In Japan, you don’t have to worry about wolves roaming in the wilderness. You might even think that Japan never had wolves although it does have dogs, including the large and aggressive native breed, the Akita. But two species of wolves once roamed Japan and they were thought of with such respect that Shinto shrines were once dedicated to them. The traditional veneration of wolves and even their existence in Japan surprised me, but made me re-evaluate the classic film, “Princess Mononoke.”

According to Mock Joya’s “Things Japanese,”

Until the beginning of the 18th century, wolves inhabited mountain regions and never approached villages or farms. As they fed on deer, hares, foxes, badgers, snakes, birds, frogs and insects, they were regarded by farmers as their friends who destroyed the enemies of farm crops. Thus farmers never killed wolves, and further more, even hunters made it an unwritten law not to kill them.”

Many mountain shrines made wolves the messengers of their deities and thus the rural people even came to worship okami.

This changed in 1732 due to what Joya calls “hydrophobia.” While hydrophobia means “fear of water,” it is an old term for rabies. According to the National Library of Medicine’s article, “The Rise and Fall of Rabies in Japan: A Quantitative History of Rabies Epidemics in Osaka Prefecture, 1914-1933,” this 1732 case of dog rabies occurred in Nagasaki. This is the city which includes Dejima, the only port that allowed outside access to Japan from Europe. In this case, the only Western country (European or American) allowed access to Japan from 1639 to 1854 was the Netherlands.

The rabies spread to another port city (Hiroshima) and then to the capital, Edo, in 1736. As expected, the rabies soon passed to the native wolves, resulting in deaths of wolves but also the desire to hunt and kill wolves to protect people and domestic animals from rabies.

When Japan opened its ports to European and American countries at the beginning of the Meiji era (1868-1912), there was no systematic reporting of rabies. Rabies then spread. The last Japanese wolf (southern type) was seen in the Nara prefecture in 1905. The northern type, “is believed to have totally disappeared almost 20 years before the southern type was exterminated.”

Joya mentions an old shrine (Daimyojin) in the Tanba province (丹波国), an old name for what is now Central Kyoto and east-central Hyōgo prefectures. However, I cannot locate this shrine. Also mentioned is the Mitsumine Shrine (三峯神社) at the summit of Mount Mitsumine in Chichibu. In front of the shrine are two stone wolves. According to the Japan Guide, the shrine is “a relatively rare shrine that worships Japanese wolves, a now-extinct animal that has been revered as a guardian against misfortune.” The wolf, or Okami is the messenger of the Tamaki Shrine.

There are other tales about wolves according to Joya. A hikyaku (messenger) was traveling through the Tosa province and saw a woman surrounded by a pack of wolves. He saves the woman by striking down the wolves with his sword, but one of the wolves is wearing a large iron kettle on its head. He eventually does wound this white wolf, but on his way back from his delivery, he realizes that the white wolf was really the wife of the blacksmith. The wolf had killed the original wife and shape-shifted to take her place. The messenger kills the wolf-wife.

Despite their extinction, Japanese wolves are part of continued research:

• Mysterious, Extinct Japanese Wolf May Hold Clues to Origins of Dogs (October 2021)
• In Search of Japan’s Lost Wolves (6 July 2021)
• DNA Study Offers Third Theory on Origin of Extinct Japanese Wolf (13 June 2022)

Princess Mononoke

“Princess Mononoke” takes place in the late Muromachi period of Japan (1336-1573). This was a time when there were two courts: Nanboku-Chō or Northern and Southern Court period. The Emperor Go-Daigo attempted to regain imperial power (Kemmu Restoration 建武の新政) , but he was unsuccessful in overthrowing the Kamakura Shogunate (ruled by the Hōjō clan). Go-Daigo was exiled to the Oki Islands, but with the support of Takauji Ashikaga and Yoshisada Nitta, defeated the Kamakura Shogunate in 1333. Takauji Ashikaga then overthrew Go-Daigo’s restoration and founded the Ashikaga Shogunate in 1336.

The Southern Imperial Court is considered the legitimate line of emperors because of their possession of the Japanese imperial regalia and Kitabatake Chikafusa’s “Jinnō Shōtōki” (神皇正統記, “Chronicles of the Authentic Lineages of the Divine Emperors”) even though it was the Ashikaga who won the military battle.

Yet it was never Miyazaki’s intent “to create an accurate portrait of medieval Japan. Rather, he wanted to portray the very beginnings of the seemingly insoluble conflict between the natural world and modern industrial civilization.”

In the story involves three peoples: the Emishi, the Jōmon and the Yamato. The Jōmon are “the earliest major culture of prehistoric Japan” according to Britannica. The Yamato stage of development came later and is commonly called the Tumulus or Tomb period because of “the presence of large burial mounds” which were clustered in the southwestern corner of Nara (Yamato) Basin according to Britannica.

The Emishi in the film are portrayed as living “peacefully among nature.”

• Pushing beyond the Pale: The Yamato Conquest of the Emishi and Northern Japan
• The Shadow of the Emishi
• Emishi

Yet like the wolves, the Emishi will eventually disappear, conquered and, perhaps, absorbed into the Japanese population.  Who the Emishi were is not entirely clear and there were more than one tribe with different practices.

