Taiji,_Wakayama - by SriLankaNewsWeb.com

As of 2007, the town has an estimated population of 3,444 and a density of 577.85 persons per km². The total area is 5.96 km². Taiji is the smallest local government by area in Wakayama Prefecture because, unlike others, it has not experienced a merger since 1889 when the village of Moriura merged into Taiji. Taiji shares its entire overland border with the town of Nachikatsuura and faces the Pacific Ocean. Taiji has been well-known as a whaling town and is considered as the birth place of Japan's traditional whaling method. Taiji is a major center for dolphin drive hunting.

History

Taiji was primarily known as a whaling town. Japanese traditional whaling techniques were dramatically developed here in the 17th century, and the commercial hunting of dolphins remains a major source of income for its residents to this day.¹ Wada Chūbei organized the group hunting system (刺手組) and introduced new handheld harpoon in 1606. Wada Kakuemon, later known as Taiji Kakuemon, invented the whaling net technique called Amitori hō (網取法) to increase the safety and efficiency of whaling. This method lasted more than 200 years.

The town was dealt a massive blow in 1878 when an accident during a hunt claimed more than 100 lives, which resulted in the collapse of the group hunting system.² Taiji's whaling industry became buoyant again after the Russo-Japanese War as it became a base for modern whaling. In 1988, Taiji suspended their commercial whaling as a result of an IWC ruling.

Sightseeing

Museums

Onsens (Spas)

Festivals

Taiji's summer festival is called the Taiji Isana Festival that is held annually on August 14. Isana is an old Japanese word for whales. Its autumn festival is called the Taiji Kujira Festival (kuijra means whales in Japanese) that is annually held on the first Sunday of November. Both the festivals are heavily whale-themed and the attractions include the Kujira Odori (lit. whale dance) and the Kujira Daiko (lit. whale drumming). The Kujira Odori is a traditional dance that whalers used to perform to celebrate a good catch. This dance is unique in that the dancers only use their upper body as they dance sitting on whaling boats. It is identified as intangible cultural heritage by Wakayama Prefecture.³ The Kujira Daiko is also traditional and it describes a battle between a big whale and small whaling boats by drumming.

Transportation

Railway

The Kisei Main Line of JR West runs through Taiji. Taiji station is the only station in the town and is located just outside the Moriura area. A circular bus service is available to connect to the main area of Taiji. All the regular trains and some of express trains stop at the station.

Roads

Education

Taiji has one Elementary school (Taiji Elementary School) and one junior high school (Taiji Junior High School). There is no high school or university.

Annual dolphin hunt and its criticism

According to the Japanese Fisheries Research Agency, 1,623 dolphins were caught in Wakayama Prefecture in 2007 for human consumption or resale to dolphinariums, and most of these were caught at Taiji.⁴ The annual dolphin drive hunting provides income for local residents.⁵ Researchers have found high concentrations of mercury in Taiji residents who eat dolphin meat.⁶

Whale meat contaminated with mercury is commonly eaten in the town, and residents have been found to have 10 times the level of mercury in their bodies when compared to average Japanese citizens. ⁷

In 1979, environmental filmmaker Hardy Jones first went to Taiji to attempt to free 200 melon-headed whales which had been captured by fishermen for food for lions at the Shirahama Zoo.^{citation needed} Jones, who founded BlueVoice.org with film star Ted Danson in 2000, has returned to Taiji numerous times to try to stop the capture of dolphins and small whales. His film The Dolphin Defender, produced by the PBS series Nature documents these events. Hunting of dolphins for commercial purposes in Taiji still continues.

In 2003, two activists were arrested for cutting a net to release captured dolphins. They spent 23 days in jail.⁸

Other celebrities have protested the dolphin killings as well. On November 1, 2007 Hayden Panettiere was confronted by Japanese fishermen, as she and several other activists were interfering with their annual hunt by attempting "to rescue a pool of dolphins captured in fishing nets."⁹ She drove straight to an airport with her fellow activists and left the country "to avoid being arrested for trespassing by the Japanese police". Many Japanese consider this kind of act to be an attack on their culture.¹⁰ Taiji's fishery cooperative union argues that these protesters "continue willfully to distort the facts about this fishery" and their agendas are "based neither on international law nor on science but rather on emotion for economic self-interest."¹¹

Japanese noise musician and PETA activist, Masami Akita, more commonly known as Merzbow, has produced an album, Dolphin Sonar, as a protest against these annual dolphin killings.¹²

A film titled The Cove (formerly The Rising) was secretly recorded with high-tech video and sound equipment in Taiji. This full-length documentary was funded by billionaire James H. Clark and shows controversial dolphin killing techniques as well as high mercury levels in Taiji dolphin meat.¹³ The film won the U.S. Audience Award at the 25th annual Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, United States in January 2009,¹⁴ and on Feb 2, 2010, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary (Feature).

Sister cities

Notable people

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