JAPANESE WOLF FOLKLORE.

From: Fox and badger and other witch animals of Japan by U.A. Casal

The Wolf

While the common dog-spectre is seldom threatening to man and almost always so to evil ghosts, its cousin, the spectral wolf, is a most dangerous being. It will cruelly and rapaciously destroy humans and beasts. Yet it plays but a secondary role in China, and infinitesimal one in Japan, although wolves seem to have been quite numerous of old. [Satow & Hawes' Handbook of Japan however states that "No true wolf exists in Japan, but Canis hodophylax is a sort of lame counterfeit of the European beast."] The name okami is said to originally have meant "the big deity" (probably of the mountain-forest), and could be due to some ancient Ainu beliefs, connected with the islands of the North, or even the Siberian cost. It is just as possible, however, that the okami was not at first a "big deity" but a much plainer "big eater", "big biter": kamu/kami can mean both. In the Manyôshiû the wolf is once mentioned as "the big deity with the big mouth", ô-kuchi no ô-kami, which might equally mean "The big mouth that eats plenty"....People being scared of wild animals, and everything weird or powerful becoming "divine" in Japan, the wolf, the tiger the bear, even large snakes easily become "awe-inspiring deities". The Japanese wolf actually is cowardly (therefore hardly dangerous) and a big eater.

Quaint is a happening reported in the Nihongi under the reign of Kimmei Tennô (540-571), who in a dream and long before he ascended the Throne was advised to find a man called Hada-no-Ohotsuchi, and favour him, which would bring him throne and good fortune. Such a man was indeed found after much searching, and upon the future emperor being so informed, "joy pervaded his whole frame." "A dream without a precedent!" he exclaimed; then he enquired of the man whether he had experienced anything extraordinary. The reply was: "Nothing. Only when they servant was on his way back from Ise, whither he had gone to trade, he fell in with two wolves on a mountain, who were fighting with one another, and were defiled with blood. They servant got down from his horse, and, having rinsed his mouth and hands, [Rinsing one's mouth and washing one's hands is the regular and unavoidable purification ceremony undergone before approaching Shintô divinities in the shrine] made prayer to them, saying: --'Ye are august deities, and yet ye take delight in violence, If ye were to fall in with a hunter, very speedily ye should be taken.' So they servant restrained them and cleansed their blood-stained hair, eventually let them go, thus saving both their lives." The emperor then was convinced that the man was recommended to him in a dream as a godly recompensation treated him with the utmost favour, and when he became emperor made him his Treasurer.-It is hard to say what to make of this story; all that we can guess is that wolves were powerful but extremely combative "deities".
 

Later on there seems also to have existed a belief that if one encountered an okami on a mountain and "treated him kindly", he would bestow kindness in return, and protect the man against other dangers

Later on there seems also to have existed a belief that if one encountered an okami on a mountain and "treated him kindly", he would bestow kindness in return, and protect the man against other dangers. This may have to do with the belief, current in many parts of Japan, that the okami is a messenger of the gods, especially also of Yama-no-kami, the Mountain-deity, who during agricultural activities of the humans descends from her mountain residence to act as Ta-no-kami, the Field-deity. (While commonly conceived as a female, Yama-no-kami may at times be a male; as usual with kami, the sex is variable.) Possibly as Yama-no-kami/Ta-no-kami's messenger, the wolf was thought of as a kind of protector of the rice against evil goblins. [In Central Java a "wer tiger" guards the plantations at night against the destructive wild pigs; in the Yucatan the balams (magicians) took on an animal shape to guard the corn-fields!] No doubt originally similar ideas applied to both as Ta-no-kami's wolf and Inari-san's fox, depending on locality.

In the role of divine messenger, the wolf watches over mountains and forests. He sees to it that there is no undue cutting of trees or careless fire which may start a mountain conflagration, as also that there be no pollution of those little sanctuaries which are found all over a mountain. If anything goes wrong, he may start out in search of Yama-no-kami to tell her, so that she may punish the miscreants; and to see a string of wolves descend from the mountain is of evil omen, a presaging "trouble"....

