"This paper sets out to identify the cultural practices reflected in the traditional whaling songs of Japan. Themes are identified in a sample of 50 songs from nine prefectures. The findings show that the songs provide a basic outline of Edo-period whaling in terms of geography, personnel, techniques, and whale types. However, observing broad similarities across the corpus, between genres and between regions, this paper suggests that these songs were not so much documentary as prospective, based on idealized forms, and that their role was principally to reaffirm a social and spiritual consensus before and after whaling. In these respects they differ from the more narrative whaling songs and sea shanties of British and American origin. " |