"Cormorants have been a constant presence in Youichiro Adachi’s life, and when he was young, he cried whenever one of his family’s birds died. Now 48, Adachi still cares deeply for his birds, drawing them out of their baskets each morning and stroking their long necks to confirm their health and maintain a bond.

“For me, cormorants are my partners,” he said.

Adachi is the 18th generation of his family to be a master cormorant fisherman, and one of about 50 people in Japan carrying on the 1,300-year tradition of using trained birds to dive for fish. It is considered the ideal way to catch the sweet ayu river fish, and his family has a hereditary mandate to supply the delicacy to the Japanese imperial household."

Photography and reporting by Kim Kyung-Hoon for Reuters November 13, 2023. [2]