Part 2: The Buried Mysteries of the Tomamae Incident

Present-day Okadama Elementary School

We will begin our discussion of the Tomamae Incident with how little-known it is today. The mystery of the Tomamae Incident, which occurred in 1915 at the beginning of the Taishō Era, was overshadowed by an even older incident from the early days of the Meiji Era, which began in 1867: the Okadama Incident.

The Okadama Incident is the third worst animal attack in Japanese history, leaving three dead and two wounded. In January of 1878, a hunter by the name of Ebisu Katsutarō stumbled upon a bear in hibernation. Seeing easy prey, he fired upon the sleeping bear, but it awoke and killed him. Starving, the bear wandered through Sapporo, and on the 17th, an extermination party was formed. That same day they caught sight of the bear and pursued it through a dilapidated suburb. It evaded capture but they followed the brown bear’s footprints in the snow. A fierce storm forced them to break off the pursuit.

The bear fled to a forest outside of the village of Okadama. The local Ainu, the indigenous peoples of Hokkaidō, called the place Okkai Tamu Charapa, or, “Where a Man Dropped His Sword.” Most of the villagers made their living selling charcoal in the city. Sakai Kurayoshi was one such settler. He and his wife Ritsu had dreamed of having children, and at last the impoverished settlers were blessed with a boy, Tomekichi.

On the night of the 17th, Sakai awoke, sensing something was wrong. He opened the door and fainted dead away at the bear looming over him. Ritsu took up Tomekichi in her arms and tried to run form help, but the bear’s claws caught the back of her scalp, ripping in clean off. Ritsu escaped but dropped Tomekichi on her way out. While she sought help, the bear had already devoured Sakai and Tomekichi and run off.

By noon of the next day, the exterminators had tracked down the bear. It was shot dead by three hunters, who were each awarded a stipend for their services.

Famous educator and linguist Ōshima Masatake was a student at the local elementary school at the time and later recalled the cooking and eating of the bear. He remembered one guest calling the bear meat, “Smelly, and terribly tough.”

School students pose with the bearskin

The Okadama Incident is indicative of the ability of Japanese to tune in and out so easily. The Sankebetsu Incident was something so without compare, in any time or any place, that it threw the whole of Hokkaidō into a state of terror. That the somewhat comparable Okadama Incident had been totally forgotten demonstrates the human ability forget the bad taste of something as soon as it leaves one’s mouth.

The famous historian Takakura Shin’ichirō said in “Tales of Man-Eating Bears” from his book, The Story of the Bear (published by the Sightseeing Company in 1950), that even when it happened the Okadama Incident (also called the Sapporo-Okadama Incident) was considered an uncommon one, and that the Tomamae Incident was considered to be the lesser of that one.

“The bear was stuffed and mounted, and it was installed as an exhibit in the temporary museum of the Bureau of Hokkaidō Colonization. In August of 1881 His Majesty Emperor Meiji graced the Bureau with a visit and looked upon the animal. After that it was moved to the front of the Hokkaidō University Museum, along with some effects of its victims retrieved from its stomach. The exhibit chills the blood of those who look upon it. Beginning with the many journals of travelers who attended the emperor’s visit, this is recording in several of them. Particularly, in 1886, the storyteller Sanyutei Encho, who would soon be followed by others, including future Prime Minister Yamagata Aritomo and Inoue Kaoru.

Several diaries attest to the bone-chilling qualities of the exhibit, including those of storyteller San’yutei Encho, future Prime Minister Yamagata Aritomo, and Inoue Kaoru. San’yutei weaves this story into his Tales of Exotic Ezo, which tells the stories of early Hokkaidō in an engaging manner. Indeed, his writings on the famous bears of Hokkaidō are superb. A similar disaster occurred on the 11th of December 1915 in Teshio Province, in the Imperial Forest of Sankebetsu, a section of Kotanbetsu Village, in the district of Tomamae (about 30 kilometers south of the city of Tomamae). A bear attacked farming families, killing a mother and her child. On the night of the wake the bear entered the neighboring house, killing a man, a pregnant woman, and three children. It made a shambles of the house. When stopped by the villagers, human body parts, still fresh, were found in its stomach. This may make it seem like the second coming of the killer bear of Okadama, but Tomamae just did not have the location.”

(In this author’s writing, too, many errors in date, deaths, gender, etc. can be seen.)

That the Okadama Incident, the third worst animal attack in the history of Japan, has achieved so much infamy is due to, more than anything, the existence of accurate records. These records, promptly preserved, were used as the basis for works of art. In addition, parts of victims retrieved from the bear’s stomach were properly preserved, the bear itself was stuffed and mounted, and the details of the attack have been spread far and wide. In particular, the visit of Emperor Meiji had the effect of impressing on the peoples of Hokkaidō the brutality of the bear. It is just as how, even today, a traffic accident seen by the Emperor is an event burned into consciousness.

Unfortunately, in the case of the Tomamae Incident, neither authentic records (besides newspapers) nor physical proof have survived. Furthermore, while the Okadama Incident occurred in the vicinity of Sapporo, the largest city in Hokkaidō, the Tomamae Incident occurred on the backwater Rokusensawa River in Sankebetsu. As Takakura Shin’ichirō aptly puts it, “Tomamae just did not have the location.”

It is not an exaggeration to say that the Tomamae Incident is buried in the shadow of the Okadama Incident.

The Okadama bear was stuffed and mounted and today is the main exhibit of the museum of Hokkaidō University’s Botanical Gardens.

Today, Okadama is known as an airport within Sapporo city limits. Okadama Elementary School, a three-story metal structure, stands on the sight of the incident. Many talented individuals look out of those school windows. Now, with that glimpse of the present, let us go back in time.