Sacred Beasts: Hunting for Traces of the Vanished Japanese Wolf

I snapped this photo on my first visit to the mountains of Chichibu in Saitama Prefecture after hearing of a sighting in the area from the head a nonprofit organization dedicated to finding Japanese wolves. Looking down at the river Arakawa snaking through the town, it was easy to imagine a wolf gazing across the same scene.

Wolves stand guard at a small Shintō shrine in the Chichibu mountains near the headwaters of the Arakawa. Some 20 such shrines dedicated to wolves dot the area and attract parishioners seeking to ward off calamities like fire and theft, as well as to safeguard crops against pests like deer and wild boar.

An abandoned residence on land that was once the domain of Mitsumine Shrine, deep in the mountains of Saitama Prefecture. Residents were parishioners of the shrine, an ancient center of wolf worship, and made their living tending the surrounding forests.

Wolves devour their prey bones and all. Japanese folklore tells of one greedy creature vexed at finding a bone lodge in its throat. Seeking relief, the wolf beseeches a villager, who reaches into the beast’s mouth to remove the errant bone. Relieved of its troubles, the wolf bows its head and departs, returning the following day carrying wild birds and a deer shank in its jaws as an expression of thanks.

The path to the Okumiya, or innermost sanctum, of Mitsumine Shrine climbs through thick forest. Travelers along the route frequently report hearing howls in the distance.

A stone wolf guards the entrance to Jōmine Shrine in the mountains of Saitama Prefecture.

The Taki River flows through Okuchichibu. Some 60 years earlier, two fishermen returning from a nighttime outing in the area reported seeing a line of six or seven wolves emerge from the surrounding forest and pass by without concern for the intruders.

Looking back over the Chichibu mountains from the Okumiya of Mitsumine Shrine. Beyond, the peaks give way to the Kantō Plain and the waters of Tokyo Bay.

In May 2002, Yagi was surveying this stretch of the Nakatsu River basin when he discovered several canid-like paw prints measuring 7–8 centimeters and the partially devoured carcass of a serow, a sort of mountain goat. As he investigated the scene, he says the hairs on the back of his neck suddenly stood on end and that he was overcome by the feeling that a fierce animal was behind him, watching.

The partial upper jaw and teeth of a young male wolf killed near Mount Mitsumine in Okuchichibu. Painted with lacquer, the specimen belongs to a family in Sayama at the foot of the Chichibu range in Saitama Prefecture. It was purportedly a gift from the lord of the domain many generations back and was brought by the grandmother when she married into the family.

The full moon shines above Minoyama in Chichibu. A nearby hallow named for wolves is where the animals are thought to have had a den and raised their pups.