Qualla: Cormorant Fishing House https://qualla.com/cormorant-fishing-house en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:39 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/3/3/cormorant-fishing-house-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Cormorant Fishing House https://qualla.com/cormorant-fishing-house Cormorant Fishing House: Introduction https://qualla.com/cormorant-fishing-house/ Photo credit Douggers at English Wikipedia, Public domain. Six men in all of Japan hold the title. They are usho, cormorant fishing masters, and they answer directly to the Imperial Household Agency. On summer nights along the Nagara River in Gifu, these masters stand in wooden boats lit by blazing fire baskets, commanding teams of cormorants to dive into black water and surface with ayu, the prized sweetfish, clamped in their beaks. The tradition stretches back more than 1,300 years, and the Cormorant Fishing House, a museum on the river's north bank, is where visitors come to understand how an ancient fishing technique became one of Japan's most carefully guarded cultural treasures.

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Image: Douggers at English Wikipedia | Public domain

]]> Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/3/3/cormorant-fishing-house-wp/xn33-cormorant-fishing-house-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Cormorant Fishing House: Birds, Fire, and Darkness https://qualla.com/cormorant-fishing-house/ Photo credit Douggers at English Wikipedia, Public domain. Cormorant fishing, or ukai, works on a principle that borders on choreography. After nightfall, six wooden boats push off from the banks of the Nagara River, each carrying a master fisherman and two boatmen. A kagaribi, an iron fire basket suspended on a pole over the bow, throws...

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Image: Douggers at English Wikipedia | Public domain

]]> Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/3/3/cormorant-fishing-house-wp/xn33-cormorant-fishing-house-birds-fire-and-darkness.mp3 0:06 2 full Cormorant Fishing House: Warlords and Emperors https://qualla.com/cormorant-fishing-house/ Photo credit Douggers at English Wikipedia, Public domain. The practice along the Nagara River dates to at least the seventh century, making Gifu one of only twelve places in Japan where ukai survives. It gained its most powerful patron in the sixteenth century when Oda Nobunaga, the warlord who controlled Gifu Castle on the hill above, ...

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Image: Douggers at English Wikipedia | Public domain

]]> Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/3/3/cormorant-fishing-house-wp/xn33-cormorant-fishing-house-warlords-and-emperors.mp3 0:06 3 full Cormorant Fishing House: Training the Untameable https://qualla.com/cormorant-fishing-house/ Photo credit Douggers at English Wikipedia, Public domain. The cormorants used in Gifu's ukai are wild-caught migratory birds, not bred in captivity. Training one takes two to three years of daily handling, during which the master builds a bond closer to partnership than domestication. The birds live in the usho's home, are fed by hand, ...

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Image: Douggers at English Wikipedia | Public domain

]]> Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/3/3/cormorant-fishing-house-wp/xn33-cormorant-fishing-house-training-the-untameable.mp3 0:06 4 full Cormorant Fishing House: The Museum on the Bank https://qualla.com/cormorant-fishing-house/ Photo credit Douggers at English Wikipedia, Public domain. The Cormorant Fishing House sits on the north bank of the Nagara River, a short walk upstream from the Nagarabashi Bridge where tourist boats depart for evening viewings. Admission is free. Inside, artifacts trace the full arc of ukai history: fishing tools, historical photograph...

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Image: Douggers at English Wikipedia | Public domain

]]> Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/3/3/cormorant-fishing-house-wp/xn33-cormorant-fishing-house-the-museum-on-the-bank.mp3 0:06 5 full