Hinako and the Wolf: A Tale of Surprising Discovery and a Young Researcher’s Passion

The newly identified Japanese wolf on display at the National Museum of Nature and Science. (© Hayashi Michiko)

The cover of Komori’s 76-page report. (Courtesy the Foundation for Library Advancement)

Komori compared the mysterious yamainu with a Japanese wolf specimen preserved at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden, the Netherlands. (Courtesy the Foundation for Library Advancement)

As part of her research, Komori interviewed a former director of Ueno Zoo, who wrote a history of the facility. (Courtesy the Foundation for Library Advancement)

The article is the culmination of Komori’s dedicated research starting when she was in elementary school. (© Hayashi Michiko)

Kobayashi Sayaka says that she interacted with Komori like any other researcher. (© Hayashi Michiko)

Kawata Shin’ichirō looks after the animal collection stored at the Tsukuba Research Departments, which includes some 86,000 mammal specimens alone. (© Hayashi Michiko)

Komori Hinako talks about the work that went into her research project. (© Hayashi Michiko)

Komori on the cover of her report expresses her desire to find the Japanese wolf. (© Hayashi Michiko)

Komori’s keen observations in her report belie her young age. (© Hayashi Michiko)

Komori shows off a selection of her reports, and research material about Japanese wolves that she has collected. She says when she was younger, she would ask her father for help or consult a dictionary when faced with old and archaic characters. (© Hayashi Michiko)

Wolf statues stand guard at the Mitsumine Shrine in Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture. (© Hayashi Michiko)

A mounted Japanese wolf specimen at the University of Tokyo’s Faculty of Agriculture. The animal was procured from Iwate Prefecture for the Second National Industrial Exhibition in 1881. (Courtesy University of Tokyo’s Faculty of Agriculture)

An illustration of Canis hodophilax from Fauna Japonica. (Courtesy of the Division of Biological Sciences, Kyoto University)

Komori holds a model of a Japanese wolf skull she received as a gift from her parents after publishing her report. (© Hayashi Michiko)

Komori and her wolf. (© Hayashi Michiko)