Aharen Beach and Bonito Fishing

A brick chimney standing near Aharen Beach is one of the few remaining traces of the village's katsuobushi industry, the cured bonito blocks that form the backbone of Japanese dashi. Bonito fishing arrived here in 1903, and by the postwar years boats went out two or three times a day to supply two processing factories. Workers carried fish directly from the beach to the factory, where it was gutted, boiled, and slowly dried over firewood using the chimney to carry the smoke away. As the industry grew, thatched rooftops across Aharen gave way to tile, a visible measure of the village's rising fortunes.