Every autumn, salmon swim up the rivers of Echigo from the sea in great schools. The Uono River, which flows through Uonuma district, joins the Shinano River and reaches the sea, and salmon come up it too.
Salmon return to the river where they were born, lay their eggs and end their lives. From late autumn into early winter, salmon getting ready to spawn can be seen in the shallows.
The people of snow country caught these salmon as precious winter food. They dammed the current and set traps of bamboo and wood to catch the fish that swam in. They also lit torches at night and hooked the salmon drawn to the light.
The salmon they caught were salted and stored or dried as food for the long winter. In winter, shut in by snow, vegetables and fish were hard to come by, so salmon caught in autumn were a valuable food that sustained life in snow country.
In this book, Bokushi describes the salmon and the fishing in detail, with illustrations he drew himself.