On a summer night in Gifu, flames flicker on the Nagara River.
A master fisherman stands on a wooden boat, guiding cormorants through the dark water.
This is not a recreated performance for tourists.
It is a living fishing tradition that has continued for more than 1,300 years.
A Living Tradition, 1,300 Years in the Making
Standing on a wooden boat is an usho, a master cormorant fisherman, dressed in traditional attire.
In his hands are several slender ropes. At the other end, cormorants gaze into the dark surface of the river.
Ukai is a traditional fishing method in which the usho and cormorants work together, bound by trust, to catch ayu, sweetfish.
Records of cormorant fishing on the Nagara River can be traced back to the Nihon Shoki, one of Japan’s oldest historical chronicles.
In the Shosoin Repository in Nara, Japan’s ancient capital, a 1,300-year-old family register still preserves a record showing that cormorant fishermen once lived in the land of Mino, present-day Gifu.
From an age when people tilled the fields and samurai walked along the riverside, the Nagara River and its usho have continued to exist together here in Gifu.
The Ayu of the Nagara River, Cherished by Rulers Through the Ages
The River Protected by the Imperial Household
On the Nagara River, there are clear stretches of water where not everyone is free to fish.
These are known as goryoba, special fishing grounds reserved for the Imperial Household.
It is here that goryo ukai is performed: a special form of cormorant fishing carried out to catch ayu for the Imperial Family.
The people entrusted with this role are known as Imperial Household Agency cormorant masters.
Today, only nine usho in all of Japan hold this official title: six on the Nagara River in Gifu City and three on the Oze River in Seki City.
These masters are permitted to fish in the goryoba, which are normally closed to fishing, in order to catch ayu to be offered to the Imperial Household.
The Samurai Age: Ayu-Zushi, the Nagara River-Born Delicacy That Captivated a Shogun
So why was the Nagara River given this special role?
The answer lies not only in its value as a traditional fishing method passed down for more than 1,300 years, but also in its long history of being protected by the most powerful figures of each era.
During the Warring States period, Oda Nobunaga, the ruler of this region at the time, is said to have protected the cormorant fishermen of the Nagara River and granted them the title of usho.
Later, during the Edo period, when Japan was ruled by the samurai class under the Tokugawa shogunate, the connection between Tokugawa Ieyasu and the ayu of the Nagara River made this tradition even more exceptional.
In 1615, after a decisive battle that helped bring Japan’s long age of civil war to an end, Tokugawa Ieyasu and his successor Hidetada stopped in Gifu and are said to have watched ukai on the Nagara River.
What they were served that day was ayu-zushi, a preserved sushi made with ayu caught by cormorant fishing.
Ieyasu is said to have taken a liking to this ayu-zushi. From then on, ayu-zushi from the Nagara River began to be sent as an official offering to the shogun’s castle in Edo, present-day Tokyo.
This offering was not merely a gift.
Because of it, the usho were granted important privileges for the time, including the right to travel freely along the river.
Throughout the Edo period, Nagara River ukai was protected not only as a beautiful night fishing tradition, but as the technique that supported the ayu offerings sent to the shogun’s household.
The Modern Era: A Fading Tradition Revived by Emperor Meiji
But in 1868, the Meiji Restoration brought the age of samurai rule to an end.
With the loss of protection from the Tokugawa family, Nagara River ukai faced the danger of disappearing.
The turning point for this fading tradition came in 1878, when Emperor Meiji visited Gifu.
At that time, Iwakura Tomomi and other influential figures of the Meiji government, who were accompanying the Emperor, watched ukai. It is said that ayu caught in the Nagara River were then presented to the Emperor.
This became the beginning of a new connection.
Gifu Prefecture began seeking protection from the Imperial Household Ministry, the government office then responsible for the affairs of the Imperial Family.
The prefecture requested that special fishing grounds be established for catching ayu to be offered to the Imperial Household, that officials be appointed to oversee them, and that usho be formally recognized for this duty.
In 1890, Gifu Prefecture’s request was accepted.
Nagara River ukai gained a stable position once again.
In this way, Nagara River ukai was revived—not as a spectacle recreated for tourists, but as goryo ukai, a living tradition that still serves the Imperial Household by offering ayu from the river.
Behind the flames of the bonfires floating on the dark Nagara River lives a tradition found in only a handful of places in Japan: a story of ayu and usho passed down through Oda Nobunaga, the Tokugawa family, and the Imperial Household.
Protected by the Nation as a Traditional Fishing Technique
This elegant tradition, alive with centuries of history, was designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Japan on March 2, 2015.
It was the first fishing technique in Japan to receive this national designation.
The usho’s eyes, reading the movements of the cormorants.
The hands that control several ropes in a single instant of judgment.
The sensitivity to the current of the river, the movement of the ayu, the brightness of the bonfire, even the breathing of the birds.
The technique of ukai is performed with the whole body and all five senses.
It is knowledge and experience engraved into human hands, eyes, and instincts, passed down over long years from father to son, from master to apprentice.
Because it is something that could never be restored in the same form once lost, this technique has been protected by the nation.
Tonight, Encounter a 1,300-Year Memory on the Nagara River
Nagara River ukai has captivated far more than Japanese warlords and the Imperial Household.
In 1922, Edward, Prince of Wales, who would later become King of the United Kingdom, watched ukai on the Nagara River.
The world-famous comedian Charlie Chaplin also came to see Nagara River ukai twice, in 1936 and again in 1961. It is said that he exclaimed, “Wonderful!” and called the usho, the cormorant masters, “artists.”
The usho’s call of “Ho-ho.”
The rhythm of hands striking the side of the boat.
The sound of cormorants breaking the surface of the water.
The fishing boats, lit by bonfires, emerging brilliantly on the dark river.
And yet, once the boats drift away, the Nagara River returns to deep darkness and silence.
In the summer of 1688, Matsuo Basho, Japan’s most celebrated haiku poet, watched ukai on the Nagara River and is said to have left behind this famous verse:
おもしろうて やがて悲しき 鵜舟かな
Omoshirōte / yagate kanashiki / ubune kana
“How fascinating—
and then, how sorrowful,
the cormorant boats.”
After the brief brilliance of ukai has passed, stillness returns to the river.
Perhaps Basho sensed, in that fleeting moment, not only the joy of the spectacle, but also the quiet sadness that follows.
Passed down through Oda Nobunaga, the Tokugawa shoguns, and the Imperial Household, Nagara River ukai is more than a historic tradition.
A scene that people 1,300 years ago may also have witnessed is waiting for you tonight on the Nagara River.