Preface

This description of Japanese hawking began with some correspondence with Dr. Tatsuo Udagawa concerning the training of the Japanese hawk-eagle. Subsequently, Dr. Udagawa introduced us to Mr. Asaji Kutsuzawa, one of the few persons who train this large bird; and from Mr. Kutsuzawa we obtained a great deal of information on their care and training. At Dr. Udagawa's suggestion, we enlarged the scope of the proposed volume to cover other species of hawks trained in Japan and to include the viewpoints of different falconers.

There is to date no English account of Japanese hawking, and its special flavor is only suggested by casual observations in isolated travel accounts written by persons not thoroughly versed with the training of hawks. Consequently, some very interesting features are described erroneously or inadequately with the result that most western falconers regard the Japanese version of the art with both confusion and mystery. There is also no treatise in English on the falconry of Korea, China, or Taiwan, so it is particularly desirable to have at least one introductory book on the art as it exists in the Far East. The first trained hawks came to Japan from Korea but it is rather likely that the Japanese introduced a number of innovations with the result that hawking in these islands does not necessarily resemble that of the Far East in general.

Gradually the reader will grasp the delicately prescribed manner in which everyday hawking procedures were executed. The elaborate routine is sometimes seemingly unnecessary and was probably developed because hawks belonged to the nobility who delighted in ceremony and formality. For example, in one book of the Meiji Period there are illustrated seventy different ways of tying a leash to the screen perch, the method varying with the holiday or occasion, the visiting nobles present, and the species of hawk. Like the tea ceremony in Japan, the care and training of hawks was, in ancient times, conducted in a precise and detailed manner with apparently no provision for initiative or originality on the part of the falconer; such rigidity, moreover, did not seem to consider differences in the condition and personality of the birds themselves. For the most part these refinements are no longer scope of preserved or practiced by modern falconers, and the scattered individuals who still train hawks are not always familiar with all the old procedures and wouldn't adopt them if they were. Present day falconers follow the same general pattern for reclaiming and training hawks but avoid most of the formality and frills. Nevertheless, there is a national character in the art of hawking in this country.

Anyone even casually familiar with hawking in Japan is aware that falconers, in contrast to those elsewhere in the Orient, carry the bird on the left fist. This should suggest that the Japanese have renovated the art to suit their own culture; but the extent of the changes will not be known until we have more knowledge of the procedures followed in Korea and China. The custom of keeping the newly taken wild hawk without food for long periods seems to be unknown in the Middle East. Generally in the Orient short-winged hawks are belled on the tail, but there is no precise description in English of how this is done, and the manner illustrated here differs from the Korean procedure and is apparently typically Japanese. The Japanese jesses, leash, food box and other items do not seem to have been clearly explained in the literature available to western falconers.

In the following pages I have tried to present all the ancient and current practices which might be of interest or value to other falconers. The result is not a consistent story for even in Japan there are different schools of hawking. In the manner of reclaiming goshawks, for example, I have recounted somewhat different procedures. I have reported what we saw and learned, with no attempt to appraise these practices or to insert my own opinions. In such a highly individualistic enterprise of hawking, one should have the maximum freedom of choice.

— Davis, California

June 1962