Sankebetsu brown bear incident
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Sankebetsu brown bear incident (三毛別羆事件, Sankebetsu Higuma jiken) or Rokusensawa bear attack (六線沢熊害事件, Rokusensawa yūgai jiken) was the worst bear attack in Japanese history.[1] It occurred between the 9th and the 14th of December, 1915 in Rokusen-sawa, Sankebetsu Tomamae, Rumoi, Hokkaidō. After waking from hibernation, a large brown bear repeatedly attacked several houses and killed seven settlers.[2]
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[edit] Prelude
At dawn on a morning in mid-November in 1915, a huge Amur brown bear appeared at the Ikeda (池田) family's house in a pioneer village called Sankebetsu Rokusen-sawa, about 30 kilometers inland from the west coast of Hokkaidō. The surprise encounter panicked the family horse, but the bear fled after stealing only harvested corn. In those days Sankebetsu was newly settled; raids by wild animals were not uncommon.[citation needed]
On the 20th of the same month the bear appeared again. Worrying about the safety of the horse[citation needed], the head of the Ikeda family called on his second son, Kametarō (亀太郎?), and two Matagi from his own village and a neighbouring village.
When the bear appeared a third time they ambushed and shot it, but did not kill it. The next morning they followed the bear's footprints, which led towards Mount Onishika (鬼鹿山 Onishsika-yama?). Along the trail the hunting party discovered bloodstains, but a snowstorm forced them to turn back. They believed that the bear, having been injured, would now fear humans and would no longer raid settlements.[citation needed]
[edit] December 9: The Tragedy of the Ōta Family
On December 9, 1915, at 10:30 a.m., the giant brown bear turned up again, this time at the home of the Ōta (太田?) family. The bear apparently wanted to steal more dried corn. Inside was the farmer's wife, Abe Mayu (阿部マユ?), and Hasumi Mikio (蓮見幹雄?), a baby whom Mayu was taking care of. Mikio was bitten on the head and killed. Mayu fought back, apparently by throwing firewood, and tried to escape. She was overtaken, knocked down, and dragged into the forest. According to comtemporary descriptions the scene resembled a slaughterhouse, with blood puddled on the farmhouse floor.
[edit] December 10
[edit] Search
Early in the morning, Saitō Ishigorō and Miyoke Yasutarō left the village on their respective errands. Meanwhile a search party comprising thirty men was organized to capture the brown bear and recover the remains of Mayu.[citation needed] This group entered the forest and had advanced no more than 150 meters when it met the brown bear. Five men shot at the bear, but only one managed to hit it. The enraged animal nevertheless retreated, and the men escaped injury.[citation needed] After the bear had fled, the hunters scouted the area and discovered dried blood on the snow at the base of a Sakhalin fir tree (Abies sachalinensis). Beneath the snow was the corpse of Mayu with only the head and parts of the legs remaining. It was thus proven that this particular brown bear had indeed attacked the Ōta family, and was now a maneater.
[edit] Return to the Ōta farm
The bear had cached the body of Mayu in the snow in an attempt to preserve it. Bears commonly do this as a means to store food during times of scarcity, as well as to hide it from scavengers. The villagers believes that once the bear had gotten a taste of human flesh, its return to the settlement was assured. Villagers who supected this gathered at the Ōta family's home with guns. Around 8 o'clock that night, the bear reappeared. Although the villagers had anticipated the bear's return, they were nonetheless panicked by it. One man did manage to shoot at the bear. By the time the corps of 50 guardsmen posted 300 meters away at the neighboring Miyoke house arrived, the bear had vanished into the woods. Fortunately, no one had been attacked. The corps reassembled and headed downstream on what was thought to be the bear's trail. No one anticipated the subsequent tragedy that befell the Miyoke (明景) family.
[edit] The tragedy of the Miyoke family
When news of Ōta family tragedy was first received by the Miyoke family, women and children sought refuge there, gathering in fear at the hearth fire while guardsmen patrolled outside.
The guardsmen were having dinner when news of the bear's return to the Ōta farm reached them, and they marched away at once. Yet the bear, having by this time escaped death at Ōta house, next fled to the Miyoke homestead.
Yayo (ヤヨ), Miyake Yasutarō's wife was preparing a late repast while carrying her fourth son, Yoshio, on her back. She heard a rumbling noise outside, but before she could investigate the bear broke through a window and entered the house. The cook pot on the hearth was overturned, dousing the flames, and in the ensuing panic the oil lamp was put out as well, plunging the house into darkness. Yayo tried to flee the house, but her second son, Yūjirō (勇次郎), clung to her legs, tripping her as she ran. The bear attacked her and bit the child Umekichi (梅吉), whom she was carrying. Odo had remained at the house as the only bodyguard.
