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Gallery|Environment

Environmental changes threaten Japan’s cormorant fishing legacy

Temperatures in the Nagara River have risen, delaying the spawning period of the ayu by a month.

Cormorant fishing master, known as usho, Youichiro Adachi, 48, poses for a picture with his cormorant, before cormorant fishing or ukai, on the Nagara River in Oze, Seki, Japan.
Cormorant fishing master, known as usho, Youichiro Adachi, 48, poses for a picture with his cormorant, before cormorant fishing or ukai, on the Nagara River in Oze, Seki, Japan. [Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters]
Published On 15 Nov 202315 Nov 2023
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Cormorants have been a constant presence in Youichiro Adachi’s life, and when he was young, he cried whenever one of his family’s birds died.

Now 48, Adachi still cares deeply for his birds, drawing them out of their baskets each morning and stroking their long necks to confirm their health and maintain a bond.

“For me, cormorants are my partners,” he said.

Adachi is the 18th generation of his family to be a master cormorant fisherman and one of about 50 people in Japan carrying on the 1,300-year tradition of using trained birds to dive for fish. It is considered the ideal way to catch the sweet ayu river fish, and his family has a hereditary mandate to supply the delicacy to the Japanese imperial household.

The method, known as ukai, was once common in Japan and a version of it has also been practised in China. But today it is largely supported by tourists, who watch the fishermen and their birds bringing in the catch.

Now, environmental changes are making the fish ever more scarce and small, endangering the lifeline of the fisherman, known as usho, and their flocks.

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“I go to the river every day so I can feel the changes,” Adachi said, drawing upon nearly four decades of working on the Nagara River in Oze, a town in central Gifu prefecture.

Come sundown between May and October, he boards a boat along with an assistant, a steersman, and about 10 cormorants leashed at the neck and body. A basket of flames swings out over the dark river, waking the ayu from resting spots among the stones below.

The cormorants catch them as they dart away, but the leash keeps the larger fish from going down the birds’ gullets. The birds are coaxed to release the fish into a bucket. And from a nearby observation boat, tourists take in the spectacle of splashing feathers and dancing fire.

As is common these days, the haul is tiny. Guests at a traditional ryokan inn run by the Adachi family are fed salted, grilled ayu, but it is supplied by a local fishmonger.

Adachi ascribes the dearth of fish to the weather, which he says has become more unpredictable, with heavier rains and flooding on the once calm river. And construction of flood barriers has led to smaller rocks and sand filling the river bottom, obstructing the larger rocks that form the ayu’s habitat.

“In the past, there were only big boulders, but now they’re small,” he said. “The sand and gravel has increased, and along with that the ayu have gotten smaller too.”

Environmental studies have confirmed his concerns. Temperatures in the Nagara River have risen to a high of 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit), delaying the spawning period of the ayu by a month, said Gifu University associate professor Morihiro Harada.

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The fish like to eat algae that grow on large stones, Harada said, but those rocks have become less common after repeated anti-flooding works carried out by river management authorities.

Down river from Oze, the usho of Gifu City has a larger, more tourism-oriented operation. Fleets of boats allow visitors to eat and drink as they watch the fishermen and birds.

The same environmental shifts also affect this business, with rough waters sometimes pushing the tourist boats off course or leading to cancellations.

To contend with the growing number of lost business days, an economic development body known as ORGAN set up an elevated riverside viewing deck on a trial basis, attempting to recreate the boat experience in evenings hosted by apprentice geishas and other traditional performers.

“We wanted to offer a more refined, higher-quality experience,” said ORGAN leader Yusuke Kaba.

Facing an uncertain future, Adachi can only honour the past and tend to the present. In his home, he prays before shrines dedicated to his usho ancestors. And in the yard, he tends to his 16 birds, one by one.

His son Toichiro helps out on the boat and is training to become the next master fisherman. Toichiro wants to carry on the tradition. But for now, the 22-year-old spends his days working with a computer at a maker of high-precision machine tools, the type of industry that transformed Japan’s economy and society in the post-war period.

