The Fruit of Traditional ‘Sakaami Duck Hunting’
Along with seafood, duck is one of the popular winter culinary assets of the Kaga City area. Although wild duck meat is scarcely eaten nowadays in Japan, it has remained very popular in Kaga as the area’s hunters have kept alive the traditional method of duck hunting for more than three centuries. The hunter throws a sakaami, a wooden Y-shaped stick with a net stretched in the V section, up into the air to catch the duck. This is how ‘sakaami duck hunting’ is done, and it used to be encouraged as a way of training the samurai's mind and body. The hunting is regarded as playing an active part in protecting the local ecosystem. The hunters take direct measures to preserve the environment by avoiding firearms and strictly limiting the number of catches to 200 animals a year.
The taste of the duck is rich, with no odor and is enhanced by local dishes such as the Kaga-Jibuni, a thickened stew with flour-coated duck simmered with seasonal vegetables.
