UNDERCURRENTS: EPISODES FROM A LIFE ON THE EDGE
by Shintaro Ishihara
translated from the Japanese by Wayne P. Lammers
Tokyo: Kodansha International, 2005.

From "Minamijima" (p. 188ff)

When sailing off Manazuru in Sagami Bay one time, I came within touching distance of a lost, ailing whale. But apart from that, the largest marine animal I ever encountered was a huge rock cod I saw under a reef off the southern tip of Minamijima in the Ogasawaras.

To my mind, Minamijima is an island that offers the greatest concentration of spectacular vistas on earth—a place of truly mystical beauty. The first time I visited, I remember being struck—or perhaps I should say bewitched—by the feeling that I'd been transported to an entirely different planet. The island is long and narrow from north to south. Almost the entire coastline rises in sheer cliffs inhospitable to human access, and strong currents surround the island, swiftly pushing aside any boats attempting to let passengers ashore. Indeed, the only practicable means of getting ashore is by way of the so-called "Shark Pond," an inlet reminiscent of an ancient volcanic crater at the south end of the island.

But even this has its challenges, for the mouth is very narrow, admitting only boats the size of a small runabout, while the channel between Minamijima and the larger Chichijima is always extremely rough due to tidal movements, making it a forbidding crossing for such small watercraft.

Our chartered fishing boat dropped anchor near the inlet, and we dived in to snorkel toward the Shark Pond. Just as we were about to enter the narrow channel, I saw a large, blanket-like object undulating toward me from inside. I realized with a start that it was a spotted stingray measuring nearly two meters across. Even with my wet suit on, I cringed to think of being raked across the creature's broad back, but luckily the ray dived lower as if to comply with the standard rules of the road and slipped by just beneath our bellies. As it glided past, I saw grouper and parrotfish measuring maybe forty centimeters eye to tail, and barracuda nearly a meter long circling about below.

The water outside had been clear, but once we passed through the narrow channel it grew cloudy. The inlet was home to large numbers of sharks—white tip reef sharks, to be exact—so I couldn't help feeling a little nervous, even if they rarely attacked humans.

As we swam on apprehensively—the visibility was no more than four or five meters—a large shark suddenly emerged from the murk. The creature was apparently as startled as we were, for it did an immediate about-face and disappeared back into the gloom.

"He was just checking us out because of the noise we were making. He won't bother us again," our guide Yamada assured us. Fine, but what about the scores more lurking in the inlet?

Leery as we were, we screwed up our courage and swam on to the landing point at the far end. Sure enough, beneath the rocks nearby we saw more of these sharks lying motionless in the water, too many to count, the bigger ones some two meters long. People have nicknamed the members of this lethargic species "sleepy sharks" because they spend whole days resting on the bottom. Here they lay in mounds, one on top of the other. A shark specialist told me later that such a sight is rarely seen anywhere else in the world.

Once everybody climbed ashore, we heard a sudden disturbance in the water behind us, a sort of barking or growling coming from out in the middle of the inlet. We turned to see what it was, and spied two green sea turtles that had come to the surface to catch their breath while mating.

We started up the steep slope from the inlet, amazed to find our path strewn with rock fragments as thin and sharp as razor blades—certainly not the sort of place you'd want to go with bare feet. Stone Age axes and blades assiduously honed to a fine edge could not compare with the natural sharpness of these rocks. Stumble and put out a hand to catch your fall, and you'd come away with gashes on your palm. I've heard that the only other place on Earth with rocks like these is Crete.

Thick clumps of flowering grass with unusual pale purple blossoms grew from between the larger rocks along our path. The leaves underfoot released a wonderful minty fragrance that refreshed us as we continued our climb up the arduous slope. When we came over the divide, we found ourselves gazing out across an expanse of pure white sand. The western edge of this desert descended gently to meet another small inlet, this one filled with dazzlingly clear blue water. Over the entrance to the inlet, as if to hide it from the outside world, rose a low, dome-like rock arch, at the base of which waves from the sea beyond came crashing through a narrow channel.

