Studies of whaling in early-modern Japan have proceeded chiefly from the viewpoint of economic history on localities associated with the large-scale whaling industry. On the other hand, small-scale whaling in coastal communities, which could hardly be called an industry, was recognized as a historical reality, but little progress has been made in clarifying various aspects of this reality. In this article I clarify the circumstances of whaling in small coastal communities in order to consider the meaning of whaling for the class of domainal lords and the significance of whales and examine the relationship between these lords in terms of whales and whaling. The Ine coast in the Miyazu domain in the province of Tango (present-day Ine-cho in Yosa-gun, Kyoto prefecture) was selected as the geographic object of this study. The coastal area was composed of three villages, but Kameshima (one of the three villages) alone monopolized the rights of whaling and distributing of profits from it. Furthermore, the number of whales that were caught averaged approximately one a year in a small-scale operation, but this type of whaling brought profits to Kameshima. Moreover, in handling the whaling the Miyazu domain did not aim to expand domainal profit or to rely on it financially, although the presence at the bidding and the collection of operating expenses were fixed. And as regards operating funds also, loans and their repayment were based on the demands of Kameshima. I was unable to confirm the lord's positive stance on involvement in whaling including the fact that no limit was placed on the distribution of whale meat or oil and until the final stage of Edo period. This can be understood as a continuation of operations on the part of fishing villages. Thereafter until the close of the Edo period, the lord showed a positive attitude toward securing whaling grounds as seen in new whaling operations and the recognition of the expansion of fishing grounds, and this was for the benefit of the state, in other words this was an intervention premised on a policy of enhancing production If the basis of whaling rights was their protection by the lord of the domain, the relationship between domainal lords regarding whaling is a key to a consideration of the state of whaling rights. Behind the increased size of Kameshima's whaling grounds at the end of the Edo period was damaged to the operations by other fishermen within the domain's territory, and the Miyazu domain did not recognize their advocacy of the "principle that local waters, i.e. fishing grounds, should be monopolized by local communities." Moreover, Kameshima was cautious, anticipating that fishing villages under direct jurisdiction of the shogunate in Edo would similarly argue the principle local fishing grounds for local communities, but in regard to those fishing villages, this was not a premised on unconditional transfer of whales. Instead, villages under shogunal control recognized Karneshima conducting operations off its own shores together with fishing villages of the Tanabe (Maizuru) domains. The shogunate and fishing villages under their jurisdiction thus did not directly interfere in the whaling rights of Kameshima. Moreover, it was possible for the Miyazu domain itself to confer whaling rights on villages in its own territory, but it left it to fishermen to manage among themselves use of fishing grounds with those of other territories. Here, neither the conception of the ocean as public property nor that of the whales as public property can be confirmed As is seen in the above, it was clear that in the case of the Miyazu domain, it had to recognize that the extended area of operations of Kameshima was not limited to its own territory but also the territory of other fishing villages on the basis of the policy of promoting production for national benefit (kokueki.) However, in other domains at the end of the Edo period we can confirm the movement to become involved in whaling wit