Cultural Topic Update: External prevalence of seafood outside of food

By Brian Vuong

Now that we have spent around four days in Hakodate, we have gained a lot of knowledge related to the fishing industry in Japan. Besides the obvious findings related to food, our group found that the fishing industry permeates all throughout the town. Fishing is regarded as a way of life and it affects town populations as a whole. Seafood like squid have been transformed into marketable characters that play a large role in the Hakodate’s tourism.

One overt example is the usage of mascots all over Hokkaido. The squid is fondly revered as an important part of Hakodate’s iconography, and has been marketed as a mascot. It’s on par with Sanrio characters in terms of cuteness. The cartoon squid is accessible, as it can market the city of Hakodate as a whole. It plays an important role in promoting tourism in Hakodate and advertises the importance of fishing to visitors. It’s easy to make many forms of merchandise in gift shops, and acts as a source of revenue for the city. 

Beyond gift merchandise, the usage of the squid mascot was very pervasive. Some manhole covers have designs with squids on them. Walking from Tachimachi Cape, we saw squid designs in the railings along the path downhill. There were also some posters and public notices using the squid as a character. We saw welcome signs with squids in places such as Goryokaku Tower, the entrance to the village in Matsumae, and the museum in Esashi. Mascots have been embraced into the city’s identity as a marketable entity.

Esashi is a historic fishing village in Hokkaido. Going on a bus tour to Matsumae and Esashi proved very insightful. At the museum in Esashi, we saw a performance of Oiwake, traditional songs typically sung by fishermen while they were singing. Seeing the performance was interesting, because we saw how cultural traditions have persevered today. The performance showed us how valued these traditional songs were, and the importance fishing has to Japanese people. The historical roots of the song are not lost upon modern Japan, as traditional Japanese instruments were utilized. The singing has been elevated to an art form that is an important part of traditional Japanese identity.

Walking around Hakodate and different locales in Hokkaido gave us the sense that the fishing industry is a major part of the Japanese way of life. Between tourism and marketing, traditional values associated with fishing persist in modern Japan. 

--BV