As we walked across the sand, the white shells of spiral univalves long since extinct, now practically fossils, were scattered everywhere at our feet. In stark contrast to the crystal blue water of the inlet at the western edge of the desert, a short distance to the north lay a cloudy green freshwater pond on a table of land elevated perhaps twenty meters above sea level. It bristled with an unusual reed-like water grass we'd never seen before; waterfowl, also of a species we'd never encountered, called to one another and flitted about.

It was truly a scene from another world. Were it not for the sign standing in the middle of the sandy desert prohibiting visitors from taking any of the shells away with them, a person dropped here unawares might think he'd been transported to another planet. Though undeniably on this Earth, the landscapes of Minamijima belong to an entirely different dimension of tranquil mystery and beauty.

That is why I make a point of visiting Minamijima whenever I'm in the Ogasawaras. And each time I go, I'm moved by the island's beauty even more than before. It's something akin to a religious experience. I can think of no other place on Earth where I feel so distinctly that I'm standing on sacred ground.

---

When I encountered the enormous rock cod under a reef off the southern end of the island, it served to further reinforce the sense that Minamijima is a sacred place.

I had come to the islands for the 1979 Ogasawara race, and I decided to leave various maintenance and outfitting chores to the younger members of the crew while I paid a visit to Minamijima with my bosun Ishikawa and crew leader Akioka, both of whom were divers. Once again our guide was Yamada, the professional diver I'd known from earlier trips.

We decided to get a dive in first, before going ashore. Yamada said he had a secret spot he wanted to take us to: a nameless bit of rocky reef located about one kilometer off the southwestern tip of Minamijima. He had recently discovered a T-shaped underwater tunnel about twenty-five meters down in the base of the reef, where he'd seen some very big fish hiding in the shadows.

We dropped over the side of the boat and descended easily to the bottom. The water was magnificently clear. The reef rose out of the white sand on the ocean floor like a supernatural monolith. Countless species of tropical fish swam about in exactly the kind of underwater tableau people came to the Ogasawaras to see.

With Yamada in the lead, we swam around the base of the reef toward the tunnel he'd described as being bent in the middle but going all the way through to the other side. We had our first encounter just as we came to the entrance: a large rock cod measuring about a meter and a half was resting on the seabed in front of the mouth of the tunnel. The fish failed to notice us until we were almost right on top of it, and when it finally did, it leapt into motion in a cloud of sand and disappeared into the tunnel.

The four of us swam through the sand cloud into the tunnel, some two to three meters high by about two meters wide at the entrance. In the dimness just inside, Yamada spied a large painted spiny lobster on the ceiling, over fifty centimeters long in body alone, and at least twice that if its antennae were included. Grabbing it easily with his hand, he handed it to me, and I passed it on to Akioka behind me. With any kind of spiny lobster, once they reach a certain size the spines on the carapace can hurt your bare hands, but with one reaching a meter in overall size, you aren't so much grabbing it with your hands as grappling it in your arms. In any case, I could see Akioka's eyes widen with astonishment inside his facemask as I handed him the specimen. Obviously it was of an entirely different scale from any he'd ever seen before. By the time I turned back around, Yamada had already nabbed another one, this one slightly smaller. As we proceeded deeper into the tunnel, I felt a little like we were stealing into the treasure-filled magic cave of the Arabian Nights.

The entire tunnel was only about twenty meters long, so some light reached the middle from both ends, allowing us to see well enough to go without the help of dive lamps. As we came to the middle, Yamada pointed to a branch tunnel leading off to the left at a right angle. Just then, a large rock cod that had been keeping still along the wall near us—most likely the one we'd startled at the entrance a few moments before—fled toward the far end of the main tunnel, kicking up another cloud of sand. What these two little flurries of excitement were a prelude to, we were soon to find out.

