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Coal Mining
Communities
and Gentrification
in Japan
Tai Wei Lim · Naoko Shimazaki
Yoshihisa Godo · Yiru Lim
Coal Mining Communities and Gentrification
in Japan
 Tai Wei Lim • Naoko Shimazaki
Yoshihisa Godo • Yiru Lim

Coal Mining
Communities and
Gentrification in Japan
Tai Wei Lim Naoko Shimazaki
Singapore University of Social Sciences Waseda University
Singapore, Singapore Tokyo, Japan

Yoshihisa Godo Yiru Lim

Meiji Gakuin University Singapore University of Social Sciences
Tokyo, Japan Singapore, Singapore

ISBN 978-981-13-7219-3    ISBN 978-981-13-7220-9 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7220-9

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2019

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of
translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,
electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now
known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information
in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the
publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to
the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The
publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and
institutional affiliations.

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Singapore Pte Ltd.
The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-­01/04 Gateway East, Singapore
189721, Singapore
 Foreword

If the Anthropocene is the new world of humanity’s making, then there

has hardly been a more important, and more controversial, actor in mak-
ing it than coal. The mass production of coal provided the power for the
European, and hence global, Industrial Revolutions during the nineteenth
and twentieth centuries. In Britain, coal helped industry from a total of
170,000 horsepower in 1800 to 2.2 million in 1870 and 10.5 million by
1907.1 In the developing world today, coal is still a major source of power
and electricity.
However, while coal may have been a symbol of progress and moder-
nity in the nineteenth century, it is now more likely to reflect the dark sides
of the Industrial Revolution—dirty, dangerous, and exploitative. The grey
skies and poisoned waters of Linfen city in Shanxi province, in China’s
northern coal mining region, today symbolize for many people what is
means to produce and consume coal. In 2010, Linfen was rated by the
World Bank as the world’s most polluted city.2 Climate change has now
made the problem of burning coal more urgent than ever. It has been
estimated that coal contributes 46% of CO2 emissions worldwide and
nearly three-quarters of greenhouse gases.3

1
Mitchell, Timothy. 2011. Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil. Verso:
London.
2
Feinberg, David, Chinese coal-mining city is world’s most polluted, dated November 5,
2018, CNN World – International Edition. Retrieved on October 30, 2018, from: http://
edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/06/02/toxic.linfen.vbs/index.html
3
Endcoal, Climate Change, undated, Retrieved on October 30, 2018, from: https://
endcoal.org/climate-change/

v
vi FOREWORD

However, the availability of cleaner—if not cheaper—fuels in oil and

gas, rapid development of renewable energy, and the social and political
mobilization around these issues have led to massive divestment in coal
worldwide. For many, the Age of Peak Coal is past. In the UK, peak coal
consumption was in the 1950s, while both production and consumption
have been declining ever since.4 In 2016, they reached 1800 levels, the
same as what they were at the beginning of the coal boom. In the US,
even with a bullish president trying to prop up a dying industry, coal
demand is expected to grow by only 1%.5 Meanwhile, France and several
other European countries have pledged to be coal-free by 2021, while
more than two dozen have joined the alliance for Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries to phase
out coal by 2030 and developing countries by 2050.6
From a more global perspective, however, coal is perhaps heading not
so much towards oblivion as towards a new plateau. Coal continues to
supply one-third of all energy worldwide.7 It is especially important as a
source of energy in Asia. China is still the world’s largest producer of coal
at 3.5 billion MT per year; Indonesia is the second largest exporter of coal,
and Japan its largest importer. China, Japan, South Korea, and India
account for $22 billion of the $24 billion that G20 countries have planned
for new coal projects, most of which will be in India and Southeast Asia.8
Infrastructure spending to improve connectivity and economic modern-
ization in the region, such as with China’s One Belt, One Road initiative,
will likely further stimulate demand for coal. Asia-Pacific’s production
goal is more than two times that of the rest of the world, while its con-
sumption is nearly three times.9

4
Vaughan, Adam, Coal: global demand for coal falls in 2016 for second year in a row, dated
June 13, 2017, The Guardian. Retrieved on October 30, 2018, from: https://www.
theguardian.com/environment/2017/jun/13/coal-global-demand-falls-2016-second-
year-in-row-fossil-fuel
5
Brooks, Ed and Joanna Kao, The future of coal in seven charts, dated September 19,
2017, Financial Times. Retrieved on October 30, 2018, from: https://www.ft.com/
content/82f9087c-9cdd-11e7-8cd4-932067fbf946
6
Bradley, Sian, The future of coal, August and September, 2018, Chatham House. Retrieved
on October 30, 2018, from: https://www.chathamhouse.org/publications/twt/future-coal
7
International Energy Agency (IEA), Coal, undated. Retrieved on October 30, 2018,
from: https://www.iea.org/topics/coal/
8
Sian, The future of coal, 2018.
9
BP Global, Coal production, undated. Retrieved on October 30, 2018, from: https://
www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/energy-economics/statistical-review-of-world-energy/
coal/coal.html
 FOREWORD vii

Even as coal production and consumption have been declining in

China, as part of Premier Li Keqiang’s promise to “make skies blue
again,”10 it still supplies one-half to two-thirds of 55% of China’s energy
demand. In India, coal-fired power generation is expected to increase by
4% a year.
One these trends tell us is that, despite global divestment from coal,
coal’s history is still far from over, and its biggest chapter may be still yet
to be written. Understanding how coal continues to supply energy for the
world’s most populous region of 4.4 billion people will be critical for
imagining a sustainable future.
For these reasons, it is an honour and a pleasure to be able to recom-
mend Coal Mining Communities and Gentrification in Japan, edited by
my good friend and colleague Lim Tai Wei. As both editor and contribu-
tor of several chapters, Lim Tai Wei has demonstrated once again tremen-
dous breadth as a scholar—who, in addition to published work on coal
and energy resources in Northeast Asia, has also written about students’
activism in Hong Kong, robotics in Japan, cultural heritage in Singapore,
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) diplomacy, and
much more—and a regional expertise.
Bringing together scholars from Japan and Singapore, this volume
offers cross-national and cross-disciplinary perspectives on this par-­
excellence transboundary and multidimensional topic: the Japanese coal
industry. The volume examines this industry from its dawn in the nine-
teenth century under the Meiji Restoration—though the practice of coal
mining has of course been around for much longer—to what today cer-
tainly looks like the industry’s twilight, though, as this book shows, its
socio-environmental legacies and some limited use will remain a part of
the Japanese landscape and collective memory for many years to come. Its
combination of disciplinary expertise from international relations, political
science, history, cultural studies, and literature helps us to see coal not
simply as an economic resource but also as an object of deep social and
cultural importance.
What is perhaps most special about this volume, however, is that it
offers a cradle to grave (or almost) analysis not simply of a resource prod-
uct (i.e., coal) but rather of the entire industry that grew up around it.
From examining how coal production was an important vector for initially
opening Japan’s ports to the West, to coal’s vital contribution to Japan’s

10
IEA, Coal, undated.
viii Foreword

ill-considered military conquest during World War II, to the conversion of

old mining pits into urban parks and new cultural heritage sites, the
authors in this volume demonstrate not only how human history shapes
resource production but also how the specific resource (i.e., coal) and its
production also shaped Japanese history in particular ways. In this light,
the Japanese case study can be of interest to other coal-producing regions
for offering not only insights into our past but also perhaps glimpses into
our future.
In doing so, these authors also remind us of the importance of local
history when trying to understand deeply human decisions around
resource use and management. While global trends and conditions may be
important factors, they are rarely on their own sufficient to explain how,
when, and why a coal industry expands or contracts in any particular place,
and much less what those experiences mean for the people inhabiting and
making a living in those places. In this book, we learn a lot not only about
coal but also about Japan and the surrounding region.

SingaporeJason Morris-Jung
November 2018
 Contents

1 Introduction: Post-Mining Communities—A

Multidisciplinary Analysis of Post-Closure Coal Mining
Towns in Japan and Their Gentrification History  1

