Tosa-Inu is Japanese cultural icon. They have big body and are brave.  Perhaps you may have felt frightened of them. But the real ones are gentle.
Soon after I enter the center, I meet very pretty puppies. They are quite obedient and they seldom bark. Even when children pull their tails and play with them roughly, they don’t get angry.

His name is Joe,  derived from Ashitano Joe. (With his keeper) He is a two-month old male and is at a playful age. The Tosa-Inu are raised up with their true brothers and sisters. Actually, Tosa-Inu is a little shy and if  they are separated, they’ll miss each other. By growing up together they learn many important things as a dog.

Since ancient time, people have kept dogs to fight in many places all over the world. In Japan, it called Inuawase (犬合わせ) and there remain some documents of Kamakura era. In Kochi, Lord of Tosa, Yamanouchi Kazutoyo recommend dog fighting of Sikoku-Inu (四国犬) to encourage Samurai’s motivation.

In the Edo era, one Tosajin(土佐人) mixed Shikoku-Inu with a  Bulldog. Since then, Tosa-inu were made by hybrization of Shikoku-Inu with Bulldogs (1872), Mastiffs (1874), German Pointers (1876) and Great Danes (1924), all of which were used to improve the breed by sequential mating. According to some accounts, St.Bernards and Bull Terriers were also involved, but it is not known in what years they were used. Now they are officially recognized as a Japanese Dog by JKC.

“Kochi’s people tried to make the strongest dog in the world” Mr. Takashi Hirose, who is President of Tosa Token center says. “There were two types of people in Kochi: patient people who made a Long-tailed cock, and people who think outside the box who made Tosa-Inu.”  They inherit many good points. Loyalty and intelligence from Japanese dogs. Braveness and calmness are from Mastiff. And their optimism is from Bulldog. So they are very expressive. “When they are happy, they show a happy face. When they get angry, they show an angry face.” During  World War Ⅱ, Tosa-Inu disappeared from Kochi by the command from military. But some people evacuated such Tosa-Inu to Aomori prefecture, and they returned in 1924. Now, about 350 tosa-Inu live in Kochi. In Japan many people regard them as fighting dog but on the other hands, in foreign countries, people keeping them as a companion or as a guard dog.  Actually,  only males are selected to become fighter dogs . It demands three things:

• Good physique
• Good pedigree 
• Intelligence

Only one in 30 dogs is selected.  He is “Tosakenryu (土佐健龍)”. Yokozuna(横綱) in heavy class (70 kg~).They have ranks as in Osumo (大相撲), and rise according to their results.	There was practice match of younger fighters: Maegashira　(前頭) Hibiki 響 and Syoukiryu翔貴龍.

Fighter dogs are trained well to fight only in the ring. They fight under strict rules with their master’s instructions. The dogs and their masters are united by strong trust and affection. They have stretchable resilient skin, to prevent the teeth sticking in their skin when they are bitten. The rules for Tosa dog fighting are not simply the dog that bites is the winner and the dog that is bitten is the loser. The dog that howls or runs away is the loser. Victory is given to the dog that does not lose its fighting spirit to the end of the match. The dog who loses notices that he has lost when he leaves the ring first and sees that his master is sad. The dog who wins notices that his has won from his master and the people around him seem happy. In this match, Shokiryu barked during the match and Hibiki won.  The younger dogs learn the rules like this.

“To tell the truth, I don’t know if it is necessary or not to fight Tosa-Inu ” Mr. Hirose said. “Tosa-Inu are great dogs and their existence is already wonderful. But when one dog thought he is stronger than other dogs, then he become arrogant and takes haughty attitude like man. But when they notice that there are other strong dogs, they become modest and begin to have depth as a dog.”

Now Tosa fighting dogs are facing a difficult era. People have many entertainments, and the life styles have changed. In old Kochi, people had strong classism and to have a strong dog was a source of pride and status for men. The purpose of dogs also changed. In old times, people had dogs for hunting or as guards. But now most of them have become pets. The Tosa Fighting Dog Festival in Katsurahama is held a few times a year. In 2011, the festival of March and June was postponed because of the earthquake of East Japan. The next festival is going to be held in September. About fifty Tosa-Inu from around West Japan are going to come to Katsurahama with their masters.

The history of Tosa-Inu was much deeper than I imagined. And I felt as if they are fighter who shouldered a history like Sumo wrestlers. Since meeting them I have been totally fascinated by their uniqueness. July 2011 in Katsurahama

Kochi has a lot of natural places. 80%of places are mountainous districts in Kochi. And there are a lot of mountain streams. Japanese giant salamanders live there. Its figure and color are strange appearances. Its appearances have not big changed for about 30,000,000 years.
Description & Taxonomy

The Japanese giant salamander’s individual size is 50 to 100cm. The biggest size discovered until now is 150cm. And the size is the largest in amphibian.The surface of the body is somber and has a lot of small black spots and a lot of small warts.They lie in a hole in day and move in night. The lairs are made at borders of banks. And they prey upon fish, frogs, crustaceas, shellfish and angleworms.They are ovipara. And they lay 300~600 eggs like a rosary. The eggs are laid in a lair that a male makes or a natural hole. The eggs can hatch if they have passed for 50 days. A male protects his eggs until they hatching.They are Amphibia, Caudata, Cryptobranchoidae, Andriasand and A.japonicus.

