Penguins Recorded by the Shirase Antarctic Expedition

From the records of penguins in the materials (documents, photographs of stuffed penguins and films) from the Shirase Antarctic Expedition (from 1910 to 1912), the author describes the attitude of expeditioners to the penguins and the role of penguins in the expedition. Penguins were regarded as the preferred souvenir. The expeditioners spent much effort catching penguins, and caught approximately 50 individuals of three species: Erect-crested Penguins Eudyptes sclateri, Adélie Penguins Pygoscelis adeliae, and Emperor Penguins Aptenodytes forsteri. Their bodies were temporarily stuffed on the ship and brought back to Japan. Today, a small number of these stuffed penguins are kept at several museum- related facilities or by private individuals. In those days, live penguins photographed by the expeditioners in Antarctica were also shown in the film "Japan's Antarctic Exploration''. These stuffed penguins and this film helped familiarize Japanese people with penguins. Captain Shirase had to give lectures with this film all over the country for a long time in order to repay debt (suspected to be \20,000 ~ \40,000) incurred by this expedition. His activities popularized knowledge of Antarctica and penguins in Japan, and the images of penguins and Antarctica being closely connected. Its influence extended to newspaper articles related to penguins until the early Showa period.