2 Comparison of the Impacts of Japan’s Industrialization on

the Coal Mining and Agriculture and Forestry Industries  9

3 The Miike Coal Mine and Omuta City: A Case Study of the
Largest and Last Mine’s Closure in Japan 29

4 Historical Development and Gentrification of Hokkaido’s

Former Coal Mining Areas: Case Studies of Bibai, Kushiro,
Mikasa, and Yubari 67

5 The Coal Industry in the Northeast Asian Context133

6 Coal Mining Subcultures: A Brief Cultural History of

Hokkaido and Comparative Perspectives with Other
Regions167

ix
x Contents

7 The World of the Female Miner in Japan: Sites of

Compliance and Resistance183

8 Conclusion215

Index223
 List of Figures

Fig. 3.1 Major coalfields and major cities in Japan. (© The Japan
Institute for Labour Policy and Training. Cited: Shimazaki, N.
(2015a), Fig. 2) 32
Fig. 3.2 History of coal industry in Japan: 1945–1997. (Extracted
from “Coal Note 2003”) 35
Fig. 3.3 Mine closures and the number of discharged miners.
(Extracted and compiled from Coal Energy Centre 2003) 37
Fig. 3.4 The flag of the Miike Labour Union. (© The Omuta City
Library)47
Fig. 3.5 Age of voluntarily retired workers between 1987 and 1989.
The age is as indicated as at 31 January 1989. (Extracted and
compiled from primary documents of the Planning
Coordination Department, Omuta City, #2-1-8, 1989) 52
Fig. 3.6 Number of Miike workers between 1986 and 1995. (Extracted
and compiled from primary documents of the Planning
Coordination Department, Omuta City, #1-2-8, 1996) 52
Fig. 3.7 Age of Miike workers in 1995. (Extracted and compiled from
primary documents of the Planning Coordination
Department, Omuta City, #1-2-8, 1996) 53
Fig. 3.8 The artistic sketching event on the day of Miike’s closure, 30
March 1997. (© Kansai University) 61
Fig. 3.9 The Manda Pit. (© Naoko Shimazaki) 63
Fig. 4.1 An old antiquated unused steam locomotive (SL) lies still on
the railway track at the former Minamioyubari station. Built by
Mitsubishi, it weighs 28.2 tons. (Photo taken by the author on
8 July 2016) 70

xi
xii List of Figures

Fig. 4.2 A 50-foot red colour head-house rigging standing next to the
Yubari Coal Mine Museum has become a local landmark.
(Photo taken by the author on 8 July 2016) 71
Fig. 4.3 The Yubari mine entrances were not grilled up and left open
but were overgrown with vines, blending into the natural
background. This was again a typical example of nature
reclaiming its place over manmade structures. Others are
closed to the public, with the rusted grills of the mothballed
coal mine in Yubari preventing entry. (Photo taken by author
on 8 July 2016 at Yubari) 81
Fig. 4.4 The eastern area of Yubari City (Oyubari district) has given
way to a hydroelectric dam. (Yanagida, Ryozo, “Yubari:
Revitalization of coal mining city” dated September 2006 in
the Meiji Gakuin University website [downloaded on 1 Jan
2017], available at http://www.meijigakuin.ac.jp/~hattori/
shrinkingcity/page/JAPAN/yuubari-slimmed-103208k.pdf.)
This is a photograph of a hydroelectric power dam near
Yubari, a good example of renewable clean sources of energy
that has superseded the need for more expensive domestically
produced coal in Japan. Another source of renewable energy is
solar power. When the author landed at Chitose airport, he
spotted advertisements put up by Japanese solar panel
companies operating in Hokkaido. Memories of historical
structures in the dam are well conserved through heritage
signage, which has completely covered the former Sangengyou
railway bridge that was located here. It is now found within
the dammed-up water. (Photo taken on 8 July 2016) 82
Fig. 4.5 Near the closed museum is a large defunct coal mining tower
painted red with a sign indicating the former coal mine
historical village. (Photo taken by the author on 8 July 2016) 89
Fig. 4.6 A rusted stand near Hokutan Coal Mine with written slogans
articulating hopes for safe and secure output and production
of coal. This is a relic of the mothballed coal mines in Yubari.
(Photo taken by the author on 8 July 2016) 92
Fig. 4.7 The main entrance of Kushiro Coal Mine. (Photo taken by the
author in July 2017) 102
Fig. 4.8 The sheltered conveyor belt system that processes loaded
excavated coal and then transports them to the terminal train
station for depositing into freight cars and then shipped off to
the port. (Photo taken by the author in July 2017) 103
 List of Figures  xiii

Fig. 4.9 A mothballed mechanized cutter displayed outside the KCM

museum at the former site of the Skyland resort. (Photo taken
by the author in July 2017) 104
Fig. 4.10 The terminal end of the coal conveyor belt at the KCM railway
station. (Photo taken by the author in July 2017) 105
Fig. 4.11 The D801 is a privately owned KCM coal transport train
system that is diesel powered. It is a reliable workhorse. This
train is built under licence from General Electric Company,
US. Most, if not all, of Hokkaido’s railway systems are
modelled after US systems, while other parts of Japan adapted
the continental European systems like the German railway
model. In the licenced agreement, the local Japanese partner
Nippon Sharyo worked with the General Electric Company to
manufacture Model U10B Diesel Electric Locomotive
weighing 55 tons in August 1970. Besides Model U10B
D801, the author also spotted an older model built in 1966.
(Photo taken by the author in July 2017) 106
Fig. 4.12 KCM observes traffic safety, with junctions carefully barricaded
to block cars from crossing when the railway train passes
through. (Photo taken by the author in July 2017) 107
Fig. 4.13 A wheeled car is placed across railway tracks that are unused to
prevent any wandering pedestrians onto the mothballed tracks.
The railway train currently moves between the terminal end of
the KCM conveyor belt system and the port facilities only.
(Photo taken by the author in July 2017) 108
Fig. 4.14 A KCM diesel refuelling facility for the train is located at the
KCM railway station. (Photo taken by the author in July
2017)109
Fig. 4.15 The train station at the KCM railway facility. Here the station
master carefully watches over the railway tracks. When the
author visited the facility, the station master warned off a
member of the public who had unintentionally wandered into
the tracks outside the junction crossing. Safety is strictly
observed in this facility. (Photo taken by the author in July
2017)110
Fig. 4.16 A snow plough stands ready in case of heavy snowing at the
railway tracks in the Hokkaido winter. (Photo taken by the
author in July 2017) 111
Fig. 4.17 Each coal freight car weighs 12 tons and can carry 30 tons of
coal load. Some of these freight cars were slightly stained by
salt leaking out of the seams of the coal freight car. (Photo
taken by the author in July 2017) 112
xiv List of Figures

Fig. 4.18 The author’s canoeing trip down Kushiro River, a major
tourist draw for visitors, foreign tourists, and local adventurers.
On the day of the author’s canoeing expedition, his canoe
came across a Taiwanese family on tour in the river, carrying
out the same activities. (Photo taken by the author in July
2017)113
Fig. 4.19 An Ezo deer at Kushiro River. (Photo taken by the author on
16 July 2017) 114
Fig. 4.20 A wild Japanese duck at Kushiro River. (Photo taken by the
author on 16 July 2017) 114
Fig. 4.21 A hawk, probably a black kite, at Kushiro River. (Photo taken
by the author on 16 July 2017) 115
Fig. 4.22 Karasu crows at Kushiro River. (Photo taken by the author on
16 July 2017) 115
Fig. 4.23 A double-bladed dragonfly at Kushiro River. (Photo taken by
the author on 16 July 2017) 116
Fig. 4.24 A dried taxidermied bear paw used by the outdoor guide to
indicate the presence of bears in the region around Kushiro
River. (Photo taken by the author on 16 July 2017) 116
Fig. 4.25 Wagtails appear to be a common species of birds in the
Kushiro region. The author spotted another white wagtail in
the former coal mine of Onbetsu. (Photo taken by the author
on 16 July 2017) 117
Fig. 4.26 The prevalence of local fresh squid (the author heard locals
referring to it as white squid meat) meant that it was an
important source of proteins for the Kushiro people and
significant to their local culinary culture. (Photo taken by the
author on 16 July 2017). Japanese pepper is added to
mayonnaise as a dipping sauce for barbequed squid freshly
caught from the proximate sea. Some locals like this hybrid
combination as a kind of dipping sauce 117
Fig. 4.27 Freshwater river ayu swimming in a brook near the abandoned
coal mine site. The ayu (also known as sweetfish) are prized
freshwater catches and taste good when salted and grilled over
a slow fire. The presence of these fishes may be a reason why
bears have come to inhabit this abandoned coal mine. (Photo
taken by the author on 16 July 2017) 118
Fig. 4.28 A local administrator used cow bells to warn the bears that the
author and his teammates were travelling into bear territory in
a bid to prevent bear-­human encounters. Whistles are also
used to warn the bears of humans approaching into their areas
to prevent accidental encounters. (Photo taken by the author
on 16 July 2017) 118
 List of Figures  xv

Fig. 4.29 The thriving fishing industry is evidenced by rows of fishing

boat fleets parked at the Fishermen’s Wharf. (Photo taken by
the author on 16 July 2017) 119
Fig. 4.30 Miso-laden fish caught locally is wrapped in aluminium foil
and steamed/grilled inside the foil. Miso is a popular
condiment used in local cooking. Another well-known
Hokkaido-style miso-related dish is miso ramen, where miso is
used instead of the usual pork broth in Kyushu-style tonkotsu
ramen or shoyuu soy sauce–style ramen favoured in the Kanto
area. (Photo taken by the author on 16 July 2017) 119
Fig. 4.31 A threshing machine at work in the Urahoro region, an
example of mechanization of farm activities in this area.
(Photo taken by the author in July 2017) 120
Fig. 4.32 Bales of hay are wrapped up for delivery as feed to livestock at
farms. (Photo taken by the author in July 2017) 121
 List of Tables

Table 3.1 Affiliated companies of the Mitsui Coal Mine (1986) 48

Table 3.2 Number of employees of major companies and businesses in
Omuta City (1960–1986) as given on April 1 of each year 49

xvii
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction: Post-Mining Communities—A

Multidisciplinary Analysis of Post-Closure
Coal Mining Towns in Japan and Their
Gentrification History