“I want my son to inherit my job, but it’s tough to make a living,” Adachi said. “If we cannot catch fish any more, our motivation is gone and there’s no meaning in what we do.”

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The Nagara River, where usho (cormorant fishing master) Youichiro Adachi, 48, catches ayu river fish with cormorants, is seen during sunset in the Oze, Seki, Japan.
The Nagara River, where Youichiro Adachi catches ayu river fish with cormorants, is seen during sunset in the town of Oze. [Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters]
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Cormorant fishing master, known as usho, Youichiro Adachi (left), 48, holds the leashes tied to the necks and bodies of cormorants as he prepares for cormorant fishing or ukai, on the Nagara River in Oze, Seki, Japan.
Youichiro Adachi, left, holds the leashes tied to the necks and bodies of cormorants as he prepares for cormorant fishing, or ukai, on the Nagara River. [Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters]
Visitors wait to board a cormorant fishing viewing boat on the Nagara River in Oze, Seki, Japan.
Visitors wait to board a cormorant fishing viewing boat on the Nagara River. Ukai is a 1,300-year-old tradition largely supported by tourists nowadays, with fleets of boats allowing visitors to eat and drink as they watch the fishermen and birds. [Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters]
Spectators watch cormorant fishing master, known as usho, Youichiro Adachi (not pictured), 48, from a viewing boat on the Nagara River in Oze, Seki, Japan.
Spectators watch Youichiro Adachi from a viewing boat on the Nagara River. [Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters]
Maiko (apprentice female Geisha) Kikuyu, 20, serves visitors on a viewing boat during a party organized by the nonprofit organization ORGAN, before watching cormorant fishing, known as ukai, in Gifu, Japan.
Maiko (apprentice female Geisha) Kikuyu, 20, serves visitors on a viewing boat during a party organised by the non-profit ORGAN before watching cormorant fishing. 'We wanted to offer a more refined, higher-quality experience,' said ORGAN leader Yusuke Kaba. [Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters]
Cormorant fishing master, known as usho, Youichiro Adachi, 48, sorts ayu river fish bought from a fishmonger to serve at his traditional ryokan inn, which he runs with his mother Miwa in Oze, Seki, Japan.
Youichiro Adachi sorts ayu fish bought from a fishmonger to serve at his traditional ryokan inn, which he runs with his mother Miwa in Oze. [Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters]
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Cormorant fishing master, known as usho, Youichiro Adachi, 48, shows the marks left by his cormorants on an ayu river fish, at his house in Oze, Seki, Japan.
Youichiro Adachi shows the marks left by his cormorants on a fish at his house in Oze. [Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters]
Cormorants swim in a pool after fishing or ukai at cormorant fishing master, also known as usho Youichiro Adachi's garden in Oze, Seki, Japan.
Cormorants swim in a pool in Youichiro Adachi's garden. [Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters]
Cormorant fishing master, known as usho, Youichiro Adachi, 48, imitates the fluttering of a cormorant to make the bird mimic him, giving Adachi a chance to check on its health, at home in Oze, Seki, Japan.
Youichiro Adachi imitates the fluttering of a cormorant to make the bird mimic him, giving Adachi a chance to check on its health. [Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters]
Cormorant fishing master, known as usho, Youichiro Adachi, 48, feeds a cormorant with a fish after cormorant fishing, known as ukai, at home in Oze, Seki, Japan.
Youichiro Adachi feeds a cormorant with a fish. [Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters]
Toichiro, 22, son of cormorant fishing master or usho Youichiro Adachi, 48, carries cormorants in baskets as he prepares for cormorant fishing or ukai, on the Nagara River in Oze, Seki, Japan.
Toichiro, 22, son of Youichiro Adachi, carries cormorants in baskets as he prepares for cormorant fishing. [Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters]
Gifu University's professors Morihiro Harada (right) and Shigeya Nagayama collect water to analyze the environmental DNA of ayu river fish from the Nagara River in Mino, Seiki, Japan.
Gifu University professors Shigeya Nagayama, left, and Morihiro Harada collect water to analyse the environmental DNA of ayu river fish from the Nagara River. [Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters]


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