Whale

About Whale

Whale sauce is a local dish of Minamiboso, Chiba Prefecture, where whale meat is pickled in sauce and dried. It looks black like charcoal or seaweed, and looks like the skin of wood. The whale used for whale is a type of azalea that is about 12 meters long.
Due to the existence of many whale bones excavated from ruins in Kamakura City, coastal whaling may have begun in Boso from the 13th century to the Muromachi period from the 14th century to the 15th century. Whaling in the 'netting method' has become mainstream in various regions, but the netting method is not suitable because the azalea dives deep, and it is characteristic of whaling in the Minamiboso region that it has been consistently performed in 'poke method.'
Whaling was actively caught in various parts of the country until the Showa period, and it was a food for the common people. It is said that 'whira-no-tare' was made as a preserved food in the era when there was no refrigerator, as a food that was often placed on the table even in ordinary families. The name 'whale sauce' is said to be derived from the fact that whales are soaked in sauce and dried, and there is also a theory that it was hung on the eaves of the house. It is a must-have taste for citizens of Minamiboso, and those who have moved to other prefectures and returned home are so popular as a taste of their hometown that they buy 'whale sauce' and return home.

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