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Paper short abstract

This paper examines how Japanese wolf lore framed unusual human–animal encounters as reflections of fear, reverence, and reciprocity. Even after extinction, wolves endured as symbolic guardians, revealing how cultural invention mediated Japan’s relations with the wild.

Paper long abstract

This paper explores how Japanese wolf lore cast unusual human–animal encounters as mirrors of ecological fear and engines of cultural creativity. In premodern Japan, wolves were rarely observed directly; instead, folklore filled gaps in knowledge with stories that balanced fear and reverence. Legends such as the okuri-ōkami (“sending wolf”), in which wolves escort night travelers safely through mountains, depict the animal as a guardian who demands reciprocity. Tales of “wolves’ gratitude” (rōhōon), where respectful offerings are repaid with protection or gifts, highlight a belief in interspecies exchange and moral recognition. These encounters suggest that humans and wolves “witnessed” one another—humans acknowledging wolves as divine messengers or kami, wolves acknowledging humans as moral beings. The Meiji (1868-1912) state’s embrace of Western scientific taxonomies and imported wolf lore (Aesop, Grimm, etc.) transformed these narratives. Wolves shifted from ambivalent guardians to one-dimensional predators, reinforcing new ecological hierarchies that justified eradication. Yet shrines continued to venerate wolves as protective deities, their absence magnifying their allegorical power. The extinction of the Japanese wolf did not end its presence; it shifted it into symbolic and spiritual realms, where talismans and rituals replaced living animals. By tracing these transformations, the paper argues that wolf narratives in Japan expose how encounters with the wild are never purely literal but mediated by cultural invention. Wolves became witnesses not only to ecological change but also to Japan’s shifting negotiations with fear, reciprocity, and national identity.