Introduction
This book project arose from the collaboration between a sociologist
who worked on the coal mining industry in Japan, a developmental
economist, and an area studies specialist on Japan. These scholars com-
bined their expertise to contribute to a multidisciplinary volume that
encompasses a chronological glimpse of Japanese coal mines in three
phases. Having three phases provides a neat organization of contents
and materials derived from fieldwork as well as from secondary resources’
interpretive work. Chronically, the volume also weaves a coherent narra-
tive of coal industrial development through different ages experiencing
different environmental conditions and externalities, so comparisons and
contrasts can be highlighted temporally when the materials are seg-
mented chronologically.
The first phase consists of the transitional period from late pre-­
modernity to modernity, written by a veteran economist Yoshihisa Godo.
It is a historical survey that stretches from the early modern period to the
early post-war decades. The second chronological phase written by soci-
ologist Naoko Shimazaki focuses on the post-war era from where chapter
contributor Godo left off. This period may be considered the “golden
era” of post-war coal mining history during Japan’s transition from coal to
oil energy. Rising wages, labour strikes, mine depletion, societal rejection

© The Author(s) 2019 1

T. W. Lim et al., Coal Mining Communities and Gentrification
in Japan, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7220-9_1
2 T. W. LIM ET AL.

of coal pollution, and dangerous working conditions were the impetuses

for the beginning of the slow decline of the coal industry that lasted right
up to the early twenty-first century. The third phase covered in this writing
is situated in the contemporary era, where Tai Wei Lim (an area studies
specialist focusing on Northeast Asia, particularly Japan and China) analy-
ses current uses of former coal mining areas for gentrification, tourism,
retail activities, and heritage preservation. He utilized a combination of
observation studies, interpretation of secondary textual sources, fieldwork
based on visual analysis, and unstructured conversations with residents
and stakeholders of those mines. For a more macro perspective comple-
menting the study on Japan’s domestic coal industry in the previous chap-
ter, Tai Wei Lim also has a subsequent chapter on the contemporary
regional developments of the coal mining industry in Northeast Asia.
Finally, Tai Wei Lim wraps up the volume with a study of the cultural
aspects of coal mine development in Japan through an analysis of aesthet-
ics, gender perspectives, literary arts, and culture.

Chapterization and Introduction of Contents

The following section introduces the volume chapters with some details.
Godo’s historical chapter lays the foundation for understanding the early
development of the coal mining industry in this volume, particularly in
terms of its association with agriculture and other natural resources or
what Godo calls “primary industries.” His chapter explains how the early
modern coal mining industry got access to a large pool of labour gener-
ated by excess manpower from a declining agricultural sector which
faced oversupply. Godo’s chapter also informs readers about the growing
demand for coal fuel as Japan entered a heavy industrialization phase in
its economic development. This phase was interrupted by the Pacific War
but quickly resumed its post-war trajectory. Godo’s extensive use of
Japanese-­language sources provides a value-added Japanese perspective
of the country’s industrialization process and the role of coal mining
industries. In narrating the emergence of Japan’s coal industry, Godo
has also highlighted the transition of agricultural activities to industrial-
ization, and the chapter is also a micro-level account of the transforma-
tion of autonomously created laissez-faire work schedules (“peasant
time”) to highly disciplined rationalized mass production (later epito-
mized by Taylorism).
 INTRODUCTION: POST-MINING COMMUNITIES—A MULTIDISCIPLINARY… 3

The next stage of post-war evolution in the coal mining industry

(including its decline) is detailed by Shimazaki. Shimazaki’s chapter is cen-
tred on the Mitsui Miike Coal Mine. There are at least three points of
significance in studying this coal mine. First, it was the largest coal mine in
Japan, and it produced the highest quality coal. Therefore, the govern-
ment also tried to make the coal mine the most sustainable in terms of
extraction. Because of its size, the Miike Coal Mine was economically
important and politically influential. Because of its political significance,
labour relations and coal strikes in Miike also garnered the most attention,
particularly from the media. In 1963, the worst industrial incident involv-
ing a coal mine occurred in Miike. All these features in Miike attracted
academic research interest.
Second, Miike’s closure in 1997 was particularly significant. While
Kushiro and Ikeshima coal mines were chronologically the last mines to
close down in Japan, Miike’s closure was on a far greater scale. The third
significance of Shimazaki’s chapter is its contribution to existing publica-
tions in this field, as there is no English-language academic writing at the
moment that studies Miike’s closure in detail and embedded within a con-
ceptual/theoretical framework. Shimazaki’s hypothesis is that, from a
comparative perspective, there are similarities to the industrial layoffs
found in other heavy industries involving blue-collared industrial workers.
These common features amongst heavy industries will be examined in
Shimazaki’s chapter.
Lim’s chapter utilizes observation studies to go on-site to observe how
gentrified coal mining spaces are developed in Hokkaido’s coal mining
regions of historical importance. Chronologically, Lim’s story takes place
after the mine closures studied by Shimazaki’s chapter. The bulk of the
Lim’s fieldwork in West Hokkaido focuses on Yubari and Mikasa. Unused
coal mines were mothballed and made defunct. To make these former coal
mines environmentally green and friendly, a number of stakeholders are
coming up with ways to make their environments conducive for tourism
and local community livelihoods, ensuring a clean environment and sus-
tainable development. The bulk of the author’s fieldwork in East Hokkaido
is focused on Kushiro. The Kushiro Coal Mine operated by the KCM firm
was the first Japanese coal mine facility that Lim visited which is still opera-
tional. This was the smaller-scale contemporary version of the coal mining
company with limited coal production output after the coal mine closed.
Therefore, it was perhaps the most important case study since Lim was
able to visualize workers at work in the mine and its daily operations.
4 T. W. LIM ET AL.

Methodology
The volume’s methodological approaches can be divided into three major
directions. First, the volume’s authors used observation studies to go on-­
site to observe how gentrified coal mining spaces are used. In the process,
the authors had conversations with individuals who were affected by coal
mine closure or residents of these towns who were displaced and/or eco-
nomically affected by the decline of this industry. In the museums, the
authors’ observations also recorded the artefacts on display using digital
images to curate memories of the past and serve as educational tools for
community residents. The authors visited some of these mines to experi-
ence life as a coal miner in order to adopt a standpoint view and apply
experiential learning related to working in the coal mine. Second, the
authors relied on collection of textual documents (both primary and sec-
ondary) to reconstruct a clearer picture of the former coal mining towns
before and after closure. These textual and visual documents were useful
to corroborate our on-site observations. They provided some empirical
and quantitative data useful for the volume. Secondary resources were
also useful for interpretive work. Blueprints and town plans also provided
a clearer spatial layout of the former coal mining facilities in the places
that were visited by the authors.
Third, the authors also selectively carried out conversations with
users of gentrified green spaces, farmers in former coal mining towns,
and local museum curators to understand their opinions of post-closure
changes. These interviews are semi-structured, loose, and qualitative
rather than quantitative and designed with open questions that give
interviewees ample space to articulate their views. Some of the sites
visited by the authors for this volume included Bibai, Kushiro, Asahikawa
or Yubari Coal Mining Museums, and so on. The authors walked on
cycling tracks and a green rail corridor built on abandoned railway
tracks in Kushiro, and so on. In order to have a standpoint perspective
of daily lives in the former coal mine towns, the authors stayed in
accommodations near agricultural areas in a former coal mining town in
Hokkaido. The authors also visited the Yubari film festival site and farm-
ing area and scoured local book shops, archives, and libraries in former
coal mining towns in Hokkaido, like Bibai, Kushiro, Asahikawa, or/
and Yubari.
 INTRODUCTION: POST-MINING COMMUNITIES—A MULTIDISCIPLINARY… 5

Literature Review
Existing writings on the mentioned mines within the context of modern-
ization, mine closures, and gentrification are mostly found in the form of
policy papers instead of an edited volume. Policy reports and academic
studies that date back to the 1960s were also reviewed in order to under-
stand the subject matter from a temporal standpoint perspective drawn
from that historical period; for example, Benjamin Martin’s article detailed
the social impact of an early mine closure from the perspective of the early
1960s. Another classic article “Some Problems of Unemployed Laborers
in Coal Mining Industry” by Naoki Kusuhara details the first post-war
attempt to address post-closure issues such as re-employment of retrenched
workers. It is important to note that these are short articles rather than a
consolidated coherent edited volume structured around a central theme.
The most important monographic work in the English language is Suzanne
Cutler’s Managing Decline: Japan’s Coal Industry Restructuring and
Community Response, mainly written from a sociological/anthropological
point of view and with information dated back to the 1999. This writing’s
value-add to Cutler’s volume is bringing the materials up to date and also
adopting a multidisciplinary perspective.
In Tai Wei Lim’s previous publication (Energy Transitions in Japan and
China: Mine Closures, Rail Developments, and Energy Narratives), Lim
studied the research questions of why coal mines declined in importance
in the post-war years. In that publication, Lim focused mainly on mines
found in southern Japan, particularly in Kyushu like Omuta, Chikuhō , and
other mines that have since closed when Japan transitioned to the use of
oil starting from the 1960s. In the course of his previous research, he came
across information related to the gentrification of these former mines and
discovered how they have been transformed into environmentally friendly
towns with smaller populations. The former mine sites have also been
converted into playgrounds, skating parks, museums, and other educa-
tional facilities.
Up till that point of time, publications on the gentrification of former
coal mines were limited to Suzanne Cutler’s publication Managing
Decline: Japan’s Coal Industry Restructuring and Community Response as
the major seminal work in this area. This volume is a continuation of Lim’s
previous work on former coal mines in Japan. There are some distinguish-
ing features of this volume from previous works. In Lim’s previous v­ olume,
6 T. W. LIM ET AL.

he mainly worked on coal mines in southern Japan’s island of Kyushu. In

this grant, he carried out fieldwork with his Japanese colleagues in the sites
of northern coal mines in Hokkaido like Kushiro, Yubari, and Bibai.
Almost all existing writings of recent vintage focused mainly on physical
assets when considering gentrification. They did not look into intangible
cultural artefacts and textual or graphical materials when considering the
gentrification process.

