Sudden Prey of the Giant Bear
—Morning of December 10th—
The frontier had been alerted to the events happening in Sankebetsu by a youth who had fled the village. A search party had been on the trail of the bear since nine o’clock on the morning of the tenth. The party was composed of thirty men, split into three groups. They included five armed matagi hunters— Kanako Tomikura, Miyamoto Yutarō, Tani Kihachi, Chiba Kōkichi, and Katō Tetsushi—and twenty blade-wielding men, among them Yamamoto Jinsaku.
The fresh snow made for snow going. They were so on edge that they were jumping even at snow falling from the branches. Then, at the foot of a fir tree on a small rise, things came to a head.
The brown bear suddenly reared its head. Dumbfounded by the sudden appearance of their quarry, all the hunters leveled their rifles at the beast, but only Tani actually fired. Kanako was in the habit of wrapping his trigger in cloth to protect it, which got in the way. And the rest thought that this chase would not go on for long, so they had neglected to needlessly load their rifles.
As soon as Tani pulled the trigger, the beast turned on them, readying to attack Miyamoto Yutarō and Kawabata Jintarō, who were in a state of panic. It was then that Kawabata cried out, swinging down his sickle with all his strength. Miyamoto stared down the bear down the barrel of his rifle. The rest of the young men had already fled.
But the bear, perhaps as unprepared for confrontation as the party, turned its unwieldy frame around and lumbered off towards the hills. Standing up its height surpassed that of a horse’s, and there was a white splotch of fur draped over its blackish-brown chest like a sash.
The men who had scurried away were more surprised than they had even been before, struck mute and faces pale. The way they had scattered like bear cubs had been well observed from the Ōta house. The men who had been abandoned by their comrades returned to the pack, to much rejoicing.
It was decided that they needed expert help for this situation, but the young men were unnerved about heading off while a bear still lurked about. But it was not as though they were any safer here, so one by one, the men left their houses and returned to the scene.
Meanwhile, one of the other search parties cleared the other side of the mountain. Winter up in the mountains meant an early dusk, and by three o’clock the forest had grown dim.
Yamamoto Jinsaku, at the firs where the bear had appeared once before, found white snow dyed red with blood. In tamped-down branches they spied a leg, as well as some black hair. It was here that Mayu had been devoured until nothing fully remained. All that remained were legs clad in black socks and purple gaiters, and part of a skull with some black hair still clinging to it. Her clothing was wrapped around nearby bushes, and there was that indiscernible stink of death in the air.
At about five in the evening, Mayu’s body was brought to rest in the Ōta house.