In the Jorenji temple graveyard are tombstones commemorating two mariners from the Sanagishima island, Tomizo Hirata and Koji Sanagi, who sailed across the pacific ocean to America in 1860. That was the first voyage Japan has ever undertaken after ending 220 years of her isolation policy.
Why were the two men from such a tiny island chosen as crew members for the historical voyage?
The story goes back to medieval ages when the island was on the artery of maritime traffic. The Sanagishima island is one of 700 islands in the Seto Inland Sea which provided principal lines of communication: commercial vessels, navies, and pirates.
Seto Inland Sea Map
Especially the Shiwaku archipelago, that is composed of 28 islands including the Sanagishima, since medieval ages were bases for seafarers and pirates.
The heyday of pirates came in the 16th century coinciding with the age of Counter-Reformation. According to the Jesuit missionary, Luis Frois, the Shiwaku islands were ruled by one of the most powerful pirates in Japan who inspected cargoes on ships passing through the Seto Inland Sea (*1). In the Japanese civil war period in the 16th century they worked as mercenaries employed by warlords who ruled the mainland.
The history of pirates ended when piracy was banned in 1588. In the 17th century, while the civil war had ended, the Shiwaku troops, famous for their skilled shipbuilding and seafaring, were directly employed by the central government. They flourished by transporting rice from farming districts to the capital. But after the government changed the ordering way, they diminished their business. Seafarers left the islands to get jobs in other places. Shipbuilders applied their skills to buildings and turned to carpenters.
Even so, the Shiwaku mariners kept their fame for their seafaring skills still in the middle 19th century when Japan was beginning international trades, to the extent that as many as 35 mariners from the Shiwaku islands including two from the Sanagishima were employed for the transpacific voyage to America in 1860.
This is the mainstream of the history of the Shiwaku archipelago, but it does not tell why among 28 islands only the Sanagishima exceptionally developed to a cat island.
The cat statue erected in the early 21st century at Honura port symbolizes the Sanagishima as a cat island.
We, cat island explores, shall look into the details of the Shiwaku history. People on each island might have developed to fit to their own environment which varies from island to island, just like the finches on the Galapagos islands had evolved in the different ways owing to the environment of each island.
We now quote Charles Darwin writing in On the Origin of Species:
Occupations of islanders by the count of households on the Shiwaku islands in 1872. The numbers in the parentheses are total sum of households.(*2)
It is noticeable that, while groups of carpenters and seafarers lived on several islands as history records wrote, on the Sanagishima no less than 97% were fishermen.
So, what is the relationship between fishermen and cats? According to the zoologist, Akihiro Yamane, cats survive in fishing villages by having plenty of fish scraps that fishermen leave. The fishermen on the other hand were helped by cats who protected their wooden ships from being bitten by rats that could occasionally cause fatal accidents.(*3)
A kitten on the Sanagishima eating a raw fish bento box given by an islander
It seems likely, therefore, that the high rate population of fishermen is one of the key reasons why the Sanagishima have developed to a cat island.
So, now we wonder if the another island, Seijima, which also had high fishermen rate of 99%, may be a cat island. It could have been, but the island today does not exist. By the reclamation in 1968, the island became part of the mainland.
Another possible cat island is Honjima, on which, though the fishermen rate of the whole island is only 27%, in a village, Kasajima, the rate is as high as 91%. Some blogs say that in the middle 2010s many cats could be seen in the Kasajima village on Honjima island, that would corroborate the feline-fisherman symbiosis.
Back on the Sanagishima, fisheries diminished gradually in the 20th century. The number of fishermen was 500 in 1935, 89 in 1965, and 13 in 2010. Today fishery on the Sanagishima is almost vanishing. Average age of the people on the Sanagishima in 2016 is 75. Many fishermen have already retired and live on pension.
That the village once have lived on fishing can barely be shown today by buoys hanging on bars. Each buoy, oddly enough, looks like a cat's head.
