xxv. Memorials for Whales (鯨の供養碑) and People (人紀念碑) or Taiji (太地) Part 4

Location (Memorial Tower for Whales): Taiji (near JR Line Taiji Stn.), Wakayama Prefecture; about 3.5 hours from Osaka + a little under 40 min. walking time; or a 3 min. walk from Ebisu Shrine

Location (Semi-Nagare Monument): Taiji (near JR Line Taiji Stn.), Wakayama Prefecture; about 3.5 hours from Osaka + 45 min. walking time; or a 10 min. walk from either Ebisu Shrine or the Memorial Tower for Whales

Associated with: Japanese "whale cults"

What force leads a man to a life filled with danger,

High on seas or a mile underground?

It's when need is his master and poverty's no stranger.

And there's no other work to be found.

But she has come down to condemn that wild ocean.

For the murderous loss of her man.

His boat sailed out on Wednesday morning.

And it's feared she's gone down with all hands.

-Lament for the Fisherman's Wife

The producers of The Cove commented in the film's final narration that they couldn't understand why the people of Taiji would construct so many monuments to whales. It is perhaps because the pursuit of no other quarry could so mimic the fickleness of the gods in the way the traditional whale hunt symbolized the potential for great prosperity as well as the promise of ruin in the face of failure. What you have then is a people who show gratitude and awe in equal parts.

Photo Credit: Gragma's Yokai Tourbus

Taking a right at Ebisu Shrine, I followed the curving road, encountering more spectators and race volunteers. I soon arrived in front of Tomyo-ji Temple, where an excited photographer told me to get out of the way. I did so most obediently, and while we waited for the cyclists to whiz past, I watched as he argued with a spectator and made a woman reverse away in her car. I explained to him in Japanese that I had only really come to Taiji that day as a tourist, to which he replied in booming English: "GOOD TIMING!" Bikes having flown past, I was granted permission to move along and so headed up the stone fortification of Tomyo-ji.

Photo Credit: Gragma's Yokai Tourbus

Such fortifications are more appropriate under things that need defending, like castles. As it happens, Tomyo-ji now sits on the old foundation of Taiji Castle, and the graceful sloping stone walls remain. At the top besides the temple itself is some beautiful statuary and also a simple stone marker, which despite its height has been dubbed in English as the memorial "tower" for whales. In Meiwa 5 (1768), right at the height of traditional whaling, Hama Hachibei (a whaler) erected the monument using materials from his family grave plot. That century had been dotted with poor catches, not to mention a tsunami in 1707 that saw most of the buildings in Taiji destroyed and the series of events that led to the construction of the whale bone bridge at Zuikoji in 1756. Here at Tomyo-ji is erected a monument to pacify the souls of departed whales and to pray for their rebirth. The Buddhist monument to the far right of the whale memorial was also erected by descendants of Hachibei.

Photo Credit: Gragma's Yokai Tourbus

Far off the coast of Taiji on the morning of December 25, 1878, the exhausted whaling fleet was in trouble. Having finally secured the whales to the moso-bune, they found themselves not making much headway against the west wind. Realizing that their strength would give out before they made it back to shore, in desperation they cut the whales loose and fought the wind with all their remaining might.

Photo Credit: Gragma's Yokai Tourbus

Sawadayu and his boat were in much bigger trouble. They were caught in a current they did not have the energy to challenge and were getting further and further away from the fleet. Unable to resist the current, the 26 men aboard Sawadayu's boat battled hunger, dehydration and hypothermia out on the open sea for a week before they finally came upon a chain of islands. As they approached one of the islands' shores, the boat capsized, killing 18 of the 26 exhausted whalers. Only eight survived, Sawadayu being one of them.

I returned to the main road encircling Taiji Bay and made my way up the sloping incline. By this time rain had started to fall and my umbrella was tottering in the wind, doing its best to keep my camera dry. I came to a short flight of stairs along the incline that took me up to the Semi-Nagare Monument, the Hyoryubito-kinenhi (漂流人紀念碑), or "monument for those who drifted away." It honors the whalers who lost their lives in the tragedy.

Photo Credit: Gragma's Yokai Tourbus

The island that Sawadayu and the other survivors washed up on was Kozushima, part of the Izu Islands chain, nearly 190 miles (a whopping 300 kilometers) from Taiji and administratively part of Tokyo prefecture. It was well into the new year when Sawadayu finally returned to Taiji with the other survivors of his boat. If they were saddened to report the deaths of their fellows, they were unprepared to learn the extent of the tragedy of the fleet as it had unfolded. One of the other boats landed ashore in Atawa (more than 20 miles north along the coast from Taiji), and the crew of another boat was picked up by a passing ship. The survivors were 13 men in all. Of the remaining 100 or so men, 12 died from starvation, while the others, unable to overcome the wind and current, drifted off into the ocean never to be seen or heard from again. Fathers and sons (including apprentices as young as 10), all the siblings from the same family were known to have been lost together. The culmination of several hundred years of Taiji whaling, the people, the boats, the equipment... nearly all washed away in a single tragedy.

Comments: It's a somber end to our journey, but I'm sucker for stone poles in the ground. Time to finish what we started.

Getting There

Take a right off the main road at Ebisu Shrine. Follow the curve of the road around and Tomyo-ji will appear on your right.

Map courtesy of Google Maps

To get to the Semi-Nagare Monument, get back on to the main road and turn right. The monument is a ways up the slope on the right.

Map courtesy of Google Maps

Driver Gragma (yokaitourbus "at" mail "dot" com)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yokaitourbus/

The Master List (Wakayama)
http://yokaitourbus.blogspot.jp/2015/08/6-g-master-list-wakayama.html

(religion) Japanese Whale Cults (鯨崇拝)
Site: Tomyo-ji Temple (東明寺)
Nearest Station: (JR Line) Taiji Stn. (太地駅)
Google Map Search: "Tomyoji Taiji"

(religion) Japanese Whale Cults (鯨崇拝)
Site: Semi-Nagare Monument/Monument to Those Lost at Sea (漂流人紀念碑)
Nearest Station: (JR Line) Taiji Stn. (太地駅)
Google Map Search: NA