A famous haiku poet named Masaoka Shiki lived about a century ago referred to himself as Dassai, because of his propensity to scatter his reading material all over the floor of his room in much the same way as otter spread out their fish, so much so that there was no room to walk around.

The name Dassai, means “otter festival,” and the origin refers to an ancient name for the region here in Yamaguchi Prefecture, and as long ago there were many otters frolicking in the nearby rivers. Otters will lay out the fish that they catch on the shore, almost as if they are showing them off in a festival. This led to references to “otter festivals” in ancient poems.