Contribution to Existing Literature

The volume value-adds to existing writings through the use of a multidis-
ciplinary approach in studying the complexities of gentrification processes.
The contributors’ expertise can better indicate how the gentrification pro-
cess takes on tangible and intangible dimensions with concrete policies
directly affecting the lives of workers and their communities’ livelihoods as
well as intangible recollection of memories for educational purposes and
to develop a local community identity. The careful archiving of memories
helps to bring the town’s coal industrial decline to a final closure and
transition the town to a new developmental phase while preserving the
character and historical consciousness of its denizens. Sociological analyses
combined with textual interpretations of retrenched coal miners’ resettle-
ment make this project rather unique and informative for comprehensive
scholarly study as compared to a single-disciplinary approach.
Unlike other existing literatures, this writing includes viewpoints
from a contemporary lens. It adopts contemporary ideas and applica-
tions of energy use, including the use of renewable energies in former
coal mining areas to power their infrastructure and industries. In the
same way, existing works on Japanese coal mine closure do not cover the
aftermath of the closure. Lim examines how the former coal mining
town in Hokkaido started transitioning to cleaner sources of fuels and
explains how the local communities became conscious of keeping the
environment clean so that service and agricultural industries that require
clean and pristine environments to attract tourism and grow high-quality
farm products can emerge in former coal mining areas. In this aspect,
Yubari and its high-quality melon cultivation is a good example. In terms
of sources, Japan-based scholars Godo and Shimazaki and their extensive
use of Japanese-language sources provide a standpoint view to the narra-
tive of Japan’s industrial history from the beginning of modernization
(Meiji Restoration) to post-war restructuring resulting in the closure of
 INTRODUCTION: POST-MINING COMMUNITIES—A MULTIDISCIPLINARY… 7

coal mines, bringing an end to one of the most important heavy indus-
tries in Japan. Because Japan is the first modernizing economy in East
Asia, its story carries significance and is important to the narrative of
early modernization in East Asia regionally.
Lim also examines how a strong sense of nostalgia for lost green spaces
in the form of abandoned railway tracks of Kushiro, Bibai, and Asahikawa
in Hokkaido have seen these spaces reused as cycling tracks for outdoor
enthusiasts or designated green corridors for walkers, hikers, and trekkers.
There is also a cultural perspective to the gentrification of former coal
mining areas. The volume studies the artistic transformation and gentrifi-
cation process of former coal mining industrial spaces in Bibai into cutting-­
edge post-modernist sculpture parks like the Arte Piazza Bibai Kan Yasuda
Sculpture Park, which features the works of the internationally acclaimed
sculptor Kan Yasuda. Such renewal and gentrified use of spaces necessi-
tates the need for a more in-depth understanding of usage of former coal
mining spaces, green environmental policies, and tapping on renewable
energy options to clean up the towns and transition these spaces to service
tourism and/or high value-added agricultural economy. While the reasons
behind coal mine closures and the re-employment measures to cope with
its impacts are studied comprehensively in Shimazaki’s works, analysing
the aftermath of the closure and restoration of the community in those
areas are de-privileged in current discussions/existing volumes. This writ-
ing addresses this area.
Lim’s coal mine gentrification chapter is followed by a broader regional
view of the coal industry in Northeast Asia. This chapter situates the dis-
cussion of the first three chapters in the context of regional developments
in the coal industry. Taken as a whole, it is possible to see how coal remains
an important energy resource to Northeast Asia and its three major econo-
mies of China, Japan, and South Korea. It also looks at how the regional
coal trade has evolved from mainly energy imports from coal-rich regions
to industrializing Northeast Asia to major Northeast Asian countries
becoming net investors in the regional East Asian coal industry, including
Indonesia. These investments are now moving from coal trade to higher
value-added economic activities like the construction of power stations.
The regional perspective in Tai Wei Lim’s final chapter is then followed
by the last two chapters (before conclusion) in this volume by Tai Wei Lim
and Yiru Lim. While the previous four chapters analyse the history of
Northeast Asian coal development chronologically and deal with empirical
case studies, Tai Wei Lim’s chapter provides the intangible aspects of the
8 T. W. LIM ET AL.

industry, studying the gender perspectives, literary (written text, folk

songs, film festivals, and women’s roles) subtexts, and artistic expressions
of coal mining stakeholders/workers/family members throughout its
industrial history. It adds the soft cultural perspective to the political, eco-
nomic, sociological, and historical perspectives in the previous chapters
and highlights the human story in an otherwise quantitative interpretation
of industrial development. Yiru Lim’s chapter continues with the gender
theme, examining the world of the female miner in Japan. The aim of this
chapter, then, is to utilize a gendered lens to understand the socio-cultural
and historical contexts and working conditions under which Japanese
women miners laboured, and, consequently, to analyse points of resis-
tance, if any, that women displayed within this environment. It is befitting
as the last chapter before the conclusion, as it wraps up the story of the
success, trials, and tribulations of the industry’s history. Before substantial
discussions on contemporary issues of coal mine closures and gentrifica-
tion, the next chapter after this introduction will first turn to the historical
foundations of the coal mining industry in Japan.
 CHAPTER 2

Comparison of the Impacts of Japan’s

Industrialization on the Coal Mining
and Agriculture and Forestry Industries

This chapter examines how Japan’s coal mining industry changed along
with the industrialization of the Japanese economy. It adopts a com-
parative lens for this purpose. In doing so, this chapter compares the
historical changes in the coal mining industry with those in agriculture
and forestry, which also belong to the primary sector. There are simi-
larities in the historical performance of these three industries. From the
proto-­industrialization period to the light industrialization period, the
three industries experienced relatively good performance. However,
when Japan faced hardships during the pre-war heavy industrialization
period, the government supported the secondary sector by suppressing
the prices of primary sector commodities, which resulted in serious
rural poverty. In contrast, during the post-war heavy industrialization
period, the government provided enormous subsidies to the three
industries. This income redistribution policy contributed to post-war
Japan’s high economic growth and its prerequisite of social stability by
preventing social unrests. This chapter shows that, in order to gain a
comprehensive understanding of the economic history of the coal min-
ing industry, comparative studies with other industries in the primary
sector are useful.

© The Author(s) 2019 9

T. W. Lim et al., Coal Mining Communities and Gentrification
in Japan, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7220-9_2
10 T. W. LIM ET AL.

Introduction
The coal mining industry belongs to the primary sector. According to the
famous hypothesis of the Colin-Klerk model, once modern economic
growth begins, major resources, such as labour force and capital, move
from the primary sector to the secondary sector. This process is popularly
known as industrialization. Industrialization induces many structural
changes in the primary sector. This chapter examines how Japan’s coal
mining industry changed because of industrialization.1 In doing so, this
chapter compares the historical changes of the Japanese coal mining indus-
try with those found in the agriculture and forestry industries, which also
belong to the primary sector. This comparison will be useful in identifying
the commonalities within the primary sector and the unique characteris-
tics of the coal mining industry. In spite of its usefulness, such an approach
has not been sufficiently implemented in the literature so far. This may be
because researchers from different fields do not interact actively in Japan’s
academic society. The author, who is familiar with agricultural economics,
aims to fill this gap.

Comparisons Between the Coal Mining

and Agriculture and Forestry Industries

The primary sector includes production activities that directly interact

with natural resources. In terms of gross domestic product (GDP) and
employment, agriculture is the biggest industry in Japan’s primary sector.
In addition to agriculture, this study selects forestry for comparison with
the coal mining industry because forestry is similar to coal mining in the
sense that both wood and coal are inedible products (although mush-
rooms and wild vegetables are also included in forestry, they are minor

1
The Colin-Klerk model further posits that, after an economy completes the industrializa-
tion stage, it will move to the post-industrialization stage, wherein the economic gravity
moves from the secondary sector to the third. In the post-industrialization stage, the per-
centages of GDP and labour force of the primary sector kept declining. Japan’s post-indus-
trialization period started around the 1980s. As discussed in section “Protection for the
Primary Sector During Post-war Japan’s Heavy Industrialization”, at that time, the coal
mining industry had already shrunk to a negligible level in the Japanese economy. Thus, this
chapter does not cover Japan’s post-industrialization period.
 COMPARISON OF THE IMPACTS OF JAPAN’S INDUSTRIALIZATION… 11

products among the total value of forestry products).2 In addition, timber

is in competition with new types of materials such as steel and plastics,
which are developed based on modern technologies; similarly, coal is in
competition with oil and natural gas.3 There are differences between the
coal mining and forestry industries as well. First, coal mining is a non-­
renewable resource, whereas forestry is renewable. Second, coal is only
used as a fuel, whereas wood is used not only for fuel but also as material
for the construction and manufacture of equipment/tools and paper.
Third, forestry is occasionally affected by natural disasters, whereas coal
mining is affected by manmade, not natural, disasters.