The buoys on the Sanagishima look like cats' heads.
Each buoy has a couple of fins with rope holes, that look like ears. Buoy makers call the fin "usagi mimi" meaning a bunny ear, but on this island, it is a cat ear. The important thing these buoys give us is the analogy of the evolution of sea animals to land animals, in which, fish gills evolved to ears (*4). Buoys, likewise, landed and changed their bunny ears to cat ears in order to survive on the cat island.
Even the earless buoy in the middle has survived with its unique manner.
The buoys on the Sanagishima hang on bars all day; as well as fishermen, buoys seem to have already retired. So, without fish, what makes the cats survive?
The cats on the Sanagishima seems affluently fed.
Cats still rely on people's feeding. Feline human relationship on this island seems still intact today.
In a hot sunny day, people in the village give water to cats.
A local islander says that in the past there were more cats than today. Feline population may have decreased as fishermen population decreased, but there still are more than 70 cats surviving on the Sanagishima with the help of islanders.
This black tail has evolved to drink water from a bucket of water.
So, why does the islanders take care of so many cats even today if retired fishermen don't need cats anymore to protect their ships from rats or to scavenge fish scraps? If symbiosis of two species is not always mutualistic, this might be the case, but when it comes to animal species coexisting with human beings, we always have to take it into consideration that cuteness makes purrfect sense.
(*1) フロイス 日本史5 五畿内篇3
(*2) Hiroshi ONO, 'THE ECONOMIC STRUCTURE AND ITS TRANSFORMATION IN THE SHIWAIC.U ISLANDS UNDER THE "NIMMYO SYSTEM" ', 地理学評論 Vol. 28 (1955) No. 7
(*3) 山根明弘,「猫の秘密」, 2014 文春新書
(*4) Neil Shubin, Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body, 2009
Why were the two men from such a tiny island chosen as crew members for the historical voyage?
The story goes back to medieval ages when the island was on the artery of maritime traffic. The Sanagishima island is one of 700 islands in the Seto Inland Sea which provided principal lines of communication: commercial vessels, navies, and pirates.
Seto Inland Sea Map
Especially the Shiwaku archipelago, that is composed of 28 islands including the Sanagishima, since medieval ages were bases for seafarers and pirates.
The heyday of pirates came in the 16th century coinciding with the age of Counter-Reformation. According to the Jesuit missionary, Luis Frois, the Shiwaku islands were ruled by one of the most powerful pirates in Japan who inspected cargoes on ships passing through the Seto Inland Sea (*1). In the Japanese civil war period in the 16th century they worked as mercenaries employed by warlords who ruled the mainland.
The history of pirates ended when piracy was banned in 1588. In the 17th century, while the civil war had ended, the Shiwaku troops, famous for their skilled shipbuilding and seafaring, were directly employed by the central government. They flourished by transporting rice from farming districts to the capital. But after the government changed the ordering way, they diminished their business. Seafarers left the islands to get jobs in other places. Shipbuilders applied their skills to buildings and turned to carpenters.
Even so, the Shiwaku mariners kept their fame for their seafaring skills still in the middle 19th century when Japan was beginning international trades, to the extent that as many as 35 mariners from the Shiwaku islands including two from the Sanagishima were employed for the transpacific voyage to America in 1860.
This is the mainstream of the history of the Shiwaku archipelago, but it does not tell why among 28 islands only the Sanagishima exceptionally developed to a cat island.
The cat statue erected in the early 21st century at Honura port symbolizes the Sanagishima as a cat island.
We, cat island explores, shall look into the details of the Shiwaku history. People on each island might have developed to fit to their own environment which varies from island to island, just like the finches on the Galapagos islands had evolved in the different ways owing to the environment of each island.
