Designated a Local Living Treasure, Hiroyuki Numata is indirectly responsible for the continuation of a 1200 year old tradition: the prestigious ritual of Ukai, in which cormorants are used to catch Sweetfish. With remarkable patience he attracts to a coastal cliff and captures the wild cormorants that will later be trained for the annual
Ukai season. The painstaking operation involves hut building, basket weaving, and the actual catching, which is documented with a micro camera set up on a ledge used as a rest stop by the migrating birds. And Numata is one of only two persons to hold a permit from the Japanese Environment Agency for the task .