Sankebetsu brown bear incident

Over the course of six snowy days, a male Ezo brown bear attacked a number of households, killing seven people and injuring a further three.

[3] The attacks ended when the hungry bear, so smart it started to trick people, was shot dead.

[4][5] At dawn in mid-November 1915, an Ezo brown bear appeared at the Ikeda family's house in Sankebetsu Rokusen-sawa, a small pioneer village in Teshio Province, about 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) inland from the west coast of Hokkaido.

The family horse was loudly spooked by the surprise encounter, but the bear fled after taking only harvested corn.

Meanwhile, a thirty-man search party was organized to capture the brown bear and recover the remains of Mayu.

After the bear fled, the hunters scouted the area and discovered dried blood on the snow at the base of a Sakhalin fir tree.

By the time the corps of 50 guardsmen posted 300 metres (330 yd) away at the neighboring Miyoke house arrived, the bear had vanished into the woods.

Yayo, Miyouke Yasutarō's wife, was preparing a late meal while carrying her fourth son, Umekichi, on her back.

The cooking pot on the hearth overturned, dousing the flames, and in the ensuing panic the oil lamp was extinguished, plunging the house into darkness.

From later testimony, villagers heard Take begging the bear not to touch her belly but instead to eat her head.

As they hurried back to the settlement, a seriously injured Yayo met them and related news of the attack at the Miyouke family's house.

Carrying torches made of birch bark, they entered the house and beheld the results of the attack.

Meanwhile, Saitō Ishigorō, unaware of his family's fate, filed a report with authorities and the district police before returning to Tomakomai and lodging at a local hotel there.

Miyouke Yasutarō had heard that a local man named Yamamoto Heikichi was an expert bear hunter and so paid a visit to his house.

Yamamoto was certain that the bear was the dreaded man-eater he nicknamed "Kesagake" (袈裟懸け) or "the diagonal slash from the shoulder", a white pattern from the back to the chest, which had previously been blamed for the mauling and deaths of three women in a neighbouring village, but by now he had pawned his gun for money to buy alcohol and he refused Miyoke's request for aid.

The news of the bear's appearance in Sankebetsu reached the Hokkaido Government Office, and under the leadership of the Hoboro (now Haboro town) branch police station, a sniper team was organized.

Chief Inspector Suga, the branch office commissioner, went up the Rokusen-sawa with the aim of viewing the Miyoke family house and assessing the state of the sniper team and met all those who got off the mountain pass.

Given that Kesagake had again been wounded, and that imminent snowstorms were threatening to cover any tracks, it was decided that this was the most critical opportunity to hunt down and kill the bear.

[6] When measured, the bear was unique: 340 kg (750 lb) and 2.7 m (8.9 ft) tall, dark brown with golden fur, the head unusually large compared to the body, and estimated adult age about 7-8 years old.

After the attack, most of the villagers of Rokusen-sawa soon left, and it rapidly transformed into a ghost town until 1946, when six families from Osaka came to settle the area for a post-war revitalization.

He then retired and constructed the "Bear Harm Cenotaph" (熊害慰霊碑, Yūgai Ireihi), a shrine where people can pray for the dead villagers, on July 5, 1977.

Ōkawa Takayoshi, Haruyoshi's eldest son, on May 6, 1980, after an eight-year chase, hunted down a 500 kg (1,100 lb) male brown bear who was nicknamed the "north sea Tarō" (北海太郎, Hokkai Tarō) and is stuffed on display at the Tomamae Local Museum.

Forty-six years had already passed, and little official material was left, so Kimura traced the people who had lived in Sankebetsu in those days and made careful records of their stories.

Obtaining a full and accurate picture of events was not possible, as many of the villagers were already deceased and most of the survivors were not cooperative owing to the gruesome nature of the attack.

Kimura's account of the attack was reprinted in 1980 and published in 1994 as "The Devil's Valley" (慟哭の谷, Dōkoku no Tani) by Kyōdō Bunkasha.

[6] The shrine, located in a small clearing near Uchidome Bridge (which spans the Sankebetsu River), includes a restored house typical of the area and a signboard explaining the incident.

Since numerous tourists who visit there know the history of the area, they may possibly interpret it as an ironic or humorous statement.