When he ran for the door, the bear released the mother and child to pursue him. Yayo then escaped with her children. Odo attempted to hide behind furniture, but was clawed in the back. The bear then mauled Kinzō (金蔵), the third son of Miyoke family, and Haruo (春義), the forth son of Saito (斉藤) family, killing them, and bit Iwao (巌), third son of Saitō family. Next to be targeted was Take (タケ), Saitō Ishigorō's (斉藤石五郎) pregnant wife. As the animal advanced she pled for her life and that of her unborn child, but in vain. She too was attacked, killed, and partially eaten.
Meanwhile the corps of guardsmen who had tracked downriver after the bear realized that they were not, in fact, on its trail. As they hurried back to the settlement, a seriously injured Yayo met them and related the attack at the Miyoke family's house. The corps raced there to rescue any survivors. When they arrived, the house was dark and silent, and no one dared enter it. Then, from within, all heard a groan, followed by the sounds of ripping cloth and crunching bone. Believing that the bear had killed all inside, some of the guardsmen proposed setting the house afire. But Yayo, hoping that some of the children yet lived, forbade this.
An alternative plan was formed. The guardsmen divided into two groups: one, consisting of ten men, stood guard at the door. The other group went to the back of the house. When given a signal, the group at the rear set up a racket, shouting and rattling their weapons. As expected, the bear appeared at the front door. The men there had bunched up, with lines of fire blocked by the guard at their head, whose own rifle misfired. Amid the general confusion and risk of crossfire, the bear escaped into the night. Carrying torches made of birch bark, they entered the house and beheld the grisly scene. Lying in a pool of blood were Take and two children, all dead. Additionally, Yayo's fetus had been ripped from her body.
Rikizo (力蔵), first son of the Miyoke family and Hisano (ヒサノ), first daughter of the same relatives, were injured, but lived. The village people gathered in the school, and seriously-injured persons were accommodated in the Tsuji (辻) family house near the river. In two days, seven people had lost their lives, counting the fetus. After the incident, only men campaigning in the Russo-Japanese War remained at their posts.
[edit] Hunter and "Kesagake"
On the other side, Saitō Ishigorō, unaware of the family's fate, filed a report with authorities and the district police befoe returning to Tomakomai and lodging at a local hotel there.
Miyoke Yasutarō had heard that a man anmed Yamamoto Heikichi was an expert bear hunter, and so paid a visit to his house. Yamamoto, after hearing the account, was certain that the bear was the diagonal slash from the shoulder (袈裟懸け Kesagake?), which had previously been blamed for the maulings and deaths of three women. But by this time, Yamamoto had pawned off his gun for money to buy alcohol, and refused Miyoke's request for aid. Under unavoidable circumstances Yasutarō stayed in Onishika (鬼鹿), now Odairachō (小平町).
[edit] December 11
By December 11, Miyoke Yasutarō and Saitō Ishigorō returned to Sankebetsu. After noticing the villagers gathered at the branch school at the lower area of the river, the two pieced together the story of the mauling of the family. Realizing that the bear could not be allowed to roam free, a group of men was formed to hunt the bear down and kill it. Among the volunteers were Miyoke and Saitō. The hunters decided to lay in wait for the bear at Miyoke's residence, believing that the bear would reappear out of habit. The night passed with no attack.
[edit] December 12
The news of appearance in Sankebetsu contacted the Hokkaidō Government Office, under the leading of Hoboro village (羽幌村) (now: Hoboro town) branch police station, sniper team was set up an organization. From near villages guns was gathered and applicant for the team was gathered, and getting human cooperation, from the Imperial Forestry Agency (帝室林野局 Teishitsu Rinya kyoku?)(now:Rin'ya chō) too, the sniper team went Sankebetsu at vespertide. The chief inspector Suga (菅), the branch office commissioner, went up the Rokusen sawa to aim Miyoke family house in order to recognize the state of the team and in midstream met all who got off the mountain pass. However the brown bear did not appear. If thinking of the future, the team which must exterminate a bear even if mobilize every possible means, considered many way, and resulted in some conclusion. The brown bear should try to retrieve a game. But in Miyoke family house there was not the game. Then, one plan was proposed. Every men hate this idea, and especially the each family head of Ōta, Saitō, and Miyoke family suppressed a wide range of thoughts, but for future or village and to achieve a revenge, decided distress. By this means, the unprecedented attempt to lure out the brown bear to the gudgeon in the corpse of the victim.
