FUJII HiroakiDepartment of Cultural and Historical Studies Professor |
Herons and Great Cormorants Phalacrocorax carbo nested at Chikubushima Island in Lake Biwa, Japan, during the Edo and Meiji periods (18th century – early 20th century). Local residents had much experience with these bird species and a deep folkloric knowledge. The local residents ate the eggs and meat of these birds, and used their feathers for fishing gears and other purposes. Some of them caught the young cormorants and trained them for "cormorant fishing" in Fukui, in the Japan Sea side. However, from the middle of the Showa period (the mid-1900's) they no longer utilized these bird species, even after the population increase of these bird species during the 1990s.