Japanese ⇒ Nippon burari SHOT
Shinhama-Kamoba is a duck hunting ground for Imperial Household Agency, located in Shinhama, Ichikawa city, Chiba prefecture.
Main gate of Shinhama-Kamoba
Shinhama-Kamoba: total area approximately 27,000 ㎡, pond for ducks approximately 13,000 ㎡
(Copy from Google)
Map
(Copy from Google)
video (1 min 22 sec) Inside view 01
Reception house built in Meiji period
Under the hunting period from mid-November to mid-February, invited guests are entertained with duck hunting.
Lounge for guests Here visitors get explanation and watch the video about facilities and duck hunting methods.
Sade-ami for hunting ducks It's made of soft silks so as not to hurt ducks.
(left) Esa-kago, a basket for a bait (right) Kamotame-kago, a basket for keeping ducks hunted
Lounge for the Imperial Family, next to the lounge for guests
Landscape seen from the lounge for the Imperial Family
Fireplace in the garden Visitors warm up around its charcoal fire.
Scenery spreading in front of the reception house
video (52 sec) Scenery spreading in front of the reception house
The ducks captured here release them all after bird banding.
As wild ducks are so vigilant to man, the pond with ducks is surrounded with bamboo groves which is said to shut off signs of man.
There is the pond with ducks in the left of the bamboo grove.
Hiki-bori, one of duck hunting facilities. There are fifteen Hiki-bori around the pond with ducks.
Oh-nozoki, one of duck hunting facilities. It's for observation of ducks in a pond.
Also Oh-nozoki is a facility to feed and train decoy ducks for duck hunting.
Trainer gives a bait to decoy ducks while beating a hanging board.
By repeating it, they learn its sound and come closer as soon as the board is beaten.
Oh-damari, a pond with ducks, as seen from a slit-shaped observation window in Oh-nozoki.
Dense bamboo bushes around facilities where man works.
Ko-nozoki on Hiki-bori, a facility with a peeping hole to observe ducks without being noticed by them.
Inside of Ko-nozoki
There are peeping holes on the wooden window.
Hiki-bori (a waterway for duck hunting) can be observed through a peeping hole.
Hiki-bori, a waterway for hunting. Duck-hunters stand by on the both banks of a waterway.
Hiki-bori, a waterway, is hock-shaped and connected to Oh-damari, a pond with ducks.
On each side of a waterway hunters capture wild ducks coming in after decoy ducks with Sade-ami, a net for duck hunting.
video (29 sec) The trained decoy ducks bring wild ducks into a waterway.
Because decoy ducks can't fly up, wild ducks which fly away can be easily captured with the net.
The bait for ducks is a Japanese millet.
Decoy ducks are picking up scattered baits on the water for a long time.
video (21 sec) Ducks diving into water for picking up baits
After ducks enter the waterway, its gate is closed not to escape.
Ducks on the waterway as seen from the peeping hole in Ko-nozoki.
Party room in the reception house, where luncheon party is held after duck hunting and release.
All the captured ducks are released, reared ducks are used for cooking.
Some flowers in Shinhama-Kamoba
Two brochures handed from the staff of Imperial Household Agency
End of Shinhama Duck Hunting Ground. return to List of scenic sites visited
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