We followed the beckoning Yamada into the spur that branched off to the left. In this direction, the tunnel dead-ended after about thirteen meters, but maybe five meters before that, Yamada suddenly signaled for us to stop by spreading his arms and legs as if to physically block our advance. After making sure we'd all come to a full stop, he very slowly raised his arm and pointed into the dimness ahead.

For several seconds, I didn't see anything at all. But as I squinted and strained to make out whatever might be there, I suddenly realized we were practically face to face with an unbelievably enormous fish.

At first, it almost looked like something painted on the far wall. But what initially suggested the bold strokes and sepia shadings of an ink brush painting proved to be the wide, mottled stripes of a gigantic living fish pressed flat over the entire wall. I could see it breathing: this was no painting.

A chill went down my spine. With that telepathy shared by all animals, I sensed distinctly that the fish had become aware of our presence and was pondering the implications of our intrusion. It was studying us with nearly imperceptible twitches of its wide-angle eyes, and bracing for whatever might come.

To say that the fish was large hardly does it justice; it was a truly monumental creature. Seeing this fish, I could now believe the legendary story of the monster rock cod that had supposedly swallowed a diver whole in the Arafura Sea. I thought I must be dreaming, yet I knew from the near-paralyzing fear surging through me that this was all too real.

The fish had no doubt sensed the panic of the smaller rock cod we'd sent scurrying near the opening of the branch tunnel. But this one was much too big to dart away anywhere: it must have been nearly three meters long and weighed at least a ton. We froze at alert, scarcely able to breathe. Quite obviously, if the fish were to take fright and decide to flee, its only route of escape would be to plow through the four of us. It would be like getting run over by a truck twenty-five meters under the sea, for even very large fish can sometimes move with surprising speed. In that case, we could count on being slammed against the wall and seriously injured. Or worse, we could be knocked unconscious, lose our regulators, and drown.

I'd brought along my spear gun in case of sharks, and on a nervous impulse I now pointed it at the fish. Behind me, Yamada raised a cry of alarm—though a somewhat muffled one, since he didn't want to startle the fish—apparently thinking I really intended to shoot the monster with my puny little spear. He grabbed me from behind and tried to wrest the weapon from my hands, grunting with the effort.

For my part, I grew alarmed that the fish might react to two tussling humans by suddenly deciding to move, so while still struggling with Yamada over the spear gun, I began to ease us both back toward the entrance of the tunnel. Satisfied that I'd gotten the message, Yamada gestured for the other two to do likewise. The four of us backed very slowly down the narrow passageway together, never taking our eyes off the monster fish.

The farther away we got from the behemoth, the more otherworldly it seemed. Like the mystical landscapes of Minamijima, the fish loomed like a creature that had stolen into the cave from an entirely different world and dimension.

As we continued our cautious retreat, I felt something hit me on the back of the head. Instinctively, I ducked, then looked up to see the two painted spiny lobsters I'd given to Akioka drifting above me. He had apparently dropped them in a moment of panic. Wasting no time, I let go of my spear gun and recaptured the two lobsters. Yamada then retrieved my gun, and the four of us finally emerged from the tunnel.

---

Our dive boat was waiting directly over the tunnel entrance, having followed the air bubbles from our regulators. We climbed aboard without delay, and just sat there for a while staring mutely at the two large lobsters I'd tossed onto the deck.

"So what did you think? Was that thrilling enough for you?" Yamada finally broke the silence. "I only knew about the one at the entrance. I saw that one before. I guess the tunnel got a prince of a new tenant since the last time I came."

"What would've happened if that monster had panicked and tried to make tracks?"

"We'd have all gotten killed down there," Yamada said without hesitating.

No doubt he was right. Ishikawa looked like he wanted to say something but couldn't find the words. Akioka stared off into space, his mouth agape.

