JAPANESE WOLF

 

The Japanese wolf (Japanese: ニホンオオカミ(日本狼 ー Hepburn: Nihon ōkami) (Canis lupus hodophilax) is an extinct subspecies of the gray wolf that was once endemic to the islands of Honshū, Shikoku, and Kyūshū in the Japanese archipelago. It is also known as the Honshū wolf. Its binomial name derives from the Greek Hodos (path) and phylax(guardian), in reference to Japanese folklore, which portrayed wolves as the protectors of travellers. It was one of two subspecies that were once found in the Japanese archipelago, the other being the Hokkaidō wolf.

The Japanese wolf inhabited Kyushu, Shikoku, and Honshu islands but not Hokkaido Island. The remains of a 28,000-year-old wolf specimen from the Yana River on the northern coast of arctic Siberia matched the mDNA haplotype of the Japanese wolf, which indicates that they shared common ancestry and a wider distribution.

Canis lupus hodophilax was described by Temminck in 1839 as smaller than Canis lupus lupus (Linnaeus 1758) and of shorter legs, with its coat smooth and short. The Japanese wolf was smaller in size compared to the Hokkaido wolf and other gray wolves from the Asian and North American continents. It stood 56–58 cm at the withers.

There are four mounted specimens believed to be Canis lupus hodophilax located at: the National Museum of Nature and Science, Japan; University of Tokyo, Japan; Wakayama University, Japan; Siebold Collection, and the National Museum of Natural History, Leiden, Netherlands.

The Japanese wolf is considered to be extinct as the last specimens were recorded at Higashi-Yoshino village in Nara Prefecture, Japan in 1905. Sightings of “short-legged dog like beasts”, proposed to be the Japanese wolf, have been claimed since the time of its extinction until the last claim in 1997, but none of these have been verified. A claim in 2000 was dismissed as a hoax. Some Japanese zoologists believe that these reports “merely derive from misidentification of feral dogs”.

In 713, the wolf first appeared on record in Kofudoki itsubun (Lost writings on ancient customs). From 967, historical records indicated the wolf’s preference for preying on horse, either wild horses or those in pastures, stables, and villages. In 1701, a lord introduced the first wolf bounty and by 1742 the first professional wolf hunters were using firearms and poison. In 1736, rabies appeared among dogs in eastern Japan, indicating that it had entered from China or Korea, then spread across the nation. Shortly after it spread to the wolf population, turning some wolves from simple horse predators to man-killers that led to organized wolf hunts. Killing wolves became a national policy under the Meiji Restoration, and within one generation the Japanese wolf was extinct.

Some interpretations of the Japanese wolf’s extinction stress the change in local perceptions of the animal: rabies-induced aggression and deforestation of the wolf’s habitat forced them into conflict with humans, and this led to them being targeted by farmers.

In the Shinto belief, the ōkami (“wolf”) is regarded as a messenger of the kami spirits and also offers protection against crop raiders such as the wild boar and deer. Wild animals were associated with the mountain spirit Yama-no-kami. The mountains of Japan, seen as a dangerous, deadly place, were highly associated with the wolf, which was believed to be their protector and guardian. Many mountain villages, such as Okamiiwa (“Wolf Rock”) and Okamitaira (“Wolf Plateau”), are named after the wolf; this could be due to a sighting at the location, or a simple homage to the species.

There are an estimated 20 Shinto wolf shrines on Honshu alone. The most famous national shrine is located at Mitsumine in Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture and there are a number of smaller wolf shrines on the Kii Peninsula, including the Tamaki Shrine and the Katakati Shrine at Totsukawa village.

In Japanese folklore, there is the widely recorded belief of the okuriōkami(“escort wolf”) that followed someone walking alone through a forest at night until they reach their home without doing them any harm. An offering was sometimes made for this escort. Another belief was of wolves that raised an infant who had been abandoned in the forests of the Kii Peninsula, and later became the clan leader Fujiwara no Hidehira. Another belief from the Kanto area of eastern Japan was that feeding an infant wolf’s milk would make them grow up strong. Some legends portray the Japanese wolf as being prophetic creatures. In the Tamaki Mountains the location of a tree called “the cypress of dog-howls” is said to be the site where wolves howled immediately before a flood in 1889 warning the villagers, and before the great earthquake of 1923 even though the wolf was extinct by that time. Another belief was the “wolf notification” where a traveller does not return home, then a wolf comes to their home and makes a sad howling that signalled their death.

Some villages had wolf charms called shishiyoke that were believed to protect their village and their crops against wild boar. Wolf fangs, hide, and hair were carried by travelers to ward of evil spirits, and wolf skulls were kept in some home shrines to ward off misfortune. In some villages such as in Gifu Prefecture, the skull of the wolf was used as the charm for both protection as well as curing possessed villagers. In addition to protecting the crops, the wolf may leave prey for villagers.