Kiobo Maru Story
The basis of the following illustrated short story are actual events reported in 19th and 20th century newspapers. Years ago I thought there was little reason to investigate the possibility of any Japanese sea stories. Japan entered into the sailing era so late in the 19th century that it seemed unlikely there would be any stories about ocean-going Japanese sailing ships. Or for that matter, would the Japanese even invest in barques and schooners, rather than just move straight into using steamships. An investigation of the various newspapers archives revealed a numbers of stories about Japanese sailing ships on the high seas from 1890-1910. I have tried to incorporate bits of Japanese culture in the imagery for this book to help give the story an authentic Japanese feel.: Japanese clocks, the beliefs surrounding death (the 6 coins, the river of three crossings, cremation of the body), city seals, and other symbolic components.

Introduction
One of the most interesting Japanese sea stories I found was the saga of the schooner Kiobo Maru in 1908. This was a remarkable tale of the survival of her plumage gathering expedition team marooned on the Pearl and Hermes Atoll in the North Pacific Ocean. Not only was the saga a great sea yarn, but it touched upon a larger environmental issue of harvesting bird feathers for the fashion market. Countless bird species disappeared in the early 20th century due to market demands for exotic feathers from the far corners of the world. This series of stories from the archival newspapers bring forth the travesty of bird slaughter for the sake of fashion. Were these stories true, outright hoaxes, or surreptitiously drawing attention to this despicable practice?

Final Note
If nothing else, it is my hope this book plants the seed in your mind to pause and ask some questions before purchasing something that has a feather. How and where was this feather acquired? Was a bird killed? In the world of plastic garbage, oil spills, and nuclear waste, bird harvesting sometimes gets a low profile on the radar. Like the altered Yankee Doodle tune, are you supporting the extinction of a bird species by purchasing something with an exotic feather?