The Primary Sector in Pre-modern Japan

Before the arrival of warships flying Western flags in the 1850s, Japan,
governed by the Tokugawa Shogunate founded in 1603, was under a
strict policy of seclusion (sakoku). The society was in a pre-modern and
feudal economy. In the pre-modern economy, farmers collected both coal
and wood for use in their daily activities. In that sense, before Japan’s
modernization started around the Meiji Restoration of 1868, neither coal
mining nor forestry had become industries yet. However, there were early
signs of the formation of industries. For example, the salt industry, which
grew significantly in the late Tokugawa Shogunate period, had increased
the demand for wood and coal as fuel. This resulted in groups of workers
spending most of their work hours collecting coal or wood.
The Tokugawa Shogunate implemented a strong regulation system for
farmers, called Ryoshu Sei. The lord of a feudal clan, called Ryoshu, was in
charge of keeping the social order. The people’s occupations and resi-
dences could only be passed on from their parents and remained
unchanged. People could not have travel without the permission of
Ryoshu. Any farmland transaction other than inheritance, such as buying

2
Vegetation transition is used for both agriculture and forestry. Thus, forestry is sometimes
categorized as part of the agricultural industry in Japan (Source: Sekioka, H., Chishiki Zero
Karano Ringyo Nyumon (Basic Knowledge on Forestry), (Japan: Ieno Hikari Kyokai), 2016,
p. 19).
3
Some agricultural products are inedible. A typical example is the thread from a silk
cocoon, which is also in competition (in commercial use) with new types of materials such as
chemical fibre and glass fibre.
12 T. W. LIM ET AL.

and selling, lending and borrowing, and pawning, were prohibited in

­principle. Farmers were not allowed to grow crops other than rice unless
they received special permissions from Ryoshu.
Ryoshu Sei was efficient in enforcing collaboration among farmers.
Indeed, agricultural production increased nearly 1.5 times during the first
100 years of the Tokugawa Shogunate period.4 However, Ryoshu Sei had
a serious flaw: farmers had little incentive to try new types of technologies
and varieties. In other words, as long as farming technologies remained
the same, Ryoshu Sei worked well. However, in the late nineteenth cen-
tury, although new technologies emerged, such technologies were not
implemented because of the inflexibility of Ryoshu Sei.5 Forestry as a natu-
ral resource was a common capital good among villagers. Since Ryoshu Sei
ensured farmers in a village had joint use of forestry beyond the current
generation, farmers used forestry resources sustainably with a long-term
view. Today, many environmental historians recognize that the manage-
ment and usage of forestry resources in the Tokugawa Shogunate period
was an ideal case of best practice in terms of environmental protection.6

The Meiji Restoration (1868) and Removal

of Feudal Regulations

Commanders of warships that arrived in Japan during the period of strict

national seclusion strongly demanded that the Tokugawa Shogunate open
up Japan to the West. Although the Tokugawa Shogunate first attempted
to repulse these demands, it failed eventually. In 1858, it concluded the
Shimoda Treaty with the US government, which stipulated that Japan
should open up to the US. This was just the beginning, and the Tokugawa
Shogunate went on to conclude similar treaties with the Dutch, Russian,
and British governments. This policy change jolted the Japanese society
and disrupted the regime of the Tokugawa Shogunate. As a result, a new
regime, the Meiji government, took power in 1868 (Meiji is the Japanese

4
Teruoka, S., Nihon no Nogyo Hyakugoju Nen (Japanese Agriculture 150 Years), (Japan:
Yuhikaku), 2003, p. 7.
5
Hayami, Y., and S. Yamada, The Agricultural Development of Japan, (Japan: University of
Tokyo Press), 1991, pp. 61–62.
6
For example, see Saito, O., Kankyo no Keizaishi (Economic History of Environment),
(Japan: Iwanami Shoten), 2014, pp. 38–42, and Richards, J. F., The Understanding Frontier:
An Environmental History of the Early Modern World, (California: University of California
Press, Berkeley), 2003, p. 622.
 COMPARISON OF THE IMPACTS OF JAPAN’S INDUSTRIALIZATION… 13

name for the imperial rule lasting 45 years from 1868 to 1912). The 1868
event is called the Meiji Restoration, which is seen as the epoch of Japan’s
full-scale assimilation with the West. The Meiji Restoration provided the
platform for Japan’s modern economic growth. The Meiji government
adopted economic modernization measures in quick succession in the fol-
lowing three ways.
The first was the introduction of modern technologies from Western
countries. For example, the government ran model factories where
advanced Western technologies were implemented and showcased. Some
technologies did not work well in Japan because of shortage of technicians
and underdevelopment of social infrastructure. However, after trials and
errors, these technologies were transformed based on the local conditions
and features of the Japanese factories, which eventually enhanced their
productivity. The second way was making investments in social infrastruc-
ture such as roads, railways, and port facilities. This was in sharp contrast
to the policy of Tokugawa Shogunate, which prohibited Ryoshu from con-
structing large-sized bridges because the Shogunate wanted to control the
traffic flow of people and materials. In addition, the Meiji government
developed intangible social infrastructure such as foreign exchange banks
and the telecommunication system.
The third, and the most important, aspect was the liberalization of
market-­driven economic activities through the removal of feudal regula-
tions. One most important reform was the Land Tax Revision, which took
place from 1873 to 1881. The revision changed the feudal tax, which was
levied in proportion to the quantities of crops harvested, and it brought
about the institution of the modern land tax system, which was based on
the value of land. For this reform, the government issued a land certificate
to the landowner of each parcel of land. Each land certificate identified the
owner of the farmland and the evaluated value of the land. The owner was
obliged to pay a yearly tax amounting to as much as 3% of the evaluated
value. The prohibition on farmland leasing, pawning, and trading was
entirely removed. Farmers were free to produce any crops according to
their choice. In addition, the Meiji government granted the people free-
dom of occupation, farmland transaction, agricultural production, and
transportation. After the Meiji Restoration, specialization and division of
labour developed in the Japanese economy. Accordingly, the economic
activities of coal and wood collection were separated from agriculture and
became the coal mining and forestry industries respectively.
Another random document with
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 preservative pickle.
This is proper for cured meats in general, and is recommended
for imparting a mild and excellent flavour.
Rock or common salt 1 lb.
Bay salt 1 lb.
Coarse sugar 1 lb.
Saltpetre ¼ lb.
Water 1 gall.

superior pickle for pork.

Rock salt or common
salt 3 lb.
Bay salt 3 lb.
Saltpetre ¼ lb.
Loaf sugar 2 lb.
River or rain water 3 gall.
Boil and skim well. Apply cold. Small delicate pork will be ready in a
week.

breast of mutton collar, as venison.

Hang the largest breast of well-fed wether mutton you can get, as
long as the weather will warrant you. Take away the outer skin, all
the bones, and strew coarse sugar plentifully all over the inside flesh,
and put a slate or piece of board that is tasteless—as beech, or
sycamore, or poplar—upon it, with heavy weights, and let it remain
so forty-eight hours. Be provided with
Garden thyme, in
powder 1 tablespoonful
Marjoram, in powder 1 tablespoonful
Eschalots, minced 4 tablespoonfuls
 Nutmeg, grated ½ oz.
Bay salt 1 lb.
White pepper, ground 1 oz.
Old ale 1 pint
Boil these altogether for twenty minutes. Rub both sides of the meat
for at least twenty minutes, and lay it, along with its sugar or pickle,
in a deep vessel, and keep up the friction for a week or nine days;
then take it up, dry it with cloths, and making a layer of bay leaves
and laurel in a dry tub, put the breast upon it, and cover the meat
with other leaves of similar sort, and with thyme, parsley, and any
sweet herbs you may have near at hand. Now take it up, wash it for
five minutes in vinegar and table-beer, half-and-half, and hang it up
to dry for twenty-four hours, then roll it up as a collar, and bind it
tight; hang it in your chimney, but do not let much smoke enter into it,
as it must be dried rather than smoked. The embers of beech chips,
grass turfs, and sawdust, will effect this in a week. The half of it may
be roasted, and the other part kept with your hams, tongues, &c., for
six months; it will then be mellow and beautifully flavoured.

