It looks like an anchor but actually it is not. What was it used for?
What was uzu used for?
Mr. Miyazaki:
Once I had a serious injury. My fishing net got injured, not myself. When fishing net is broken, fishermen in Kasumigaura usually call it ginjury.h While fishing, I hitched my net on an obstacle and lost the half of it. At that time, other fishermen helped me searching the lost net all the morning, dragging uzu .
Uzu was used for hauling up fishing nets dropped in water. In around 1955 and after, when hobiki net-fishing was in the heyday, longlines and nets were spread in all directions over the bottom of the lake. Uzu was also used for finding your own nets among many others. Since fishing nets in those days were very valuable, made of cotton, they were sometimes stolen. The nets were indispensable to fishermen. So they helped each other when someone lost his net.
