English: Manuscript scroll on paper entitled “Kujirakata shosha zue” [“Genuine copied illustrations of the whaling techniques of Taiji revealed from the source”].

Scroll (273 x 13,760 mm.). At end (in trans.): “All the images are of the whaling at Taiji, April 1857, Tennojiya Shinsuke owned.” Note: the full scrolls are wider than these images.

A remarkable, long, and vividly rendered whaling scroll, from Wakayama Prefecture, depicting the whaling activities in unusual detail, of the famous town of Taiji and its bay (“Taiji ura”). Taiji has long been known as a whaling town, and its history is essentially the history of whaling in Japan. In the 17th century, whalers of the town developed a series of more sophisticated whaling techniques, including the group hunting system (1606), a handheld harpoon, and the whaling net technique (1675).