a perpetual goose.
Procure the heart of a prime ox—the larger the better—hang it up
in a current of dry air as long as it is safe, and at the same time get a
pint of newly-drawn goose oil, which put into a jar along with
Six or eight eschalots, minced
Onions, sliced 1 lb.
Dried sage, powdered 1 oz.
Bay salt ¼ lb.
Saltpetre ½ oz.
Tie brown paper over, and let it remain in a gentle heat until your
meat is ready. First cut out from the heart, the pipe—blood vessel—
as low down as you can, pare away the “deaf ears,” and open as
wide as you consistently can, without piercing the bark or outside
skin, a communication between the two upper cavities—auricles,
and the two lower ones—ventricles, and take out the coagulated
blood. Next rub all parts, the inside and outside, thoroughly twice a
day with the oily mixture for a week, having put the meat, point
downwards, in a straight-sided deep earthen vessel, and keeping the
cavities all the while filled with the liquor. Now boil for fifteen minutes.
Bay leaves, shred 1 oz.
Green laurel, shred 1 oz.
Bay salt, pounded ½ lb.
Vinegar 1 pint
Porter 1 pint
Coarse sugar 1 lb.
Skim it well and add it when half-cold to the meat in the jar, mixing all
well together. Mind that the meat is completely covered with the
pickle, and tie paper over all, so let it be for a week, when boil up all
the pickle, skimming it well, and taking care to renew what may have
been lost or imbibed, and the cavities kept well filled all the time; let it
be in pickle a fortnight longer, then take up, wipe dry inside and out,
make a stuffing of fried sliced onions and sage leaves powdered,
adding black pepper to make it pleasantly hot, and with this fill the
inside of the heart as full as possible, and pressing it in from the top,
make the holes secure with wetted bladder sewed over them. Let it
hang up for a day or two to dry, then wrap it in brown paper and
smoke it, point downwards, for a week; then take it down, rub it for
half-an-hour with olive oil, and smoke it again for a week. This done,
rub it again with the oil and hang it in a quick current of air for twenty-
four hours, and as soon as it is dry enough to retain it, coat it
securely with the gelatine composition, and keep it three months,
and longer the better. Ultimately, it must be roasted, and slices cut
out when cold to be broiled. It is an exceedingly beautiful treat.
 the nutriment in fish.
“This is a subject on which I have made some experiments, the
results of which go far to prove that there is much nourishment in fish
—little less than in butcher’s meat, weight for weight; and in effect it
may be more nourishing, considering how, from its softer fibre, fish is
more easily digested. Moreover, there is I find, in fish—in sea-fish—a
substance which does not exist in the flesh of land animals, viz.
iodine, a substance which may have a beneficial effect on the health,
and tend to prevent the production of scrofulous and tubercular
disease—the latter in the form of pulmonary consumption, one of the
most cruel and fatal with which civilised society, and the highly
educated and refined are afflicted. Comparative trials prove that, in
the majority of fish the proportion of solid matter—that is, the matter
which remains after perfect desication or the expulsion of the
aqueous part, is little inferior to that of the several kinds of butcher’s
meat, game, or poultry. And if we give our attention to classes of
people, classed as to the quality of food they principally subsist on,
we find that the ichthyophagous class are especially strong, healthy,
and prolific. In no other class than that of fishers do we see larger
families, handsomer women, or more robust men, or a greater
exemption from the maladies just alluded to.”—Dr. Davy.

welsh dried salmon.

A great deal of the Welsh salmon is “poached,” or taken
surreptitiously, in the long dark nights, by means of lanterns and
“spearing,” when the fish, attracted by the light, come to the water’s
edge. The salmon is often lank and out of season, and consequently
of inferior quality, yet some of it is tolerable and inquired for at the
shops by gentlemen, who having resided some time in Wales, and,
as it often happens, prejudiced in favour of home productions.
However, if it possesses any admired flavour it arises, not so much
from the method of curing it, as from the fuel it is smoked with, and
which the poachers can easily procure, to wit, dried fern, and young
gorse, besides short grass turfs which grow on commons and on the
mountain sides, and which is pared off the land very thin, and dried
in the sunny weather. They dry and smoke the salmon in some
remote part of their cottage, or hut, and hence its dark and dirty
appearance, and there it remains until traders intending it for the
Chester and Bristol markets come and purchase it. I conclude it pays
the curers pretty well for their trouble, since it costs them nothing.
Take a fresh salmon, sixteen to twenty pounds weight, split it open at
the belly, beginning at about eight inches from where the tail sets on,
and cutting through to the bone up to the nose, remove the gills and
all the refuse, wipe well out, and quite dry. Mix an ounce of ground
white pepper with a pound of coarse sugar, and rub all the inside
with it, particularly at the bone, for fifteen minutes or more; then bring
the sides together, lay it on a dish, and rub the remainder of the
mixture all over the outside of the fish, the back fins and thick part of
the shoulders. So let it lie, the thin side uppermost, until next day in a
cool room. Then rub again all over with the liquor produced, and let it
lie twenty-four hours longer, the thick side uppermost. Now hang it
up by the tail until dripping ceases, lay it again on a clean dish, strew
fine salt well over the inside, bring the sides together, and rub the
outside well with fine salt, leaving the fish covered to the thickness of
half-a-crown with pounded rock salt, a thin stratum of which must be
under the salmon. Each day the runnings must be thrown away—for
observe it is hot weather when fresh salmon is cured—and more salt
applied. In five days from the commencement it will be safely cured,
provided that the thick part of the back and shoulders have been well
supplied with the salt heaped under, around, and above those parts.
Then take up the fish, brush off the salt, wipe dry, prop the sides
open with splints of wood, and hang it up by the tail in a current of
air. Next day hang it up by the head for twelve hours, and after that
remove it to your chimney, where, suspended with the head
downwards, you may smoke it with beech chips two parts, oak
sawdust two parts, and fern or grass turfs two parts, for two weeks,
keeping the sides wide open with splints of wood. As soon as the
salmon is taken out of smoke, and while it may be a little warm and
pliable, lay some well dried oat straw in the inside, bring the sides
together and tie round with string. In two months you will have prime
dried salmon for broiling in steaks, cut three quarters of an inch thick,
and will keep good many months.

fine dutch salmon.

This article is in great esteem with the Jews. Prepare the fish as
per our own directions for “superior kippered salmon,” having taken
out the backbone, &c. &c. Now, for a fish of sixteen to twenty pounds
weight, take
Bay salt in fine
powder 1½ lb.
Saltpetre 1 oz.
Chillies, bruised ½ oz.
Garlic, minced fine ¼ oz.
mix them well, and rub the skin side of the fish all over, using a large
handful. Lay your fish flat on a good layer of common salt—rock is
far preferable—in your tub, strew bay leaves on it, cover well with
your mixture, and put your boards on the fish, weighting them down
with accuracy. Remove them once a day for the purpose of applying
more of the seasoning, and put fresh bay leaves on the third
morning. On the fifth morning take the salmon out of the pickle tub,
stretch it open at the back by wooden splints, rinse it quickly through
salt and water, and proceed as in the next receipt, in every respect,
until the process is completed.

superior kippered salmon.

Choose a short, thick fish with a small head, a bright eye, and of
twenty pounds weight, although salmon cannot be too large for
splitting, and just fresh from the ice they come packed in.
Immediately it is brought home—in hot weather observe—
commence your operations. Lay the fish on a table with its back
towards you, and, beginning at the nose, draw a sharp knife clean
down at one stroke to within two inches of where the tail begins. This
must be accomplished so that the backbone is left quite bare under
the knife; thus one, the under, side of the fish will be thicker than the
upper side. Then take out the roe and liver, which may be beautifully
preserved as by various receipts in this treatise, and removing the
gills and garbage, wipe out the fish well, and having previously with a
pen-knife severed a tissue that runs along the whole length of the
bone, and hides much coagulated blood. Pure water must not be
allowed, but salt and water may be used to assist in cleaning out the
fish—that is, cloths dipped in salt and water. In the next place we
must have the backbone detached, to effect which “nicely,” you will
need a pen-knife with a strong blade, or one of those used by
shoemakers for “paring,” and which are the smallest used by them.
Commencing about eight inches from the root of the tail, the knife
must be run up by the side of the bone to the head, and then
beginning again at the same start, you must pass the knife on the
lower side of the bone, and so meeting with the point of the
instrument the incision made by the first cutting, thus the bone may
be got out, and afterwards the meat so pared down as to appear as
though the fish never had a backbone. The necessity for thus taking
out the bone is, that handsome slices may be cut from the thick side
for broiling. Now, when thus far advanced, make a layer of finely
beaten rock salt, or bay salt, at the bottom of your pickling tub, and
on that lay the salmon, its scaly side downwards, and with a fine
bread-grater cover the whole inside of the fish with finely rendered
loaf-sugar, to the thickness of a crown-piece, and put plenty of bay
leaves upon that, place your flattening boards nicely on the fish, and
weigh them down effectively. These must of course be displaced
once a day to supply more sugar to the fish. On the third morning put
fresh bay leaves, with a pound more salt, and an ounce and a half of
sal prunelle, and replace the boards. Look to it every morning and
evening, keeping it well supplied with fine salt and sal prunelle, but
using no more sugar. On the fourth day sprinkle lightly over it finely
ground white pepper, and renew the leaves. Next day dismiss the
boards, bring the thin side over upon the other, and, scattering salt
over it, leave it till the next day. Then rinse it quickly through salt and
water, and hang it up to drip; wipe it dry, stretch out the sides by
pieces of light lath placed across the back, and suspend it in a free
current of dry air; examine it occasionally, and if the red side begins
to feel clammy or sticky, place it before a fire until the “face”
becomes somewhat dry and hardened, then expose it again to the
air current, and when ready smoke it with
Oak sawdust 2 parts
Beech chips 2 parts
Fern or grass turfs 2 parts
for three days and nights, adding a little peat to your fire the last
twelve hours. It should not be cut for three or four days, and then
with a very sharp knife held across the fish in an oblique direction,
which procures the slices much broader than if the knife were placed
at right angles with the back of the salmon. The slices are usually
broiled, enclosed in writing-paper.

