Okami

23. Okami

Ôkami is the Japanese name for the creature commonly called the Japanese wolf (Canus lupus hodophylax), which became extinct in 1905, though there have been many sightings since, mostly concentrating around the Kii Peninsula. Because of its small size and stature, there is some dispute as to whether it was an actual wolf, the term "wolf-dog" being given as a possible alternate. In fact, the term yama inu (山犬, "mountain dog") is a common Japanese term for the wolf. In folklore, the wolf was associated with the mountains (山, yama) and was thought to be both benevolent and malevolent. An anonymous Japanese said that "[no animal] is as frightening as [the wolf] is." (Knight, 136) It is quick and agile, and Yanagita Kunio, the father of Japanese folklore studies, said that "the wolf can hide even where there is only a single reed". In Edo period Japan, the word yama-inu became slang for a rabid dog.

Power and Abilities

• Regeneration – An okami was capable of healing it's wounds.

• Super strength – Okami can overpower full grown humans with ease.

• Superhuman agility – Okami are faster and more agile than humans, and in one instance was capable of clinging to a ceiling while stalking its prey.

• Fangs – Okami have sharp fangs, which they use to tear their prey apart.

Weaknesses

• Bamboo dagger blessed by a Shinto priest – To properly kill an okami, they must be stabbed seven times with the specially blessed dagger. Anything less, and an okami will be able to regenerate it's wounds.

• Wood chipper – Pretty much trumps everything.

Characteristics

Okami hunt and feed on humans and usually develop a preference for a certain type -- for example, single white females while they sleep. They are usually only seen in Japan, but Rufus Turner hunted one in Billings, Montana.

Lore

• In "Leaky Roof in an Old House", a wolf is listening outside of a house, where a man and a woman are discussing what they feel is the most eerie, spooky thing in the world. The man says "a leaky roof in an old house is something to fear more than a [wolf]." Meanwhile, a thief is also outside, about to break into the house. The wolf, remembering what the man said, thinks that the thief is the thing called "leaky roof in an old house", and runs away. While this story is more about comic misunderstanding than the wolf itself, it is telling that the man uses a wolf to describe just how fearful a leaky roof was to him. (A leaky roof in a ruined house was thought to create a spooky, otherworldly atmosphere.)

• In "The Wolf's Eyebrows", a suicidal man goes into the mountains in order to find a wolf to devour him. When he meets one, he falls to his knees, and, shortly after, demands to know why the wolf does not eat him. The wolf replies that they do not eat just anyone; only those who are actually animals disguised as humans. When asked how the wolf distinguishes the two groups when they both look like men, the wolf replies that his eyebrows show him a man's true form, and lends the man an eyebrow hair. The man goes off, and toward nightfall begs for shelter at the nearest house. The old man there is kind, but his old wife refuses. Remembering the eyebrow hair, the man decides to test it, and holds it to his eye: instead of two people, he sees the old man standing next to an old cow. This folktale expresses the notion, again, that wolves are judges of character, and can somehow tell who is a good person and who is a bad person (an animal).