Acknowledgments

The following account of Japanese hawking is a composite of material obtained from visits with many falconers, observations on their methods and gear, and information gleaned from old books and scrolls used in ancient and many sources it is a report and not, in a strict sense, an original work. Throughout the following pages I have, whenever feasible, indicated the origin of my information; but most of the methods are rather uniform in Japan and do not represent the style of any one individual.

Dr. Tatsuo Udagawa of the Government Forest Experiment Station in Asakawa, Tokyo, encouraged and helped my wife, Eiko, and me from the time of our first interest in Japanese hawking, and introduced us to several Japanese falconers. Without Dr. Udagawa's assistance our task would have been impossibly difficult. Mr. Toshinaga Bojo, Head Priest of the Grand Shrine of Ise and leading authority of falconry in Japan, not only explained in detail different methods of training and hunting with goshawks, but allowed us free use of an unpublished manuscript on the history of Japanese hawking.

In addition we have received considerable information from several falconers. Our first contact with Japanese hawking resulted from correspondence with Mr. Asaji Kutsuzawa who has trained hawk-eagles in the mountains of northern Honshu; and he passed to us the knowledge he has acquired from a lifetime of hunting with these birds. Although we observed other falconers training hawk-eagles, most of our information about this species is from Mr. Kutsuzawa's letters and from our visits to his home in Yamagata Prefecture. Mr. Arie Niwa, Assistant Director of the Higashiyama Zoological Gardens in Nagoya, has been especially helpful in explaining and clarifying the purposes of various pieces of hawking gear, many of which are no longer in general use. Mr. Matsutaro Kotani, Head Falconer of the Royal Household, was of inestimable help in discussing their methods of reclaiming and training goshawks and in explaining the construction and function of their hawk-houses. Mr. H. Saito, authority on Japanese dogs, graciously allowed us to examine his fine collection of old scrolls, some of which dealt with the combined training of dogs and hawks. Several other falconers generously gave us their views on methods of handling and hunting with hawks and we are greatly indebted for their contributions. Especially helpful were Mr. Shigehiko Niwa of Ibaraki Prefecture, Mr. Toshio Tomita of Tokyo, Mr. Kinya Nakajima of Kyoto and Dr. Masaki Sano of Wakayama. Mr. Tasaburo Hada, a specialist of ancient Japanese literature, kindly presented us with several old paintings of hawks and hawking scenes, including the scroll from which the frontispiece was reproduced; and translated several of the volumes of the Arai books into modern Japanese. Dr. Kôhei Sakaguti graciously arranged for the printing of the color plates by the Nippon Printing and Publishing Company, Ltd. We are indebted to all these gentlemen for their enthusiastic contributions to this volume.

I am most grateful to Mr. Lawton Kennedy for his artful assistance throughout the preparation and printing of this story of Japanese hawking. Mr. Kelvin Deming and Dr. Robert Stabler kindly made editorial corrections in the manuscript. The cover inscription, Yamatodaka (Japanese hawk), is the work of Mr. Takayuki Mizuta.

Throughout the preparation of this account Eiko, my wife, has been of indispensible* assistance, and to her I tender my most profound thanks.

*this is the spelling used in the book, unsure if its a typo or was historically accurate at the time.