collared salmon.
Take a short, thick fish about twelve pounds weight, scale it,
remove the fins, cut off the head with two inches of the jowl, and the
tail with six inches of the fish, these to be cured some other way. Lay
the fish open at the back, take out the bone, wipe nicely and scatter
sifted loaf-sugar over it; after lying six hours replenish the sugar and
leave it till the next day. Next draw your knife down the middle, thus
making two sides of it, which may by cured in different ways. Get a
pint and a half of recently picked shrimps, examine them carefully,
and pound them in a mortar with an anchovy, wiped and boned, and
so much of this mixture as you think sufficient—viz.
Cayenne pepper ½ oz.
Mace, in fine powder ½ oz.
Cloves „ 1 oz.
Bay leaves „ ½ oz.
Table salt 2 oz.
adding a little water that has been boiled. Make a nice smooth paste,
and cover the red surface of the fish with it equally; begin at the head
part, and roll it up into a nice firm collar, which bind tightly with a
broad tape, and sew up in strong calico or light canvas. Let it remain
thus two or three days, then plunge it into a pan of boiling water, with
saltpetre half an ounce, and salt one pound, to each half-gallon of
water; when done enough, take it out, set it on a sieve to cool, and
next day put it in your chimney with a slow fire, to dry gradually, and
then smoke it with
Beech chips 2 parts
Fern 2 parts
Oak lops 2 parts
for a week. When cool take off the cloth, and hang it up in a dry air to
get solid. It may then be enclosed in writing paper and sent to table,
and will be greatly relished. Let the thin side be treated thus: Lay it
down on the skin side, and cover it with rock or bay salt in fine
powder, sifted loaf sugar half a pound, and saltpetre half an ounce;
so let it lie forty-eight hours under a board of tasteless wood,
weighted down. Next wipe it dry, and hang it on your tenterhooks in a
free current of air twenty-four hours; mix well,
Essence of cassia ½ tablespoonful
Essence of cloves 1 tablespoonful
Essence of mace ½ tablespoonful
Essence of cayenne ½ tablespoonful
Essence of bays ½ tablespoonful
lay the fish down on the scaly side, and with a soft flat brush of
camel’s hair, pay it well over with the mixture, and cover with oiled
silk, or its best substitute, to prevent the evaporation of the
essences. Repeat this brushing over three times in twenty-four
hours, and roll it up from the head, binding tightly; expose it to a
current of dry air, and when ready to receive it, give it a fine firm
coating with gelatine composition, and keep it three months in a dry
place. It may be cut in slices for broiling, or if boiled let it be put into
boiling water.

kippered mackerel.
 When in season and full of roe, is the time for this process. Take a
dozen mackerel, split them down the back from the head
downwards, and leaving the thin side connected for an inch with the
tail; take out the roes and livers, some of which will be beautiful if
otherwise cured and preserved, remove the gills and refuse, wiping
clean out. Rub the insides lightly with good olive oil, and let them
remain skin side downwards three hours. Boil for a quarter of an
hour the following ingredients, and skim well:
Rock salt or common
salt 1 lb.
Bay salt 1 lb.
Saltpetre ¼ lb.
Coarse sugar 1 lb.
Water 1 gall.
Lay your fish in an earthen pan along with
Thyme 1 handful
Allspice, bruised 1 oz.
Twelve bay leaves, shred
Pour the boiled liquor upon them at about 150 deg. Fahr., and cover
close. In thirty-six hours take out the fish, wipe them dry, stretch
them open by wooden splints at the backs, and hang them in a
strong air current; watch the inside face of them, and if becoming
clammy, place them to a fire for an hour. Smoke them of a nice
chesnut brown colour with
Oak lops or sawdust 2 parts.
Fern or turfs 2 parts.
Beech chips 2 parts.
They will keep well if packed face to face with dry oiled paper
between every two of them. Broil or toast them moderately.

may fish—a less expensive method.

 Take fifty mackerel, split and clean them, as for “kippered
mackerel.” Mix
Rock or common salt 2 lb.
Bay salt 1 lb.
Saltpetre ½ lb.
Molasses 2 lb.
warm these, and rub the fish well on both sides; lay them in a deep
pan and let them remain until next day, when they must again be
rubbed and laid for another twenty-four hours. Then take one up and
try if the flavour is high enough for your approbation, if not, let remain
a few hours longer in pickle. When enough, wipe them dry and stick
them as kippered herrings, on your tenters; dry them a day or two
and smoke them well with
Oak lops 2 parts
Fern 2 parts
Beech chips 1 part
Peat 1 part

superior pressed mackerel.

In the midst of the mackerel season take twenty fine fresh fish,
split them open at the belly, only as far as to the backbone, remove
the gills and entrails, clear out well, particularly the blood lying on the
bone, wash them with salt and water, and hang them up to drain.
Make a pickle by boiling for twenty minutes,
Rock salt or common
salt 2 lb.
Coarse sugar, foots 1 lb.
Saltpetre 1 oz.
Jamaica pepper, bruised 2 oz.
Bay leaves 1 oz.
Laurel leaves 1 oz.
 Water 1 gall.
Lay the fish in a vessel, and pour the liquor, when luke warm, upon
them; keep the fish down by a board, and let them lie twenty-four
hours; then pour off the liquor, boil it up, skimming well, and return it
on to the fish for twenty-four hours more. Then take them up and
hang them to dry, exposing the insides well to the current of air by
wooden splints placed inside. When sufficiently dried both inside and
outside, remove them to your chimney and smoke them a dark
colour with
Oak sawdust 1 part
Fern 2 parts
Beech 2 parts
Peat 1 part
When cold, take a pair of large scissors, and cut off the sides of the
belly part, to extent of an inch; take off the heads, lay the fish on their
backs, packed side by side, and saturate the backbones with this
mixture by means of a camel’s-hair tool:
Essence of cassia 1 tablespoonful
Essence of allspice 2 tablespoonfuls
Essence of cloves 2 tablespoonfuls
Essence of nutmeg 1 tablespoonful
Essence of mace 1 tablespoonful
Repeat this twice a-day for three days, and when dry, coat the fish
with gelatine composition, and keep in a dry place.

british american salmon.

Annually, in November, we get from St. John’s, N.B., excellent
salted salmon in tierces, dexterously split at the backs, and which, if
treated in the following manner, makes tolerable kipper. If it is your
purpose to convert two or more fish at once, choose them nearly of
the same size, and lay them in a shallow tub with plenty of soft water
and salt, so that they are totally immersed for twenty-four hours; then
take one up, lay it on a table, scale side downwards, and with
scalding hot water and a middling soft brush clean the face of the red
side, by drawing the instrument down always in the same direction
with the grain of the fish; it will be quite necessary to use a small
knife in paring away loose films which attach to the middle of the
belly and about the vent. This done, turn over, and brush the skin
side until clean, and looking well to the fins and gills. Now lay the fish
in plenty of cold water, in which three-quarters of an ounce of
common washing soda to each gallon has been dissolved; change
the water every twelve hours for thirty-six hours, if the fish weigh
about nine pounds each, and so in proportion for greater or less
weight. You will now let the fish lie in pure cold water for six hours,
then hang them up to drip for twelve hours, and, taking them down,
brush the red side quite smooth, stretch open at the back by means
of wooden splints, and hang them to dry in a free current of air,
watching the inside faces to prevent their getting clammy or sticky,
and presenting them to the fire should that be the case. In a day or
so you may proceed to smoke them, after you have gained a well-
dried face on the red side; this must be done with
Oak lops or sawdust 1 part
Beech chips 2 parts
Fern or grass turfs 2 parts
Peat 1 part
Give them a continuance of this smoke for two days and nights, and
although while in the chimney the colour of the inside face may not
be so deep as you might wish, yet, when drawn out and exposed to
the common air, the shade will be greatly altered, and a fine bright
red will succeed it.

bloaters.
This process is generally conducted in so negligent and rough a
manner—excepting at Yarmouth and Lowestoft—that a little advice
on the subject may not be out of place. As the barrels are emptied of
their contents, the largest fish should be picked out from the rest,
and pickled separately, for otherwise the consumer gets the finest
herrings hardly tasting of salt, and most likely in a state of decay,
while the small ones are so much oversalted, as to be scarcely
eatable. As the fish generally come to hand far from clean, they
should be washed by means of round baskets agitated in tubs of salt
and water, and turned into separate pickling vats, which should have
false bottoms in them, perforated here and there with holes, taps
also being introduced to let off the pickle when required. The safest
and best method is to make use of saturated solutions of salt, which
are made by adding twenty-nine pounds of common salt to seventy-
one pounds of water. The herrings will float in this pickle, but must be
totally immersed by battens of wood laid on the top of them, and held
down by little bags of salt, which, being gradually dissolved, will
maintain the strength of the solution, which is always lessened as
the fish imbibe the muriatic property thereof, and all pickles of this
description are weaker at the surface than at the bottom, and may in
this way be rectified. (See Note, No. 4.) As to the length of time the
fish should remain in the pickle, that depends whether they came to
hand with coarse salt scattered amongst them, at the sea coast, a
precaution necessary in hot weather; a good criterion is when the
fish begin to be stiff or rigid while being handled, but to try one or two
cooked is certainly a sure proof. Pure fresh water must never be
added or made use of in this process after salt has been imbibed, or
the heads will all be broken when putting them on the spits. When
salt enough, run off the brine, and shortly commence putting your
fish on the rods, and hang them up in a current of air, then remove
them to your chimney, and smoke them with
Oak lops 2 parts
Beech chips 2 parts
Fern or grass turfs 2 parts
When they have been smoked enough, return them to the air
currents, as they keep much better on the rods until wanted. If a
constant and full smoke has been kept up, twelve hours will be
sufficient for the smaller fish, and sixteen to eighteen hours for the
large ones. They are not intended to keep good more than four or
five days, but in perfection should be eaten the day after being
cured.

kippered herrings.
The herring is so favourite a fish with the majority of society, that
any improvement in the modes of curing them is a valuable
acquisition. The getting rid of the gut and other objectionable parts
recommends itself, and claims a decided preference over the old
practice of sending the fish to table whole, and, in fact, carrying to
the parlour what ought to have been left in the scullery. The salting
process should be conducted in a similar manner to that for bloaters,
and when taken out of pickle, should be wiped dry, and then split
open at the backs, leaving the bone bare as possible; yet, an inch
from the tail, the thin side should remain attached to the thick side,
this adds much to the appearance of the fish when at table, and
saves the curer some trouble in the succeeding stages of process.
Clean out all the offal and gills, and wipe with cloths dipped in salt
and water, and suspend them by the shoulders upon the tenter
hooks of your rods, thus avoiding the trouble caused by the old plan
of keeping the fish open by splints of wood. Hang them in a free
current of air, and when dried enough—one night is generally
sufficient for that purpose—hang them in the chimney, and smoke
them of a nice chesnut brown colour, and keep them on the rods, but
not in a current, though in a dry room and cold air; when packed it
should be insides faces together, with strips of dry oiled paper
between each two fish.

superior spiced kippered herring.

