Hodophylax: The Guardian of the Path
Long ago, wolves once roamed the length of the Japanese archipelago, which is largely mountainous and forested. While mountain dwellers feared the wolves, as they occasionally attacked people and horses, they were also grateful for the natural predators of wild boar and deer—animals that damaged their crops. They eventually came to worship wolves as incarnations and messengers of the mountain gods.
These wolves became extinct more than 100 years ago. According to official records, the last Japanese wolf was captured on January 23, 1905 in Higashi Yoshino, Nara Prefecture. Yet, people continue to report wolf sightings and the sound of their howls. Convinced of their existence,
they persistently journey into the mountains in search of the venerated creature.
It was astounding to me when I learned how many people still worship the Japanese wolf in the mountainous areas skirting Tokyo, from Okuchichibu to Okutama, and report sightings. What if, alongside the lifestyle of Tokyo, there was a possibility of wolves, a symbol of the force of nature, still existing? Wouldn't present-day city-dwellers, who have lost track of that essential something, find a reason to connect with it again? For someone who has never seen, let alone heard, a wolf, I feel curiously compelled to seek out this invisible animal as some kind of prayer for its existence in the mountains.
In Japanese folklore, there is a famous recorded belief called the "escort wolf” whereby a wolf shadows a person walking alone in the forest at night until he reaches home safely. There is a duality in this belief, which reveals both gratitude toward the wolves for protection against evil
spirits, but also a humbling trepidation—a fear of being pounced on and devoured should one stumble.
What were Japanese wolves actually like?
And what kind of relationship did the ancient Japanese share with them?
My hope is that this work will allow people to imagine and contemplate, even if only a little, the fierce yet revered Japanese wolf and its place in Japan’s nature, as well as its co-inhabitants—the ancient people who fostered methods of coexistence.
English editor: Kate Klippensteen
日本にも、かつて狼が棲んでいた。
広大な平原のない、起伏に富んだ山地の多い日本列島。山里に住む人々は、ときに人馬を襲うこともある狼を怖れながらも、
超自然の力を持つもの、農作物を食べつくしてしまう鹿や猪を退治してくれるありがたい獣として、
狼を山の神の化身やお遣い=ご眷属様=と捉え、大切に祀ってきたという。
そのニホンオオカミは、かれこれ111年前、明治38年1月23日に奈良県の東吉野村で捕獲された個体のあと、学術的には生存が確認されておらず、絶滅した
と言われている。にもかかわらず、山間部では、目撃や咆哮を聴いたという体験談が今でも後を絶たず、ニホンオオカミの生存を信じて探し続けている方達もいる。
しかも、東京を取り巻くように位置する奥秩父から奥多摩の山域では、古くからオオカミ信仰が盛んで、また今でも目撃情報が多いと知ったとき、私はとても驚いた。
東京という大都市での生活の傍に、野生の生命力の象徴のようなオオカミがまだ生存している可能性もあるのなら…現代の都会人が失いつつある大切な何か、と
再びつながるきっかけを見出すことができるのではないか。
残念ながら遭遇体験を持たない私も、なんとか日本の山の中に生き延びていてほしい、と祈るような気持ちで姿の見えない獣を探し求めている。
日本各地に残る「送り狼」の伝説からは、狼を、夜道を魔物から守ってくれるとありがたく思う人々の心と、転んだら飛びかかられて喰われてしまうと震え上がる心と
その両方が伝わってくる。
はたしてニホンオオカミはどんな獣だったのか。
そして古の日本の人々はどんな風に狼と付き合ってきたのか。
謎の多いニホンオオカミについて、そしてこの畏怖と崇拝の対象であった獣と抜き差しならない関係を持ちつつ共存していた古の日本の人々の心が、少しでも伝われば幸いに思う。
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