Within this day, the strategy was executed. In sniper team added Yamamoto Heikichi, once turned thumbs down request, the team was constituted of six members. In the putrid smell of the corpse, which was put on the sitting room, they waited on the beam. At midnight they waited for the chance of the shooting the approaching brown bear appear from forest. However , the brown bear stopped walk and guarded against the inside of the house. Then he turned and returned to the forest. Moreover, they ambushed, but the brown bear not appeared again, the strategy ended in the failure.
[edit] December 13
At the crack of dawn, the outfit who searched the whole village discovered that the Ōta family's house was three degrees ruined. The bear ate the peoples' winter food, and the evidence of this could still be seen in the houses. Then, Suga motivated the men by cheering from the village outside and the fact that 60 guns reached, moved hunting in the mountain to the execution, coinstantaneously started the stopping work of building ice bridge on Miboubetsu river for which secure the aisle to the Rokusen sama.
On the other hands, the brown bear ruined each house that the villager was absent. He killed and ate a bred chicken and searched for the food, and tore clothes and bedding. Curious to say he abnormally interested in the pillow which the woman used. Except Yamamoto nobody could understand why the bear showed such a fetishistic interest . But only Yamamoto knew the bear's extraordinary proclivity, he was convinced that the brown bear of this case was "Kesagake". the bear had damaged at least eight houses, but Yamamoto, having joined the hunting party or alone, could not find the brown bear. Houever, supposed from the way of acting violently, the action of kesagake had begun to lack prudence. When the game that got a taste was not found out, such as regardless of daytime, stepped into the house boldly, his wariness faded away. His action area stretches gradually to down the stream, and he could not recognize the rise of the discovered risk. The police captain Suga understood the situation, and made an ice bridge a line of defense, then arranged snipers and put up guards. In addition, at the night, a sniper took guard at the bridge, thought he saw something in the shadows of the tree stumps on the opposite shore. There were more shadows than stumps, and the strange shadow was moving slowly. The police captain Suga who received information, thought it was a man's shadow, but when he spoke to it he received no reply. Becasue of this, he ordered the snipers to open fire from the opposite bank. But then the shadow, obviously that of the bear, disappeared into the forest. They were disappointed, having failed to kill the bear, but the captain thought there was a response from the bear.
[edit] December 14
The team who waited opening of the day and investigated an opposite shore, and found the footprint and the bloodstain of the brown bear there. If he was hit by a bullet, his action is dull. They looked up the sky which begun snowstorm. While the footprint can be confirmed with the snow, the decision to send a subduing corps quickly was given. It was Yamamoto who took Ikeda Kamejirou (池田亀次郎) to the guide that entered a mountain immediately. He who didn't like the group behavior that the pace becomes late, and was afraid that the snowfall have erased footprints. Yamamoto who was familiar with Kesagake's gray experience, detect the gait of him which to tray deceives a pursuing party, crabways went in the downwind side, and approached a target quietly. Kesagake caughted by the tree of the Japanese oak and were resting a body. His note was paid to the subduing corps which climbs a foot, and didn't notice the existence of Yamamoto who approached him in the hiding. Yamamoto approached about 20 meter, hided a body in the tree of Ulmus davidiana once and held a gun. And i freezing air, the report of a gun affected. The bullet of the first exactly shot hit the heart of Kesagake, and Yamamoto loaded the following bullets immediately, and the second bullet shot gunned down his head. The thing which the men in the urgently running subduing corps saw, was the stiff of the devil to have made people in the village be afraid. While the snowstorm increases speed suddenly, the corpus was carried to the foot. Right in front of the huge figure which reaches 380 kg weight, 2.7 m of height, the people of Rokusen sawa blowed one's top. After it when Kesagake was dissected, a lot of peace of the victim are found out from his breadbasket, and the village people made sadness new. A cranium and a fur were left, but they were completely lost later, no traces are left now.
[edit] Aftermath
Yayo, who was injured on the head, made a full recovery. But Miyoke Umekichi, who was bitten by the bear, as carried by mother, suffered from the aftereffects for two years and eight months and dead. Odo recovered from injury and returned to the work, but next spring fell to a river and died. It was not certain that the wound which was suffered by the brown bear had influenced the accident. After miserable case, the village peoples of Rokusen sawa leaved thick and fast, for the last time, the colony resulted in the unmanned place. At the time of the case, Ōkawa Haruo, who was son of Sankebetsu village mayo and when at the case was seven years, grew up and became an excellent bear hunter. The reason why he became a hunter was that he swore an oath which kills 10 bears per victim. At the time which killed 102 to 62 years, he retired, and reared the bear harm cenotaph (熊害慰霊碑 En-gai irei-hi?) for which prays in the passing away villager, and Takayoshi, who was Haruyoshi's son, in 1980 after eight year chase hunted the brown bear with 500 kg weight who gaved a nick name with the north sea Tarō (北海太郎 Hokkai Tarō?) .
