[Hirado Ikitsuki Whaling] Isana-tori Ekotoba (8) Ikitsuki Misakiura Bone Shed Illustration

The entrance to the bone shed is tiled, and in the back, a temporary hut with a thatched roof is attached. One manager, three young men, one oil-handler, and additional day laborers, totaling about fifty or sixty people, are working there. This is for all the bones, such as the skull, jawbones, large bones, and rib bones.

The reason the core of the skull is called 'kabura-bone' (turnip bone) is because of the meaning of 'kabu' (head/turnip) in terms like 'Kabutsuki no Tsurugi' (sword with a turnip-shaped pommel) (from the Jindai-ki) and 'kaburaya' (turnip-headed arrow). This is carved and shaped with a 'sentsuki' (a type of tool used to slice things into a thousand pieces, similar to what is used for eight-person portions; 'sen' (thousand) is a shortening of 'sensuji' (thousand lines), and it is a term used to describe how finely something is cut when it is sliced into a thousand lines), and because it can be mistaken for white thread, it is woven into the appearance of glue, and it is named 'tsukihone' (poked bone) or 'hori-hori', and culinary experts praise it as a rare delicacy. Also, at the base of the fin, there is what is called the 'fan bone'. This is also used in the same way as above. However, compared to the 'kabura-bone', it is slightly tougher.

Now, there is a manager's seat on the left and right of the entrance to the shed, and in the dirt floor area next to it, the bones are piled up like a mountain. Among them, the skull and jawbones look like lumber and do not seem like fish bones. These are sawed with a 'dangiri' saw (a 'dangiri' saw is a dialect term for a large saw with handles on both ends, used by two people facing each other). Large bones and rib bones that are split and crushed with an axe are cut with an axe or a mountain knife.

Under the wall on the right side, more than thirty people who cut the bones into small pieces are lined up, and they use the aforementioned mountain knife to carve the bones that have been cut into large pieces into 'kokera' (this refers to wood shavings; in Edo, it is called 'koppa'), and each person puts them into a bucket.

On the left side, there are six furnaces with large pots hanging over them, and the bones that have been made into the appearance of shavings are mixed with seawater to boil and extract the oil. Behind the furnaces, there is the usual passageway where a gutter is laid to pour the oil into two oil jars placed in the back storehouse, just like in the large shed. The boiled residue is crushed with a mortar, and the oil is extracted again.

The residue that has been boiled twice in this way is called 'bone meal', and it is packed into straw bags and sold and distributed to various provinces. This 'bone meal' is very good as fertilizer for fields and gardens, and it is said that nothing compares to it, especially as fertilizer for tobacco plants.