Traditional entomophagy in Japan
My Japanese fieldwork was primarily based in Kushihara village, Gifu-ken, Central Japan, where social wasps and giant hornets are part of the local cuisine.
Kushihara: A 'satoyama' mosaic of rice fields, vegetable gardens and pine/cedar-dominated forest
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The forested areas of the village show low species biodiversity due to forestry policies that aimed to maximise commercial wood production. Now that cheaper wood can be bought from overseas, Japan's indigenous forestry industry is struggling. However, indigenous forest use is crucial to regain Japan's rich biodiversity. The same is true for edible insects, an important part of the food chain.
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Social wasps (Vespula spp)
Many people in Kushihara collect the nests of social wasps (Vespula spp), bring them back to their houses and 'rear' them during the summer months (the nests are put in a protective hut and fed with pieces of meat and fish). They are harvested in Autumn. The larvae are sold at high prices, and are cooked in a variety of ways. Some people also collect next year's new queen wasps for hibernation, and keep them in hibernation boxes for protection over the winter months.
A piece of raw squid, used to attract the worker wasps. The wasps are then followed back to the nest.
Two hive boxes kept in the garden. The roof protects them from direct sunlight. Small pieces of meat are hung at the mouth of the hive for the wasps to feed on.
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A nest found during Spring: No larger than a cigarette packet, this nest is brought back to the house and placed in a hive box (below).
This man keeps several hives inside a purpose-built house as the weather gets colder. When the queen wasps have mated they hibernate in the tubes he places in the roof. Every morning he collects the queens from these tubes and places them into hibernation boxes for protection over the winter. Next Spring, he will release them into the wild to ensure that the wasp population is not depleted by over-harvesting.
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More information about social wasps:
PDF file of a conference poster about the communal management of social wasps
Single-page PDF file summarising the collection, rearing and harvesting process,
Slide show with more detailed photos of each stage of the wasp-harvesting process
PDF file of a conference poster about the communal management of social wasps
Single-page PDF file summarising the collection, rearing and harvesting process,
Slide show with more detailed photos of each stage of the wasp-harvesting process
Giant hornets (Vespa manadarinia)
Some people in Kushihara and surrounding villages search for and collect the nests of giant hornets (Vespa mandarinia). Larger and and more deadly than the social wasps, these are only collected from the wild during Autumn and not kept or reared in hive boxes*.
*Some people do keep them in hive boxes in parts of Nagano prefecture.
*Some people do keep them in hive boxes in parts of Nagano prefecture.
A giant hornet feeding on honey and sugar water, used as bait to attract the foraging worker hornets, which are then followed back to the nest.
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A freshly dug nest, split into layers. This nest weighed about 4kg in total.
Hornets that have been individually taken from the nest using tweezers. These include representatives from every stage of the hornet life cycle, from the early larval forms (mostly in the right-hand bowl) to the pre-adult forms reaching the end of their metamorphosis (mostly in the left-hand bowl).
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