There may have been a more general belief, of old, that like the goblin-cat the wolf could take the shape of a person that he had previously devoured, and live in the family, for some nefarious purpose, in his or her shape. I have, however, only come across one such legend, which still survives in the mountainous district between Iyo and Tosa in Shikoku.

There a samurai, walking along a mountain road at night was attacked by a troop of wolves, but his fearless defence sent them scuttling away. Shortly afterwards the same troop came again, this time every beast carried, on his head, like a helmet, an iron pot such as used for steaming the rice. The samurai again defended himself valiantly, cracking most of the pots with his sharp sword, so that the wolves again disappeared in the mist.-The second occurrence looked most suspicious to this warrior, and he though that probably the goblin-wolves had obtained the pots from some nearby iron-monger. He indeed fund such a shop, and on enquiring had it confirmed by the owner that a good many of his kama had been found cracked for no apparent reason. Now the samurai's suspicions grew: "Did anyone in your family perhaps get hurt last night?", he asked. Yes it so happened that his old mother had an accident when she went to the privy during the night; [It was customary to have a flimsy small shed at some distance from the house, with a step or two leading to a platform below which was the cesspool] she had hurt her head, and was now in bed resting. So then the samurai desired to see her-and he at once drew his sword and cut off her head....The son naturally was greatly upset at this, but on hearing the explanation and remembering some of the queer acts of the old woman, he consented to wait for developments; and in fact, as was to be, the mothers corpse within 24 hours had turned into the carcass of a large and old wolf!-Since the animal had evidently been a bakemono goblin, they then looked everywhere under the floor of the house for possible misdeeds, and so found the bones of the real old mother, whom the wolf had eaten....[In most such legends the victim's remains are put away under the raised floor of the house. Since this is the place where decomposition would easiest become noticeable to the inhabitants, there would seem to be some obscure, deeper meaning in the choice of location. It appears to be a fact, however, that in most regions a dead infant was buried below the floor, not in a field or cemetery; possibly the idea was that a re-incarnation in a future baby would become easier.]

But apparently there are wolves and wolves. Of one kind it is reported that they do not adopt the shape of man or woman, but on the contrary are themselves the incarnation of a corpse-spectre or of a vampire. These wolves possess spiritual intelligence and belch forth smoke and fire [So did the giant-wolf Fenrir of the Nordic gods]. They can fight such powerful animals as dragons. In order to keep them under control, the Bodhisattvas or Buddhist demi-gods whose only purpose is to save and guard humanity, use them as steeds, when they have to obey the purer and stronger will....

It would almost appear as if this "werwolf" manifestation were a conception imported into China from some European, or at least Siberian source. But the belief also persists, in some parts of Japan (as in Shikoku) that unusually hairy people are descendants of such wolves which once had taken human shape. (Similarly, a dog descent is attributed to the hairy Ainu, as we saw.) [All European races believed in the werwolf, from antiquity until at least the 17th century. Men and women were able to transform themselves into wolves, temporarily or permanently, voluntarily or by the curse of devil or witch. Sometimes the transformation was a punishment for deadly sins, or for having eaten human flesh. This forced metamorphosis often lasted for seven or nine years, after which it ceased. The voluntary one was mostly accomplished by wearing the skin of a wolf, or a girdle made of it, and could be stopped by discarding the garment; but other means were not unknown, especially also magic potions connected with the animal's body. Herodotus tells us that the Neuri, a tribe of Eastern Europe, were annually so changed for a few days. Werwolves generally only roamed the country at night, resuming human shape with the break of day. The main purpose of becoming a werwolf was for the gratification of a craving for human flesh, or for some other loathsome end. "The werwolves," writes an author as late as 1628, "...doe not onely unto the view of others seem as wolves, but to their owne thinking have both the shape and nature of wolves....And they do dispose themselves as very wolves, in worrying and killing...." France in particular was infested with werwolves during the 16th century, and trials for murder and cannibalism in the shape of a loup-garou were numerous. (In England the wolf was all but extinct, and instead of becoming "warwoolfes", the witches were accused of changing into cats, hares and weasels.) But in Prussia, Livonia, Lithuania, too, werwolves were, in the 16th century, "far more destructive than true and natural wolves."
 

