抄録
Throughout the years from 1907 to 1945 when the Japanese were allowed to catch fish (mainly salmons) on the Russian/Soviet coast in the Northern Pacific, the Japan-made/Japanese-type fishing boats were used not only in Japanese fishing places but also in Russian/ Soviet fishing places. As the first factor for using Japanese fishing boats, Japanese fishing boats were suited for pulling the boats up to the sandy beaches of Kamchatka because of their flat-bottom.
Secondly, until 1932 many Japanese were employed in the Russian/ Soviet fishing places in Kamchatka, and of course Japanese fishermen were accustomed to the Japan-made/Japanese-type fishing boats. Japanese names for Japanese fishing boats have been handed down among the society of indigenous people of Kamchatka, such as “san-pan”, “kawasaki”, “isabunka”. Besides, it was said that “kungas” is the name for one of Japanese fishing boats, however, “kungas” is a Russian word originally meaning a small sailboat of the Far East. Why did people apply the Russian word “kungas” for one of the fishing boats made in Japan or Japanese-type fishing boat in Kamchatka?
“Hyotan-pan” is one of the popular dry confectionaries, gourd-shaped (hyotan means gourd in Japanese), similar to baked cookies. Various dry confections including hyotan-pan , biscuits and cookies that were carried on board to fishing places of Kamchatka and were served as celebratory food at celebrations such as their first catch or autumn close of their fishing place. Also these confections were presented to children of indigenous people who visited Japanese fishing places. It may be said that memories of sweets may have helped to give a desirable image of Japanese among indigenous society.
In this paper I would like to examine the nature of relationship between the Japanese and indigenous people of Kamchatka by focusing on typical and heterogeneous Japanese materials :“Kungas” and “Hyotan-pan”.
