogei no machi…”
57.
“Yokuryū-sha hikiage: Senzaki” (Repatriation of Internees: Senzaki), http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~un3k-mn/hikiage-senzaki.htm, accessed July 11, 2017.
58.
Kawano, 5–6, 58; Yoshihara, 450.
59.
Kon’no (2007), 217–218; “Gyorei no hi” (Memorial Stones for the Souls of Fish), Nagato (city newsletter), December 1, 2004.
60.
Ibid. (both); Kawano, 58.
61.
Kon’no (2007), 218; “Gyorei no hi”; Kawano, 72–73; Yoshihara, 450.
62.
Yoshihara, 450.
63.
Fujii Fuminori, “Kujira eno inori” (Prayers for the Whales), lecture at Yuya, Nagato, June 2009; Kawano, 8–9, 34–36, 62–63.
64.
Ibid. (both).
65.
Ibid. (both).
66.
Kawano, 42–52.
67.
Ibid.
68.
Ibid. 58; “Kujira kansha-hi” (Memorial Stone to Thank Whales), July 25, 2003, http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~rn2h-dimr/ohaka2/12kujira/16cyugoku/simonoseki.html
69.
“Kujira kansha-hi”; “Chōsa-hogei-sendan ga Shimonoseki nyūkō” (Scientific Research Whaleships Return to Shimonoseki Port), Asahi Shimbun, April 5, 2014.
70.
“Taigei kuyō-tō” (Memorial Stone for Big Whale), http://www2a.biglobe.ne.jp/%257emarusan/phokujirakuyoto1.html, accessed December 18, 2015.
71.
Yoshihara, 436; “Kujira bunka: Kujira o tomuratta kujira-baka ⋅ kujira-zuka nado” (Whale Culture: Whale Graves and Monuments to Mourn the Deaths of Whales), http://www.geocities.co.jp/NatureLand-Sky/3011/kujirahaka.html, accessed November 14, 2015; “Setouchi kan’non reijō” (Kan’non Temples in Setouchi), August 2, 2009, http://sherpaland.net/setouchi-kannon/26/26-top.htm
72.
“Chō-gei-hi” (Memorial Stone for Whales/), April 2, 2010, http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~rn2h-dimr/ohaka2/12kujira/16cyugoku/hiro_cyougei.html

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Princeton, New Jersey, USA
Mayumi Itoh

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Itoh, M. (2018). Pure Land Buddhism and Whaling Culture in the Chūgoku Region. In: The Japanese Culture of Mourning Whales. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6671-9_7

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6671-9_7
Published: 06 December 2017
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-10-6670-2
Online ISBN: 978-981-10-6671-9
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