旧新川村の最後の住人、長島政太郎さんは昭和46年に亡くなるまで、荒川で最後の「鵜使い」として川漁をしていました。（鵜匠はこの辺りでは、「鵜使い」と言われてました。）
若いころ鵜飼漁を手伝っていた政太郎さんのご子息の昔話によって、当時の鵜使いの様子を知ることが出来ます。以下はその昔話です。
『長島家は代々の鵜使いで、10羽以上の鵜を飼っていて、厳冬期の寒鮒漁が主でしたが、夏には鮎も獲っておりました。
熊谷から上尾にかけての荒川が漁場で、親子三人で天秤棒に鵜を前後二羽ずつ入れて運び、鴻巣や桶川、新川村の漁師に預けていた舟で漁を行っていました。
寒鮒漁の時には、鵜には長い紐を付けずに、首に短い紐をちょっと巻いただけで放し、魚を一杯飲み込んだ鵜に舟を近づけると鵜が舟に飛び乗って来るので、そこで魚を吐かせました。
多いときには、2時間で20キロも採れて、一日に1,500円も稼いだ時がありました。荒川でトロッコ一杯の砂利を取って70円の時代でしたから、その稼ぎは相当大きいものでした。
鵜は大食いで、漁のない時期は餌代の負担が大きいため、リーダー格の鵜以外は長良川の鵜匠に売りました。そして漁が始まる前に羽田の捕獲者から鵜を仕入れておりました。ところが、羽田に飛行場が出来てからは鵜が捕れなくなり、茨城の大洗から仕入れるようになりました。鵜は岩場で休んでいるところを、竿先につけた鳥モチで捕獲したもので、結構高額でした。』
戦後、鵜の大漁捕獲に非難の声が上がるにつれ県の規制も厳しくなったため、鵜の入手が困難になり各地の鵜飼は急速に廃れていきました。
現在、鵜飼と言えば、長良川の観光者向けの鵜飼を思い浮かべますが、旧新川村の長島さんの鵜使いの話は、それを生計としていた素朴な、本当の鵜飼の姿を垣間見ることが出来ます。
因みに、現在の長良川の鵜匠は公務員だそうです。
Mr. Masataro Nagashima, the last resident of the former Shinkawa Village, was fishing in the river as the last "cormorant master" of the Arakawa River until his death in 1971. The following is an old story told by Masataro's son, who helped with cormorant fishing when he was young. “The Nagashima family had been cormorants for generations and kept more than 10 cormorants. They mainly caught cold crucian carp in winter, but also caught sweetfish in summer. The Arakawa River between Kumagaya and Ageo was their fishing ground. A father and sons team of three carried two cormorants in front and two behind with a balance rod and fished with a boat that was entrusted to a fishermen in Kounosu, Okegawa or Shinkawa villages. When fishing for cold crucian carp, the cormorants were not tied with long strings, but with short strings tied around their necks. And when the boat was brought close to a cormorant that had swallowed a lot of fish, the cormorant would jump onto the boat and vomit the fish. At one time, we were able to collect 20 kilograms of fish in two hours, earning as much as 1,500 yen a day. In those days, a trolley full of gravel from the Arakawa River cost 70 yen, so the earnings were quite large. Cormorants are voracious eaters, so in a closed season for fishing, the cost of feeding them is a heavy burden. Then all but the leader cormorants are sold to cormorant masters on the Nagara River. Before the fishing season started, we purchased cormorants from trappers in Haneda. However, after an airfield was built at Haneda, cormorants could no longer be caught there, so they were purchased from Oarai in Ibaraki. The cormorants were caught resting on the rocks with a bird stick attached to the end of a pole and they was quite expensive”. After the war, cormorant catches were condemned and prefectural regulations were tightened and obtaining a cormorant became to be difficult. Today, when we think of cormorant fishing, we usually think of the Nagara River cormorant fishing for tourists, but the story of Mr. Nagashima of the former Shinkawa Village gives us a glimpse of the simple and true cormorant fishing that he did for a living. Incidentally, today's Nagara River cormorants are said to be civil servants.