[edit] The record of the case
From 1961, The agriculture and forestry technical officer (農林技官 Nōrin gikan?), Kimura Moritake (木村盛武), who was working in the district forest office in Asahikawa (旭川) Kotanbetsu (古丹別), stated the examination in order to leave a case as the record. Forty six years already passed, and little materials was left, Kimira traced the people who lived in Sankebetsu in those days, and did a careful hearing. Many of the party was deceased already, and lot of surviving people were not cooperative to the coverage to remind the past not to want to remember. This was reprinted in 1980, and in 1994 published as The valley of lamentation : The Devil's Valley (『慟哭の谷---The Devil's Valley』 Dōkoku no Tani: the Devil's Valley?) by Kyōdō bunkasha (共同文化社). Also Yoshimura Akira, Japanese novelist, gathered information about this case, and wrote in his novel. On research he heard the information from who lived there in those days.
[edit] The analysis of the case
It was thought that the tragedy was the case, what is called the animal which doesn't possess a hole (穴持たず Anamotazu?), the bear which failed in the hibernation due being hungry, thus increased ferocity. However, after it in winter, there was little accident that the brown bear make a raid human, in these years a lot of question is presented to this theory. From end of Edo era, pioneers continued deforestation for the use the firewood when processing a herring in making fish manure, and reclaimed an inland from the beginning of Meiji era. In such a situation, it is thought that the case which the result with the overlapping element of the wild animal and the Human being caused.
The lack of natural prey due deforestation and human depredation is the common reason for a wild animal like a Brown bear to search for food close to humans, even inside houses. Human vicitims were kill because being close to food. Paradoxically, like man-eaters Leopards and Tigers in India, humans created Kesagake.
[edit] The memory of the case
In Rokusen sawa where tragedy was occurred, now there are The restored status of Sankebetsu bear herm (三毛別羆事件復元現地 Sankebetsu Kuma jiken fukugen genchi?) which restored as those days by Townsmen. In the area which is luxuriantly overgrown with the trees, there are the restored house which reproduced life in those days, the signboard where a case is explained, and the image of the brown bear which tries to struck at the house. The place is ahead of the shooting up bridge (撃ち止め橋 Uchidome bashi?) which spans a Sankebetsu river, It is in the place to go about 16 kilometers to the south on the Hokkaidō road number 1049 (北海道道1049号 Hokkaidō 1049 gō?) from (古丹別 Kotanbetsu?) intersection on the national road number 239 (国道239号 Kokudō 239 gō?).
The Hokkaidō road number 1049 was called as bear road, there are many signboard where the picture of the cute bear was pictured at the gate and wayside of road. As a feature of vacationland, it is put forward that the posture which expresses the symbiosis of the wild animal and the human being.
However since numerous journeyers who visit there know the miserable case of the past, probably they may take it as an irony or a joke. They are writing down a complicated state of one's mind to the blog.
[edit] Dramatization of the incident
[edit] Novel
- Togawa Yukio 1965 The bear wind (熊風 Kumakaze?)
- Yishimura Akira 1977 The bear storm (熊嵐 Kumaarashi?)
[edit] Radio play
- 1980 The bear storm (熊嵐 Kumaarashi?) Kuramoto Sou (script), 、Mikuni Rentaro (main actor)
[edit] Stage performance
- 1986The bear storm (熊嵐 Kumaarashi?) Kuramoto Sou (script)
[edit] Manga
- The wild legend (野生伝説 Yasei densetsu?) vol.3～5 Togawa Yukio(story)、Yaguchi Takao(art)
[edit] Anime
- 1990 The remains of beautiful heroes (リメインズ 美しき勇者たち Rimeinzu Utsukushiki Yuusha tachi?) Sonny Chiba (director), Sanada Hiroyuki, Muramatsu Mika, Sugawara Bunta (main actor)
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Fu Watto Tomamae. Retrieved on 2008-06-07.
- ^ Carey Paterson (December 2001). Higuma, King of the Forest. Retrieved on 2008-06-07.
[edit] External links
- (Japanese) Hokkaidō Tomakomai-gun Engai Jiken by Saikon Dōjō
- (Japanese) 日本最大の野生動物事件‐三毛別羆事件 株式会社青山ブリザーブ
