The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1904-03-11
JAPANESE FISH MARKET
Wonders Of the Deep Sea on
Sale at Nagasaki.
FROM THE WHALE TO sARDINEs.

FROM THE WHALE TO sARDINEs
Fish Fit For Royal Tables Are Dis.
played, such as the Tai - Water
Beauties of Rosy P2Lk and Irides.
cent scales n study In Lines and
Curves-Japanese Dexterity In Bon.
1ng and Cutting Fish.
In its great variety of food fishes
Nagasaki's market Is one of the three
greatest fish markets in the world,
says Eliza r. Scidmore, the Chicago
Tribune's correspondent, writing from
Nagasaki, Japan. Shell fish from banks
and beaches, deep sea creatures and
those hooked and seined near shore all
come in infinite variety to the city's
fish market, and everything from
whale, porpoise and shark to the little
white bait feed N~agasaki's 100000 and
more people.
The fish market is a great sight, the
four streets surrounding a city block
lined on either side with shops and
stalls, where the fishermen's catch of
the night before is displayed each
morning.
The royal fish of Japan, the tai, the
piece de resistance at great banquets
and festival occasions. is first to catch
the eye because Of it's beauty, were 1t
not put to the front everywhere. 1t
is a deep rosy pink with iridescent
scales, a gracefully curved crea-
ture, and in the large ten and twenty
pound sizes is a study In lines and
curves, color and shading.
There are small tai, just under a
pound in weight, that are the pr%ettiest
fish that swim hereabout-yellow
mouths, rosy shoulders and backs and
a body all dappled and shining with
pale iridescent scales. Three of these
pretty tai may be bought for ten sen
q cents)-they would cost ten or TWEEN
ty times that much in the Tokyo mar
kets-so that even the coal cody may
feast like a prince on the firm, white,
delicate flesh Of the noble tai.
Among formal presents sent on cere-
mon1al occasion an arrangement of
fish, a still life picture, carefully COM
posed by an artist Of fish posing, is
most highly considered. One such fish
picture sent to a princess after the
birth of a son had the noble tai COM
bined with crayfsh and other symbolic
creatures Of the sea arranged on the
plain white pine stand Of ceremony.
The cost Of the set piece was 80 yen,
and as more than a score of friends
sent similar gifts Of ceremonial felicia
uon there was such a display of the
art Of exquisite fish arrangement as
the barbarian will never see in an
other country.
Beside the beautiful, yellow beaked,
rosy backed and rainbow tinted tai
there were sardines in greater profu-
sion, green backed, silver sided little
things that slipped through the fish
w1fe's fingers so easily that one longed
to play with them too.
Elsewhere In Japan fish are priced
singly, by pairs or tens, but in Ma
gasakfs market everything goes to
the scales and is sold by weight. There
were cod and mackerel, sole and POM
PIANO, halibut and pale salmon, un-
known kinds of small fry and awabi,
or abalone, with it's tough muscle con-
tracing and relaxing when one turned
he glittering green %univalve. Sea
urchins and starfish, devilfish with
huge pink tentacles and fiat white jel-
lylike bags of cuttlefish tempted many
purchasers, as did oysters, CLANS and
gigantic mussels.
Sea cells squirmed in tubs and jars,
and smaller jars flashed with the per-
petual motion Of the little cells of the
rice fields. Large crayfish and small
crayfish, the symbolic ebi, whose bent
back symbolizes old age and long life,
curled comfortably on the wet boards,
most delicious members Of the lobster
family and one of the s%pecialties of
Nagasaki. Fish tifins at Mogi, across
the narrow neck of land that separates
the harbor from another arm of the
sea, are renowned in the east. and
when mail steamers are coaling pas
sengers fly by jinrikisha over the d.
! to tif11 on lobster q la Newburg
and a la m%ayonnaise and t~artare, lob
ster deviled, curried and done in cut
lets, at the little hotel kept by Miyash-
ia, one OF the famous old tourist guides
Of Japan.
Chunks and slabs Of horrible, coarse
grained red meat streaked with fat, !
Jumps OF paler pink meat shading into !
solid white fat, inches and inches
thick, covered the stalls Of the whale
and porpoise meat sellers. This coarse
pork Of the sea vas revolving after
b beautiful pictures the tai, the sar-
dimes and the ebi had made, and one
shuddered when customers took from
the dealer the goad or meat hook,
hacked at the lump Of blubber and
bleeding flesh and turned it over to see
how much worse the wrong side looked