We now quote Charles Darwin writing in On the Origin of Species:
In the Galapagos Archipelago, many even of the birds, though so well adapted for flying from island to island, differ on the different islands; thus there are three closely allied species of mocking-thrush, each confined to its own island.This can be adapted to the history of the Shiwaku Archipelago:
In the Shiwaku Archipelago, many even of the sailors, though so well adapted for ferrying from island to island, differ on the different islands; thus there are three closely allied workers, each confined to his own island.The three closely allied workers on the Shiwaku islands were carpenters who had evolved from shipbuilders, seafarers and fishermen.
Occupations of islanders by the count of households on the Shiwaku islands in 1872. The numbers in the parentheses are total sum of households.(*2)
It is noticeable that, while groups of carpenters and seafarers lived on several islands as history records wrote, on the Sanagishima no less than 97% were fishermen.
So, what is the relationship between fishermen and cats? According to the zoologist, Akihiro Yamane, cats survive in fishing villages by having plenty of fish scraps that fishermen leave. The fishermen on the other hand were helped by cats who protected their wooden ships from being bitten by rats that could occasionally cause fatal accidents.(*3)
A kitten on the Sanagishima eating a raw fish bento box given by an islander
It seems likely, therefore, that the high rate population of fishermen is one of the key reasons why the Sanagishima have developed to a cat island.
So, now we wonder if the another island, Seijima, which also had high fishermen rate of 99%, may be a cat island. It could have been, but the island today does not exist. By the reclamation in 1968, the island became part of the mainland.
Another possible cat island is Honjima, on which, though the fishermen rate of the whole island is only 27%, in a village, Kasajima, the rate is as high as 91%. Some blogs say that in the middle 2010s many cats could be seen in the Kasajima village on Honjima island, that would corroborate the feline-fisherman symbiosis.
Back on the Sanagishima, fisheries diminished gradually in the 20th century. The number of fishermen was 500 in 1935, 89 in 1965, and 13 in 2010. Today fishery on the Sanagishima is almost vanishing. Average age of the people on the Sanagishima in 2016 is 75. Many fishermen have already retired and live on pension.
That the village once have lived on fishing can barely be shown today by buoys hanging on bars. Each buoy, oddly enough, looks like a cat's head.
The buoys on the Sanagishima look like cats' heads.
Each buoy has a couple of fins with rope holes, that look like ears. Buoy makers call the fin "usagi mimi" meaning a bunny ear, but on this island, it is a cat ear. The important thing these buoys give us is the analogy of the evolution of sea animals to land animals, in which, fish gills evolved to ears (*4). Buoys, likewise, landed and changed their bunny ears to cat ears in order to survive on the cat island.
Even the earless buoy in the middle has survived with its unique manner.
The buoys on the Sanagishima hang on bars all day; as well as fishermen, buoys seem to have already retired. So, without fish, what makes the cats survive?
The cats on the Sanagishima seems affluently fed.
Cats still rely on people's feeding. Feline human relationship on this island seems still intact today.
In a hot sunny day, people in the village give water to cats.
A local islander says that in the past there were more cats than today. Feline population may have decreased as fishermen population decreased, but there still are more than 70 cats surviving on the Sanagishima with the help of islanders.
This black tail has evolved to drink water from a bucket of water.
So, why does the islanders take care of so many cats even today if retired fishermen don't need cats anymore to protect their ships from rats or to scavenge fish scraps? If symbiosis of two species is not always mutualistic, this might be the case, but when it comes to animal species coexisting with human beings, we always have to take it into consideration that cuteness makes purrfect sense.
(*1) フロイス 日本史5 五畿内篇3
(*2) Hiroshi ONO, 'THE ECONOMIC STRUCTURE AND ITS TRANSFORMATION IN THE SHIWAIC.U ISLANDS UNDER THE "NIMMYO SYSTEM" ', 地理学評論 Vol. 28 (1955) No. 7
(*3) 山根明弘,「猫の秘密」, 2014 文春新書
(*4) Neil Shubin, Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body, 2009
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