Wolf (ookami)

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Wolf, Japanese Wolf (ookami, Japan)

***** Location: Japan
***** Season: All Winter
***** Category: Animal

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Explanation


The wolf has been living in Japan for a long time, but now it is extinct, even in Hokkaido. The wolf has smaller ears than a dog, but his teeth are stronger. Since he was feared during all seasons, his name was "the Great God" ookami　大神、later the Chinese character changed to 狼.

Other kigo names for this animal:

mountain dog, yama-inu, yamainu　山犬、豺

Wolf of Ezo, Ezo ookami　蝦夷狼
..... Ezo is the old name of Hokkaido.

Gabi Greve

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Honshu Wolf (Canis lupus hodophilax)which occupied the islands of Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu in Japan.
The last known specimen died in 1905, in Nara Prefecture.

Ezo Wolf (Canis lupus hattai), the Hokkaido Wolf.
The Ezo Wolf became extinct in 1889.

http://www.answers.com/topic/japanese-wolf

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ONCE THERE WERE WOLVES
Shrines are no salve when it comes to extinctions

By ROWAN HOOPER

There were two subspecies, the Hokkaido wolf, and the smaller Honshu wolf (like the two bear species still living in Japan today, the animals living in Hokkaido needed to be bigger because of the harsher climate). Both were distinct from wolves in Europe and North America; the Honshu wolf, only about 30 cm tall at the shoulder, was the smallest known variety of wolf.

In former times, wolves were revered and respected. They were seen by farmers as guardians of their crops. It was believed that wolves kept deer, hares and wild boars from causing damage to farmland. The Heian Period warlord ruler of northeastern Honshu, Fujiwara no Hidehira (1096-1187), was said to have been raised by wolves, like Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome.

In Yamanashi Prefecture, offerings of azuki bean rice were left for wolves when cubs were born. It was sometimes believed that the tradition, known as inu no ubumimai, would be reciprocated by the wolf when a human child was born.

Read the rest here:

Wolves, Ookami, By ROWAN HOOPER

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Woodblock Print by Kayama Matazoo
加山又造　狼



http://www.444009.jp/interiahangatokkaseiru.htm

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JAPANESE WOLF FOLKLORE
by U.A. Casal

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.

Read this very interesting essay here:
JAPANESE WOLF FOLKLORE. by U.A. Casal

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Mitsumine Shrine (Mitsumine Jinja) is famous for its wolf cult.



There is a talisman print of the Wolf Deity from this shrine.
This for a wolf that accompanies the hunter home from the mountain and then gets a morcel to eat. (okuri ookami)



http://www.kitanippon.co.jp/pub/hensyu/chinmoku/maboroshi/050112.html


Okuri ookami, the wolf seeing you home

.... An extension of this semantic affinity of the wolf with the dog is the image (in myth and legend) as a protector of mankind -- a sort of banken (watchdog) in the mountains. This watchdog role appears in the benign okuri-okami (sending wolf) stories. "When someone is walking along mountain roads at night sometimes a wolf follows without doing anything. On nearing the house the wolf disappears."

Sometimes the ubiquitous okuri-okami tales also mention the danger of looking back or falling over while being followed by the wolf, acts that may invite the wolf to attack....Nonetheless, what is usually stressed is that the wolf's purpose is not to prey but to protect, to see the lonely human being safely home through the dangerous night-time mountains.... Even today many villagers claim to have had such experiences in their youth....
© Copyright 2004 Wolf Song of Alaska.

Read a lot more about Japanese wolves:
http://www.wolfsongalaska.org/Wolves_Japan_on_extct.htm

My Essay about Japanese Wolf Worship
....... at Mitsumine Shrine Mitsumine Jinja 三峰神社

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Worldwide use

Alaska

Wolves and Religion

The Role of Fox, Lynx and Wolf in Mythology
Meaning Wolf
Wolves and the Christian Church
Beware of Wolves
Wolves and Christianity
Wolves and Early Saints

© Copyright Wolf Song of Alaska.
http://www.wolfsongalaska.org/wolves_and_religion_menu.html

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Things found on the way


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HAIKU

狼に墓の樒の乱されし　
ookami ni haka no shikimi no midasareshi

the wolves
have thoroughly destroyed
the aniseed flowers around the grave
(Tr. Gabi Greve)　


石井露月 Ishii Rogetsu (1873-1928)
www.diary.ne.jp/logdisp.cgi?user=36640&log=20011113

... Read: Ishii Rogetsu by Susumu Takiguchi

Shikimi Anis Flowers

http://www.hana300.com/sikimi1.html

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A wolf; one firefly clinging to it

Tohta Taneka
(trans. by Jim Kacian, Toshio Kimura, Ban'ya Natsuishi & Eric Selland )
[Haiku Troubadours 2000]
http://www.into.demon.co.uk/dew/number_4_reviews.htm

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Winter mountains,
Pass them not
run into a wolf.

Masaoka Shiki
http://www.risk.ru/auto/calendar2/50/index_en.htm

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Related words

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