North to Matsumae retraces the perilous voyages of two 19th-Century Australian whaling ships - the Lady Rowena and the Eamont - as they endured shipwreck, mutiny, massacre, and imprisonment while harvesting whales off the Japanese coast. The book draws on the journal of the Lady Rowena's ship master and is supplemented by Japanese historical accounts. It charts a hitherto unexplored chapter in Australian/Japanese relations and provides an historical perspective on Japan's highly controversial whaling industry.