Fishing for Bonito off the Coast of Tosa Province, no. 58 from the series Pictures of Famous Places in the Sixty-odd Provinces

Particularly prized for its flavor, bonito, or skipjack tuna, known in Japan as katsuo 鰹, is a major part of Japanese cuisine. A fish primarily eaten raw in sashimi or sushi, it is also used to make a popular fish stock called dashi 出汁. Bonito is also smoked, fermented, dried, and then shaved into flakes to make the widely used condiment and seasoning called katsuobushi 鰹節.

The first bonito of the season, known as hatsu katsuo 初鰹, was considered the most delicious and was a symbol of spring. The fish’s south-to-north springtime migration meant that southern ports, like those in Tosa Province, got the first bonito of the year. Note that, unlike the fishermen who use nets in the nearby print, these men use fishing rods and lines. This was believed to limit the potential damage to these valuable fish.