ABSTRACT
In the winter of 2012, I visited Minamata for the first time. I was struck first by the beauty of the Shiranui Sea, 2 then by the vast expanse of water, some 15 kilometres of it, between Meshima, where the family of Ogata Masato (緒方正人) lived, and Hyakken Port, where organic mercury compounds were discharged from a factory belonging to Japan’s leading chemical company, Chisso. I could not help wondering what sort of pollution it took to kill, deform, and incapacitate tens of thousands of people in and around this vast inland sea.
