Whale mounds

Mounds are created to remember Cetacean stranding, a type of whale that was hunted for food and resources, and to show appreciation for the area being saved and enriched.

After the establishment of organized whaling after the Edo period, there are also mounds built as memorials and thanksgivings in areas where Whaling was a livelihood, such as the Ryujima area near Ukishima Shrine in Chiba Prefecture and Taiji.

There are several whale mounds in the southern part of the Bōsō Peninsula in Chiba Prefecture.

[5] The oldest one in Japan is the torii of the Ebisu Shrine[a] in Taiji Town, Wakayama Prefecture.

This is mentioned in Ihara Saikaku's "Nihon Eitaigura" published in 1688 (Jōkyō5): "In the village of Taiji, Ominato, Kiiro, the wife and children sing.