Book description
Japan today defends its controversial whaling expeditions by invoking tradition-but what was the historical reality? In examining the techniques and impacts of whaling during the Tokugawa period (1603-1868), Jakobina Arch shows that the organized, shore-based whaling that first developed during these years bore little resemblance to modern Japanese whaling. Drawing…
Why read it?
1 author picked Bringing Whales Ashore as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Jakobina Arch is an outstanding scholar of early modern Japan, and her book follows the lives and afterlives of whales in Tokugawa Japan in rich detail. The book is also an excellent international narrative, as Arch dives into the legacy of American whaling in the Pacific World that impacted the Japanese whaling industry.
From Christopher's list on The best books on animal and environmental history.
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