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Mud Fish, Tidal Wetland Olympics and the Ariake Sea |
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Reporter Greg Michel
Date 20020330
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"One-hundred casts, one-hundred mutsugoro," says Famous Mutsukake fisherman with a shy sense of pride.
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Place : Saga
Weather : Partly cloudy and Clear / Temperature: 10C (7:00 am)
Route :
Current Location: Kashima, Saga Prefecture 33 03 59 N 130 09 51
Distance traveled: 0 km
Longitude :
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Mr. Okamoto knocks over a can showing his mutsukake skills.
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Fisherman cruising along on an oshiita.
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Report
Mr. Okamoto is a mutsukake legend. Stated simply, this means he catches mutsugoro (Mud Skipper, boleophthalmus pectinirostris), the gray, spotted, jumping fish that call the Ariake tidal wetlands home. "100 casts, 100 mutsugoro," says Mr. Okamoto with a shy sense of pride.
If you were going to try to catch a 10-20 cm jumping fish out of a muddy bog (ie. the tidal wetlands) how would you do it?
Similar to many of the fishing techniques that we have come across (for example hiburi fishing along the Shimanto), mutsukake is unique to this region and its environment. Mutsukake uses a long pole with a fishing line and a heavy four pronged hook, each prong about 3cm in length. Swinging the line out like a pendulum the fisherman casts the hook out over the wetlands behind a mutsugoro. As the hook swings back, it is guided and a quick jerk can hook a mutsugoro even from out of the air!
Mr. Okamoto showed me how it works, using a rod with golf ball in place of the hook and empty cans as his targets. The golf ball glided through the air. As it swung back it knocked over one can. Within seconds, all three cans were knocked over!
This fishing method's craftiness doesn't stop there. In order to get out close to the mutsugoro, Mr. Okamoto and other mutsukake fisherman (only 5 in this part of Ariake) use what is called an oshiita (push-board) to glide across
the surface of the muddy tidal wetland. If you've ever been out in a tidal wetland you know that otherwise, you will to sink into the mud up to your knees. Using the oshiita is almost like skateboarding across the mud. Fisherman have used the oshiita for hundreds of years to catch mutsugoro, ark shells, a type of razor shells, and warasubo.
"I was raised as a kid in the tidal wetlands. I love it!" says Mr. Okamoto. "There used to be so many mutsugoro in the wetlands, there was almost no space between them." However, over the last 20 years, Mr. Okamoto believes the
introduction of agricultural chemicals in farming and cultivation, development and reclamation projects have greatly effected the wetlands. "You can hardly find razor shells today," says Okamoto.
In order to share the fun and skill of mutsukake as well as the joy of just getting into the tidal wetlands, for 17 years now, Forum Kashima (a third sector community based company) has hosted the tidal wetland (gata) Olympics
along Kashima City's Nanaura Coast. Events range from tug of war to a bicycle race, butterfly mud swimming to oshiita races. Okamoto says, "Having everyone experience the wetlands with their bodies is important but our aim is to have people think about how we can protect this precious ocean." Just this year over 30,000 people came to participate.
Until recently Mr. Okamoto's mutsukake, mutsugoro, and even the tidal wetlands themselves have gone almost unnoticed. Because of the "appeal of getting into the mud" discovered in the Tidal Wetland Olympics and recent controversy over a development project in Isahaya Bay, the wetlands are quickly becoming a place to think about our relationship with nature in the future.
Greg
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