Yet werwolves, like some of their counterparts in Asia, were not always satanic beasts viciously disposed toward humanity.

Yet werwolves, like some of their counterparts in Asia, were not always satanic beasts viciously disposed toward humanity. They often appeared in order to help the Church against heretics! In 617 werwolves entered a monastery to tear in pieces several friars who entertained dissident opinions. Early in the 16th century, wolves were sent by God to destroy sacrilegious soldiers of the Urbino army, who had come to sack the holy treasures of Loreto. Saints were several times protected by wolves against wild beasts (!). These werwolves were acknowledged as innocent and God-fearing persons who suffered through the witchcraft of others....Such, too, were the many princes and princesses who appear as wolves in Märchen of all Aryan nations. Should, however, this wer-animal hurt mankind, it may be condemned to retain it's shape indefinitely.

Magicians and priest could exorcise the beast-shape by various means, including the use of the cross. The exorcising of one's werwolf misfortune seems in fact to have been a much easier performance than the exorcising of the fox which possessed a Chinese or Japanese. At times it sufficed to call one's baptismal name thrice-in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost-or to strike one's forehead thrice with a knife!

This lengthy note will show that the fundamental beliefs in the possibility of shape-exchange, with resulting deprecatory or at times beneficial acts, existed both East and West. In Europe it was the "human man-ness", but in practice used for any metamorphosis into an animal which took on human shape. In Europe lycanthropy-actually "wolf man-Ness", but in practice used for any metamorphosis into an animal shape-was mostly confined to wolves. With other peoples, lycanthropy is generally concerned with the most "dangerous" animal of their land. In the North of Europe, the wolf's place is often taken by the bear, and to some extent this is the case with the Ainu of North Japan. We have noted the tiger-metamorphosis of China, which also occurs in India. In Africa, men become leopards, hyenas, or lions; in South America jaguars. Yet harmless animals, like the dear, also figure in lycanthropy, which, pathologically speaking, is an insane delusion akin to hysteria, schizophrenic as we now say, in which the patient believes that he is transformed into the animal, and then behaves accordingly. It is thus cognate with the "fox possession" (or that by other animals) in the Far East. Like the possession in China and Japan, pathological lycanthropy still generally exists among may backward peoples of Europe, Africa, Celebes and so forth. Sometimes the "insides" of the man can take on an animal's shape, sally forth, and act for him.

Basically the idea of transformation may be due to a rather wide belief among totemistic tribes that a man can take the shape of his totem animal. But, and this is an important point, lycanthropy, universal as it is, has neglected the transformation of some animal into a human shape. While totemism also acknowledges this possibility, on our legends and current superstitions only the "vampire" does occasionally assume human shape to prey on its victim. The bakeru of goblin-animals seems to be confined to Eastern Asia. On the other hand the power to transform oneself into an animal, in Eastern Asia is mainly ascribed to the Taoist "magicians" or "wizards" of China. Autochthonous stories of this kind do not seem to exist in Japan, but the oldest records suggest that certain chiefs of wild aboriginal tribes were conceived as strong animals-possibly a link with totemism, again.]

Interesting is a report by Hirata Atsutane (1776-1843) in one of his lectures on "the Superiority of the Ancients". In the Ômine and Mitsumine mountains, he avers, "there are many wolves which are called the messengers of the gods of the mountains, and people from other parts of the country come and, applying through the guards of these mountains, choose and borrow one of these wolves as a defence against fire. That is to say they only arrange to borrow it and do not take a wolf to their place. And from the day of borrowing they offer daily food to the spirit of the wolf. But if through neglect several days pass without food being offered then the wolf chosen becomes thin, emaciated, and weak. There is a case where a man I know borrowed a wolf and neglected to offer food for four or five days, and misfortune came to him from that source and he was fearfully surprised."

Apparently it was believed of old that the wolf was shameful of sexual things, having no strong sexual instincts. He would never disclose his organ, but hide it behind his hanging tail. Should a person perchance see his sexual act, he or she would have to open the kimono and disclose his or her own organ, so as not to shame the wolf....

Extract Courtesy of Shadowfox.

For Japanese Fox folklore, visit Shadowfox's Kitsune Page.