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The present study discusses the Japanese legend that Xu
Fu introduced whaling into Japan at Kumano in Wakayama Prefecture during
the Qin dynasty. The Chinese had no whaling custom, while the Japanese
can trace the custom back to the Jomon-period. In Korea a rock engraving
at Ban-gu dae shows also prehistoric whaling, though it was a common opinion
for a long time that the Korean whaling began under the influence of modern
Japan. At 7 out of 38 shell middens of Kyongsan Namdo including Ban-gu
Dae, cetacean remains have been found and the cetacean-site-ratio (18.4%)
is higher than 5.6% (31/551) in Chiba or 7.7% (25/325) in Miyagi prefectures.
This ratio is highly similar to 21.5% (14/65) in Nagasaki prefecture, though
lower than 40.4% (9/22) in Ishikawa prefecture at the Mawaki site where
dolphin "fishing" was conducted. In the Liaotung Peninsula and
the Changshan Isles in North China, cetacean remains have been excavated
at 2 out of 33 (6.1%) shell middens. In Southeast Asia and South China,
cetacean remains have been excavated from 2 out of 256 (0.1%) shell middens.
On the basis of Xu Fu legend and these archaeological data about whale
or whaling, we can hypothesize that his party arrived at Kumano after traveling
South Korea or north Kyushu and there imparted the whaling knowledge acquired
during the travels.
(Revised for my web-site after ANTHROPOLOGICAL SCIENCE, Vol.105, No.1:66, 1997) |
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