The wolf in Japan, from god to vermin

Thanks to the industrialization, destruction of forests and livestock farming, wolf populations in many countries were drastically reduced and came into more frequent contact with humans. In Japan, despite the respect for nature professed by Shinto, the same thing happened, to the point of extinguishing the two native species. This is all the more remarkable because wolves, like foxes, were revered. 

Workship

Japanese farmers worshipped wolves (Ōkami), such as Ōguchi-no-Magami (大口真神, "pure god of the big mouth") of Mount Fuji, at shrines to protect their crops from wild boars and deer. Shinto shrines displayed talismans with images of wolves to protect against fire, disease, theft and other catastrophes. When displayed with wolf cubs, they brought fertility for both crops and mates. According to legends, they reciprocated the help they received, but also weakened if they were not cared for at the shrines, and could curse the culprits.

As recounted in the Nihonshoki and ancient poetic anthologies, wolves are related to the early emperors, placing the valley of the wolf (Ōkami-dani and Ōguchi no Magami no hara) as the pacified nature outside the palace. The wolf, specifically the white wolf, was considered a god of a sacred ground associated with the uncertainty and dangers of the world outside the palace. They were a symbol of solitude and impernanence linked to the mountains. The Ōkawa Daimyōjin used the wolf as a divine messenger just as Inari used the fox. In fact, the god's name was formerly read as Ōkami (狼, "Wolf"; 大神; "Great deity"), the wolf being the god, not the messenger. At Mitsumine Shrine in Saitama Prefecture, two wolves flank the entrance as the guardians niō and komainu.

With the increase in roads, travelers and merchants in the 17th and 18th centuries, encounters with wolves became more common. This gave rise to legends involving wolves and travelers. The Okuriōkami was an unpredictable and elusive deity that could help travelers in distress. The Japanese wolf's subspecific name, hodophilax (hodo, "way"; philax, "guard"), refers to this. Faced with it, the traveler was not to run or look back, for he would be attacked. Carrying the fuse of a musket kept him away because, according to the Wakan sansai zue, the smell scared off wolves.

Influenced by Buddhist beliefs and his feelings of guilt over the death of his son, which he considered a punishment for a killing done in another life, the shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi forbade harming any animal, with few exceptions where permits were required. The extraordinary protections offered to dogs also extended to wolves.

The Ainu even believed that wolves had arisen from the union of a goddess and a white wolf. For them, wolves, bears and owls were gods and ancestors, which they sacrificed in iomante ("send away") ceremonies, to release their divine essences from their earthly bodies, allowing them to travel to the kamuy moshir ("land of the gods"). The wolf was one of their most important gods, calling it Horkew Kamuy ("howling god"). In their case, their beliefs were based on the Hokkaido wolf (Canis lupus hattai), to whom the Ainu left part of their hunted prey. They also associated wolves with the mountains, but without giving them such an ambiguous nature. This is probably because they had a closer relationship with them, domesticating them and crossing them with their dogs to obtain better helpers for hunting.

Extinction

In ancient Japanese texts, wolf attacks and killings have been reported promptly in manuscripts since the 8th century. This threat became more of a problem in areas unsuitable for cultivation, where horse breeding predominated, as their livelihood depended on it. Wolf attacks on horses were the trigger in the 18th century for the Ōkamigari ("wolf hunts"), where hunters sought permission for firearms from the government. The lords also offered rewards for killing wolves, being higher on females, as they could breed wolf cubs.

Nevertheless, wolf hunts were limited in scope. It was rabies that killed at the same time a large number of wolves, which probably contracted it when they were young, when they were vulnerable. The epidemic continued for decades, killing its victims in a short time and also affecting dogs. In the middle of the century, the infection crossed the Tsugaru Strait and also affected wolves in Hokkaido. Because of the lethality of rabies, the authorities took it upon themselves to cull all suspected individuals.

In the Meiji period (1868-1912), the wolf population received its final blow. The modernization of Japan favored the promotion of livestock farming, the quest for Japanese dominion over Hokkaido and the acquisition of a Western mentality led to the abandonment of the view of the wolf as part of nature and to its being considered as vermin. Finally, in 1889 the last Hokkaido wolf (Canis lupus hattai) was killed, while in 1905 the last Japanese wolf (Canis lupus hodophilax) was killed.

Popular culture

Wolves are still linked to Japanese culture, such as the wolf Moro from Princess Mononoke. In One Piece, Yamato "Oden", daughter of the fearsome pirate emperor Kaido, displays the power of the Inu Inu fruit: Oguchi no Makami model. This god is also the inspiration for the Oguchi Makami mount from the MMORPG Onigiri and Garurumon in Digimon. In Megami Shin Tensei and Persona, Makami is a neutral light demon with a flat, elongated body. Of course, Clover Studio's haunting Ōkami is another example where they started from a wolf in Japanese culture. The manga Ookami no Hi: Ezo Ookami Zetsumetsuki deals with the extinction of the species in Japan.

Source

• Walker, B. L. (2009). The lost wolves of Japan. University of Washington Press.