"Moby Dick diners spout joys of harpoon tang"
「鯨を食べる人たちは銛の音の喜びについて語る」

2003年7月1日配信


Whales are among the most majestic creatures on earth -- an entire industry is devoted to carrying throngs to watch as the prehistoric relics frolic and gambol along on the waves or occasionally swim by to dazzle with their magnificent girth and grace. In Japan, though, people would just prefer to eat 'em.

Last month, the International Whaling Commission met in Berlin and upheld its 1982 ban on commercial whaling, despite the best efforts of the Japanese contingent to make sure the majority of celebrated cetaceans could get back on the menus in diners from Sapporo to Saga.

"One reason is because minke whales now have more food to eat," Shigetoshi Nishiwaki, a researcher at the Institute of Cetacean Research, tells Shukan Taishu (7/14). "We estimate there are now as many as 760,000 minke whales in the Southern Ocean."

Institute officials hope to get these whales into places such as Taruichi, a Tokyo restaurant specializing in whale cuisine.

"Whale is a traditional Japanese food and is a part of the Japanese culture," Taruichi's owner, Takashi Sato, tells Shukan Jitsuwa. "Who cares what the anti-waling lobby may have to say, but those are the facts."

Taruichi offers a wide array of whale sushi. It serves dishes using the whale's meat, skin, marrow, fins and tails. One of the apparent features of whale meat is its variety of uses. Taruichi and other whale restaurants across Japan serve myriad other cetacean delicacies, including whale steak, whale soup and whale croquettes. Most of the meat comes from creatures culled for scientific research purposes.

Japan -- where rather than watch "Free Willy," most people would prefer to take a chomp out of the star -- is permitted to catch up to 540 whales a year for scientific research purposes. Most of the catch are minke whales, which are, according to the magazine, studied while still aboard the trawlers that reel them in before they're cut up into little parts and refrigerated and brought back to Japan. The roughly 3,000 tons of whale meat caught to advance the scientific knowledge of the Japanese is then sold at fish markets across the country.

Before it was common to eat beef in Japan, whale meat was a staple source of protein. Genso Kujiraya in Shibuya maintains that tradition, according to Shukan Taishu, with its whale sukiyaki. When it was first opened in 1959, commercial whaling was still in full force and whale meat was cheaper than chicken. Then, it was packed with students looking to save money, but has since became a high class establishment, though it's still possible to munch on some Moby Dick for as little as 2,300 yen a person.

Despite the widespread condemnation across the globe of Japan's taste for whale, it seems likely to remain on the menu at many restaurants here for the foreseeable future.

"Research into minke whales began along Japanese coasts last year, so this year's whale meat is 20 percent cheaper than before," Taruichi's boss Sato tells Shukan Taishu. "But, if we really want the young people to know what it's like to eat whale, we really have to get rid of the commercial ban on whaling."
最終更新:2008年06月01日 23:02