This is a more troublesome, but withal a delicious preparation of
the herring, and should be practised on the best and freshest fish, as
on the Isle of Man—“Manx herrings”—in July and August, and the
Yarmouth later on in the season. Select two dozen from out of a lot
of fish, the largest and roundest, wash them a minute in salt and
water, having taken out the eyes and gills, wipe them, and lay them
open at the back, wipe clean out, and put them into a pickle made by
boiling water for twenty minutes, skimming, and then straining
through a sieve,
Rock salt or bay salt 1½ lb.
Coarse sugar 1 lb.
Allspice, ground 2 oz.
Fifteen bay leaves, shred
Six laurel leaves, shred
Water, 5 quarts
Let the fish remain in this six hours, then hang them by their
shoulders, and stretched widely open, to dry in a quick current of air.
In this, and all similar cases, where the inside is to be acted upon by
the atmosphere, those sides should be placed on the hooks so as to
receive the full advantage of the air current. When dried as you think
sufficiently, hang them in the chimney, and smoke them till of a fine
bright brown; return them to the air, and next day take them off the
hooks, lay them on their backs, and brush them all over the inside
with essence of allspice and water, two parts of the former to one
part of the latter; repeat this, and when absorbed, brush them over
again liberally with this mixture:
Essence of cassia 2 tablespoonfuls
Essence of cloves 4 tablespoonfuls
Essence of mace 2 tablespoonfuls
Essence of bays 4 tablespoonfuls
Water 6 tablespoonfuls
repeating this three or four times, according to your taste. Any of the
others may be used singly or in combination. The backbone must be
well saturated. Stow away, wrapped in paper, in malt cooms and
charcoal; they will keep a long time, and repay your trouble well.

cape breton, or digby herrings.

St. John’s, N.B., and Cape Breton furnish us with these highly
flavoured fish, smoked with the pine branches of that region. Small
herrings visit our coasts soon after Christmas, and being “shot,” or
without roes, are not much esteemed, but will serve well for curing in
this way. Let them lie in a saturated solution of common salt so long
as just to taste of the brine, then put them on spits, dry them a week,
and smoke them for a month with deal chips, having much turpentine
in them, from carpenters’ shops, and with the fruit of the larch fir tree,
fir cones, and top branches of any of our firs, and some oak sawdust
to smother the flame. These fish are generally eaten without being
cooked, and will keep a long time, packed in small boxes, or buried
in malt cooms, &c. &c.

aberdeen reds.
For this purpose the herrings should be large, full-roed, and fresh.
Immerse them in a pickle of twenty-nine pounds of common salt to
seventy-one pounds of water, and to every pound of salt add half an
ounce of saltpetre. When they become rigid and moderately
flavoured, run off the pickle, put them on the spits, dry them a day or
two, and smoke them with
Oak lops 2 parts
Fern 2 parts
Sawdust 2 parts
until they are of a deep red.

speldings.
At present we are not aware of any superior method of curing the
haddock to the “finnin haddock,” which, if procured soon after they
are drawn from the smoke, are very fine eating. But some seasons
produce these fish in such abundance that it induces curers to save
them by various processes; the small ones may be converted as
follow: Split them open at the belly, right over the backbone, clean
away all the garbage, gills, &c, and lay them in a strong brine of
common salt until nicely flavoured, then hang them on your tenters,
dry them a day or two, taking care they do not become clammy, as
these fish very soon are spoiled. Make a fire in your chimney with
oak lops, sawdust, and beech chips, and when you have brought it
to embers put in the rods, and first dry and then smoke them highly.
Whitings are often done the same way, when the markets are glutted
with the fresh fish.

smoked sprats.
This is a remunerative business when conducted on the best
principles, employing children at trifling wages. I have found the
following to be the best method: Provide a wooden trough eight feet
long by a yard wide, and eighteen inches deep; fix strips of wood an
inch square along the sides, lengthwise of the vat, and six inches
above one another. On these will rest the spits, which must be of iron
wire, a yard long, and so as just to go within the vat. Pick out all the
small fish and rubbish, and wash the bulk in salt and water, as for
bloaters, but not too many at once, as they are apt to sweat if lying
long together, and then would never be bright when smoked. Use a
saturated solution of common salt, or, preferably, of rock salt, and if
you intend to produce “bloated sprats,” two hours will be sufficient to
let them remain in pickle; run off the brine, and put the fish on the
spits, which may be a little pointed at one end. Hang them in a free
current of air till next day, and smoke them with
Oak lops 2 parts
Sawdust 2 parts
Beech or birch chips 2 parts.
until they are the colour of new sovereigns. These will not keep well
more than four or five days, and are generally esteemed. If you want
dried sprats for commerce, let them remain in the brine four hours,
dry them well when on the spits, in a current of air, and when they
begin to lose their plumpness, smoke them with similar fuel till of the
colour of Spanish mahogany. These when packed in boxes, like
cigar boxes, will suit for exportation to the European Continent,
where many thousands of boxes are sent every winter.
 aldborough smoked sprats.
Many gentlemen who delight in highly smoked relishes, inquire for
these articles, and as they are seldom to be procured north of the
metropolis, I subjoin an easy way of getting them. In the beginning of
the sprat season—November—take a bushel of fish, pick out all the
largest ones, and with a dozen pounds of common coarse salt or
rock salt at hand, throw a layer of it into the bottom of your salting
tub, then a layer of fish, and so on in alternate layers to the end; let
them lie four hours, mixing them about in the tub two or three times,
this will fix the scales, which are cleared off the fish by the “washing”
process. Now take the sprats up, and with a basket wash them
quickly in very strong salt-and-water, using the same salt if you
choose, and get them on to your spits, and dry them as soon as a
strong current of air will accomplish it. Smoke them with oak alone,
lops and sawdust, until they are of a very dark red colour, and when
quite cold, pack them in round shallow kits, in circles, the heads lying
all one way, and the fish on their backs. The appearance of them is
anything but inviting, yet they are very good, and are always eaten
without cooking. Vast quantities used to be exported to the
Netherlands, Holland, and the German States; they are also well
adapted for sea-stores.

british anchovies.
If it were worth while to favour the deception, you must select your
fish from out of half a bushel of the freshest you can get, retaining
only the middle-sized ones, for the real Gorgona fish are never so
large as our large sprats, and never so small as our little ones, and
your’s should also be all of the same size. Pull off the heads—not
cutting them—in a rough manner, and draw out the gut. Wash not
and wipe not the fish, but put them in straight-sided unglazed
earthen jars, wood is preferable, in layers alternately with this
mixture:
Bay salt 2 lb.
Sal prunelle 2 oz.
Cochineal, in fine 2 oz.
 powder
pressing them down as you proceed, and letting the top layer of the
mixture be at least two inches thick. Get cork bungs cut to fit well,
and secure them with plenty of melted resin. Bury the jars in dry
sand in your cellar or store room, “out of the way,” and do not disturb
them for nine months, or till the next sprat season. A fortnight before
you would broach your “prize,” dissolve
Gum dragon 2 oz.
Sal prunelle 2 oz.
Red sanders 1 oz.
in a pint of boiled water, and strain it through flannel, pour it evenly
over the contents of your jars or vessels; secure the bung again, and
in a week or less, turn the receptacles upside-down for a day or two,
and then again set them upright. This is called “feeding” them. And
when all is done, without the aid of “brick-dust,” or what is as bad,
“Armenian Bole,” to give them a fine red colour, the said “British
anchovies” may do to make anchovy sauce of, with other
ingredients, but to bring to table, with dry or buttered toast, as
Gorgona fish—Oh never! See Note, No. 7.

turbot fins.
This idea will naturally suggest itself, that “a pretty expensive
product this will be, by cutting off the fins of a turbot at such a cost;”
but there are fish to be got at much less price that will answer the
purpose, for instance, the brill or brett, and even good firm plaice, in
hard frosty weather, will afford the “amateur” an opportunity of testing
the value of the venture. In a private family, if such a fish came to
table minus its fins it would eat quite as well, even though to the eye
it might not be exactly a handsome dish. Scale the fish, and cut off
the extreme edge of the fins, lay a piece of wood an inch thick on the
body, just to act as a guide to the knife—which must have a very
sharp point—and cut off the fins with an inch and half, or rather
more, of the solid attached; place these upon their bases upright in a