The Chinese giant salamander has a close blood relationship with Japanese giant salamander. But Chinese giant salamander dose not have a lot of small warts. The point is differ from Japanese giant salamander.
Range & Ecology

Japanese giant salamanders like clean water. So they live in the upper of river in Japan. We can see Japanese giant salamander rarely at rivers in Kochi. For example the Niyodo river system. But they some times live in the lower reaches.
Use & Conservation

We can catch and eat Japanese giant salamander. But we should not do it. The reason is that they are appointed a natural monument and the Red Data Book. They are rare. The reason why is that they have some problems. One problem is that the environments that they can live are decreasing. The other is that Japanese giant salamanders cross with Chinese giant salamanders. The reason is that Japanese giant salamander and Chinese giant salamander have many points of similarity in their DNA. And someone carried Chinese giant salamander in Japanese rivers. So we have many problems that protecting Japanese giant salamander.

Haya is a generic name for Phoxinus, a fish with elongated medium-sized body among cyprinid freshwater fish from Japan. Main fish are Aburahaya (Amur Minnow) , Ugui (Japanese dace), Oikawa (Pale chub), Kawamutu (Dark chub),  takahaya( Upstream fat minnow), and numamutu (a subspecies of Kawamutu).

Description & Taxonomy

Takahaya grow to a length of about 10 cm and have elongated spindle-shaped form. Their body color is dark brown and dim gold small dots are scattered on their side of the body. Scales are small and their skin has strong slime.

Takahaya belong to a subspecies of Chinese minnow indigenous to Japan. There is a fish very similar to Takahaya. It’s an Aburahaya. The point of distinction with Takahaya and Aburahaya are that takahaya’s tail height is higher and form is stockier than Aburahaya. In addition, Takahaya’s body color is more yellowish than Aburahaya. Furthermore, Takahaya’s scale is bigger and width of head is wider than Aburahaya. However, having large individual and locality differences, these features are not perfect in that distinction.

Range & Ecology

Takahaya live in upstream areas of rivers in west Japan. They gather at a deep pools and stagnant pools gentle stream. They tend to prefer cool water. If it is a small river that has a steep slope and there are no other fish, they will be able to live in an estuary. They live in not only a main course of a river but also a pond or an irrigation canal flowing in clear water.

They are omnivorous and eat insects, plants seed and stuck algae. They live in more downstream area than yamame (Seema) and amago(Red spotted masu trout) and upstream area than kawamutu(Dark chub) as segregation of other freshwater fish. In addition, they live in more upstream than Aburahaya in Honshu.

They spawn from spring to early summer and in this term, male snout change like spatula. When they spawn, a number of them gather at muddy sand or gravel bottom in upstream and spawn stirring up bottom sediment. Fish called haya is eaten by carnivorous fish like catfish or black bass.

Use & Conservation

They don’t sell as an edible fish. Their taste is so-so.

Takahaya have been designated an endangered species by the prefecture. In Tokyo takahaya has been designated the most dangerous state (※vary by region and season). But this is not enough to worry about extinction.

They are famous as Gedo in mountain stream fishing. (Gedo is a fishing term. Gedo is a fish other than the favorite targeted fish. Often used when someone had a fish take the bait. ) So even beginner can catch easily, they are good fish to enjoy fishing.

Viewing

They living in throughout west Japan, we can see anywhere. If you go to Gifu Freshwater Aquarium World・Aqua Toto Gifu, you can see not only haya but also relation with other fish. Aqua Toto is one of the largest freshwater aquariums in the world. There are also amphibians and reptiles live in near water, so even someone who be not interested in fish enjoy there. In kochi you can see haya at Shimantogawa gakuyuukann.

Video

Onagadori is one of the Natural monument in Japan. It is same kind of cocks, and the place of origin is Kochi. Onagadori is known as a “Yokohama” all over the world because Onagadori was exported from Yokohama. It is called other Tyobikei and Nagaodori.

Description
Onagadori was discovered in Edo period. Syokoku that one of the kind about cocks was farming by Riuemon Takechi that lived in Ohashimura from Tosa. Oneday, Riuemon find that breeded cocks had very long train. That is mutation that train feather don’t come off. Regular cock’s feather comes off in once a years. That is very conspicuous, so Onagadori sended for Edo government about present. It is told that the Tosa clan conceals the Onagadori because the Onagadori had a very valuable, long train

Range
Onagadori’s train grow about 1 meter every year but it comes to grow slowly whenever aging. Onagadori’s train length is about 7 meters. In Meji period, that length is about 3 meters but Tomebako developed in Taisyo period, train length longer. Tomebako is control movement appliance for don’t train damaged. Today, the Guinness book of Records says longest train is 10.6 meters.

Conservation
The natural monument was specified on March 7, 1923, and Onagadori was specified by the special natural treasure on March 29, 1952. This is because of being specially recognized in worldwide or the nation assuming that value is especially high.

Viewing
When coming to Kochi Prefecture, let to see Onagadori by all means. A white, long tail has a beautiful, strong sense of existence. To see the appearance that Onagadori is beautiful until striking it, we should protect Onagadori.
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Character

First fiddler crab is Decapoda class sand crap family Uca arcuata. Fiddler crap`s gap length is from 20mm to 40mm there is a difference between variety sort of fiddler crap, gap width is 35mm. Eyestalk have a compound eye. It is long. Orbit of the eye grow too. Typically from the left and right eye is the center. Shell has an inverted trapezoid. The body color is red but sometimes difficult to determine the mud wearing colors easily.

Fiddler crap look over in over a large area while stand eyestalk in the case of fiddler crap live on the surface of the earth.

Habitat

Second, fiddler craps lives in tidal flats and mud hardened area. But human activity become a major threat, has reduced the habitat. Fiddler crap live in the seashore around the mouth of a river in the tropical zone and the subtropics. There is a liking for bottom material by each kind. Fiddler crap live in various place such as a beach at ebb tide, mangrove , a sandy beach and boulder.

Extinction