Abstract
Many geographers have been concerned about the development of the ports of overseas fisheries and the decline of coastal fishing villages by the spread of powered boat. This report is a study on the development of a base of overseas fisheries.
Ishinomaki is located near Ojika peninsula and at the mouth of the Kitakami river. It was opened by Date Masamune as a port for communication between the various feudal domains in the 17th century. But this port as a trading center declined since the end of Meiji era when the Tohoku railway line was opened and the ocean-going ships changed from sail boats to powered ones. Ishinomaki was gradually changed to fish-landing port in accordance with the development of fisheries along the coast of Ojika peninsula and neighboring islands and became one of the important fishing ports of northeast Japan.
Long-line fishing and bonito angling have been extensively carried on with the villages along the east coast of the peninsula, as it bases, while drag net and sink gill-net fisheries were developed at the villages along the southern sandy coast from Edo period.
Ishinomaki flourished as a fishing port of landing from ships with bases at neighboring villages. The wholesale dealers in fish and fish processors at Ishinomaki provided the fishermen with funds for the construction of ships in exchange of the sale of catches. Although the fisheries in neighboring villages was prosperous, the fisheries in Ishinomaki itself was in a poor condition. In 1916, for example, there were only 5 powered boats and 120 unpowered boats. Most of these were used in fresh water fishing.
Development of Ishinomaki as the base of overseas fishery depends mainly on the advance of the marine product processors into the fishery after the war, the trasfer from drag net boat to catcher boat of salmon fishery and the conversion of the bonito fishing boat to long-line tuna ship after the Peace Treaty in 1952. The owners of these boats extended their management by diversification of fishery and enlargement of ships, and they themselves migrated to Ishinomaki city from neighboring villages in pursuit of the plentiful labor and advantage of communication.