---

Our plan had been to bide our time until we could dive again by going ashore on Minamijima, so we had the boat return to the entrance of the southern inlet. It had been a while since my own last visit. On our way out from Tokyo to the Ogasawaras, I'd told Akioka all about the Shark Pond and the breathtaking island it served as the gateway to. But now that the time had come to go ashore, Akioka shook his head.

"I've had enough excitement for one day," he said. "I'll wait on the boat."

"What are you talking about?" I said. "You can't come all this way and not see the island!"

"No, really. I've had enough for today."

I took Akioka's arm, trying to urge him to reconsider, but he pulled free and leaned back against the boat's railing, shaking his head adamantly from side to side.

"Forget it," Ishikawa said. "We can go without him."

Reluctantly, we jumped into the water, leaving Akioka behind on the boat.

---

After the Shark Pond and the steep climb up to the top of the divide, the vista that opened out beyond was every bit as stunning as it had been on my previous visits. In fact, it struck me as even more dazzlingly beautiful than I remembered.

From on top of the ridge I turned to look at our boat waiting a short distance beyond the channel into the Shark Pond, and I could see Akioka sitting on the coaming near the starboard bow, right where we had left him.

"What an idiot," I said. "The son a bitch is still sitting in that same spot."

"No, I think he'd really had enough," said Ishikawa, taking Akioka's side.

Ishikawa had served as bosun of my yacht for many years, and Akioka had been a no-nonsense crew leader. The three of us had come through many a life-or-death situation together under horrendous race conditions, so I was sorely disappointed that he'd missed this chance to see Minamijima. But Ishikawa seemed to see things differently.

"Think about it," he said. "How many people in the whole world have ever experienced anything like what we did today? For Akioka, that was really more than enough. It outdid by several magnitudes anything you'd see diving off of Hayama. And besides, his wife just had a new kid."

"What's that got to do with anything?"

"Look, for a minute even I thought you'd lost your mind down there. I really thought you wanted to go after that monster with your spear gun. I was quaking in my flippers."

"Just a second. I don't think I've ever asked you guys to do anything that crazy in the races we've been through together."

"Well, what about the time the mammoth oil tanker was bearing down on us, and you had us hold our course, insisting you'd rather crash than take down our spinnaker?"

"The rules of the road said we had the right-of-way."

"Well, lucky for us they managed to turn at the last minute, but they didn't miss us by more than thirty meters." Ishikawa sounded as though he still resented being put through that nail-biter.

"So if we actually had to get out of that sucker's way a while ago, how many centimeters of clearance do you suppose we had?"

"Be serious! Hell, I could tell you were about ready to piss in your pants, too."

"He didn't seem to think so," I said, nodding toward Yamada.

"I can never be sure what fool thing you might do," Yamada said.

"Actually, he's a very level-headed skipper," Ishikawa said in my defense, then added, "That fish is a perfect match for this island. Even Akioka's gonna be glad for the experience once we're back home. It was the sort of miraculous encounter you could only have at a place like this."

I couldn't have agreed more.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Adrift
2. The Speckled Band
3. Lightning Strike
4. The Same Man
5. A Starting Position
6. Will-o'-the-Wisp
7. Nitrogen Narcosis
8. Close Encounters
9. Miracle
10. Keeling Over
11. Underwater Balcony Seats
12. On the Tennis Court
13. At the Harbor in Winter
14. Navigation
15. The Angel of Death
16. The Manta in the Keramas
17. Peril in Summer
18. The Shark Cage
19. Overboard
20. The River between Life and Death
21. The Light
22. The Old Man and the Shark
23. The Lighter
24. Spirit Fires
25. Buddha on the Highway
26. Newlyweds
27. The Children Who Missed Going to War
28. Broken Bones
29. The Man Who Returned from Every Battle
30. Minamijima
31. The Chilean Brothel
32. Believe It or Not
33. The Man-Eating Shark of Niijima
34. South Pacific
35. On the Rails
36. The Day My Father Died
37. A World of Darkness
38. The House on the Hillside
39. On a Glacier Lake
40. Rainbow