“Princess Mononoke” begins in the Emishi village which is attacked by a boar god who had been transformed into a demon by an iron ball that was lodged in his body. The Emishi prince, Ashitaka, kills the demon before it can reach his village, but the animal bites his arm and infects him with a curse. The curse gives him great strength but also causes a darkened painful scar that will eventually kill him. Yet the village’s  soothsayer advises Ashitaka to go to the western lands to seek a cure but warns that he cannot return. He leaves behind his sweetheart, Kaya. Ashitaka is portrayed as riding a fictional species of elk, Akashishi, that resembles to red Lechwe of Africa more than any native Japanese deer.

On his journey, he meets a monk, Jigo (Jiko-bō ジコ坊 in Japanese) who tells of a Great Forest Spirit, that has two different shapes. By day it is deer-like giant creature but by night it is a bipedal night walker. Not far from the path of Ashitaka and Jigo, Lady Eboshi defends an attack on the oxen of Iron Town by a wolf pack led by the wolf goddess Moro. Amongst the wolves is San, a human girl who was raised by the wolves.

As the wolf pack departs, they encounter Ashitaka. Ashitaka helps rescue two of the Iron Town men who have fallen down a cliff. He and Jigo take them to Iron Town.    Iron Town is a place were outcasts such as lepers work to process iron to manufacture hand cannons and matchlock muskets. The town has been clearing forests to mine iron in the name of Lord Asano, the local daimyō. That puts the unseen Asano against the boar god Nago and Eboshi against Nag of Moro. Eboshi is the one who shot Nago, terming him into the demon that attacked Ashitaka which resulted in Ashitaka’s injury and banishment.

San comes into Iron Town, intent on killing Eboshi, but through Ashitaka’s intervention, Eboshi and San are separated. During this, Ashitaka is shot, but has enough strength to carry San out of the village. Although San almost kills Ashitaka when she regains consciousness, she changed her mind and the Forest Spirit heals his wound that night.

When Ashitaka recovers, he learns that Iron Town is under siege by Asano’s samurai. The boar clan has been wiped out and the blind god Okkoto, who now leads the board clan, has led Jigo’s men to the Forest Spirit. The Forest Spirit, Ashitaka and Moro save San, but Moro and Okkoto die. Eboshi, hoping to gain protection of Lord Asano decapitates the Forest Spirit as it is changing into the Night Walker. Jigo steals the head because he’s not a monk who has given up worldly desires. He’s greedy and wants the reward offered by Asano. The blood of the Forest Spirit kills everything it touches. The forest and the tree spirits, (kodama 木霊) die. Before Moro is completely gone, Moro bites off Eboshi’s right arm.

Although San wants to kill Eboshi, Ashitaka stops her and together, San and Ashitaka find Jigo and retrieve the head of the Forest Spirit. The Forest Spirit dies, but its magic heals the land and lifts Ashitaka’s curse. Ashitaka decides to stay and help rebuild Iron Town and Eboshi vows to build a better town. The forest begins to recover and a single kodama appears.   Although San returns to the forest and the wolves, she and San remain friends and Ashitaka promises to visit San in the forest.

What in a Name?

Japanese would instantly recognize the name Asano  (淺野氏, Asano-shi), which is a Japanese samurai clan descended from the Minamoto clan and Emperor Seiwa (850-881), the 56th Emperor of Japan. The Asano name is also associated with Chūshingura or the 47 Rōnin. It is Asano Naganori (1667-1701) who is forced to commit seppuku after drawing his lord agains Kira Yoshinaka at Edo Castle.

The title of the film is about a shape-shifting princess: “Mononoke Hime” 物の怪姫. Kai 怪 means mysterious but also suspicious 怪しい (ayashii). Ashitaka could be 明日か？ which means “Tomorrow?”

Eboshi could be rendered 烏帽子 which is a noble’s headdress. Jiko could be rendered 事故 (accident) or 自己 (self as in 自己紹介 or self-introduction), but 自己中 (jiko-chū) means selfish.

Whatever you make of the names of their significance,  I think the overall feeling is one of sadness. We know that the Emishi will not survive into the industrial revolution. The boar clan is killed off. While San and her wolves may remain in the forests for now, the industrial revolution will also seem them extinguished from Japan. Ashitaka, San and even Eboshi are just small cogs in the ambitions of unseen forces: the Emperor and Lord Asano.

This is long before the industrial revolution. The late Muromachi period of Japan (1336-1573) ends with Oda Nobunaga destroying the Ashikaga shogunate.  Nobunaga may have unified Japan, but he dies in 1582, to be followed by Hideyoshi Toyotomi and Tokugawa Ieyasu.  This is the time of the rules of Henry VII (1485-1509), Henry VIII (1509-1547), Edward VI (1547-1553), Mary I (1553-1558)  and Elizabeth I (1558-1603).  The Industrial Revolution (1760-1840) will reach Japan after the cannons on Matthew C. Perry’s ships force it out of isolation (1850s).

“Princess Mononoke” centers upon two people, Ashitaka and San, who represent a part of Japan that vanished as Japan modernized. The Emishi and the native Japanese wolves are just mysterious figures of the past. That lends a poignancy to its environmental message.

“Princess Mononoke” was released in Japan on 12 July 1997 and in the US on 29 October 1999. It was the first Studio Ghibli film rated PG-13. It was Picture of the Year at the 21st Japan Academy Awards.