CATDOLL: The new anime "Yuri Kuma Arashi" is accused of alluding to the Japanese Sanmao tragedy

I don't know if you have watched the new January anime "Yuri Kuma Arashi". This animation directed by Kunihiko Ikuhara, who directed the famous "Revolutionary Girl Utena" and "Penguin Tank", has sparked heated discussions on the Internet after the first episode was aired. The erotic images, the embarrassing lines, and the confusing plot... all have the characteristics of Kunihiko Ikuhara.

Screenshot of the first episode:

However, some netizens pointed out that the film directed by Kunihiko Ikuhara, who loves yuri, is not just an ordinary yuri film. Just like the reference to Aum Shinrikyo in "Penguin Tank", this time it also implicitly quoted real historical events in Japan. The seemingly nonsensical yuri setting is actually made up by Kunihiko Ikuhara based on the dark history (his imagination is like a black hole). Yuri Kuma Arashi refers to the sensational Sanmao tragedy in Japanese history. After understanding this story, I believe it will be more interesting to watch the animation.

Starting from the next page, I will introduce you to the famous Japanese Sanmao Betsu tragedy (called the Sanmao Betsu incident on Wikipedia).

Time: December 9 to December 14, 1915

Location: Sanmobetsu (now Sankei), Tomomae Village, Rumoe, Hokkaido, Japan (now Kodanbetsu, Tomamae Town)

In most cases of wild animals attacking humans, it is out of survival instinct. Wild animals endanger people's lives and property in order to fill their stomachs or feel that they or their cubs are threatened by humans. The final outcome is often unpleasantness and then they go away unhappily. But once some wild animals begin to have a fetish for human flesh, regard humans as easy prey, and bully the weak human body for fun, the consequences are often disastrous. Now we are going to talk about the most horrific bear attack in Japanese history, and one of the worst wild animal attacks in the world - the Sanmao Biebi incident.

Tomamae Town is located in the western part of Hokkaido, Japan, facing the vast Sea of ​​Japan. It is a town in the central part of the Rumoi Development Bureau of Hokkaido, Japan. 1915 was probably a good year for Tomamae Village at that time. In April of that year, Tomamae Village was listed as a first-class village in Hokkaido. However, what all villagers did not expect was that at the end of that year, a tragedy occurred in Sanmobie, Tomamae Village, which shocked the whole of Hokkaido and even the whole of Japan.

When you come to today's Kodanbetsu in Tomamae Town, you can see the location sign of the tragedy scene from the suburban road. The tragedy scene has become an important tourist attraction in Tomamae Town today. Later, in order to commemorate the Sanmaobetsu incident, the locals invented a bear lion dance, which has now become an intangible cultural heritage of Tomamae Town.

Tomamae Town Local Museum has a reconstruction of the brown bear attack in the Sanmaobie incident.

As we got onto the mountain road, we were getting further and further away from the bustling city, and there were more and more road signs indicating the scene of the incident.

At Mihama Shrine, which is close to the scene, there is a memorial tablet to commemorate the victims of the tragedy.

Not long after leaving here, we saw the site of the Sanmobetsu incident. The locals built a thatched hut that was common at the time and a huge fake brown bear to show the terrifying scene when the brown bear broke into the house. On December 9, 1915, the Hokkaido brown bear called "Kasakake" (kendo term: a severe wound on the shoulder) sneaked into the first victim, the Ota family, from here and began to commit crazy crimes in the following days.

In early November 1915, a brown bear first appeared upstream of Sanmaobie Village. The horse of villager Ikeda was frightened and rushed into the cornfield. At that time, the villagers noticed the bear's footprints on the ground and realized the appearance of the brown bear. On November 20, the brown bear appeared near the village again. This time it ran into several male villagers and was attacked by villagers who were on guard because of the last incident of the horse being frightened. In the end, it escaped with injuries. The villagers thought that the brown bear would not come to the village again after being frightened, so they went home and soon relaxed their vigilance. Unexpectedly, the brown bear, which had a man-eating habit, ignited a rage of revenge after this incident.

Around 10:30 am on December 9, the brown bear came to the home of villager Ota. At that time, Ota was out working, and only his young wife and the young son she was taking care of were at home. At first, the brown bear was just planning to find some corn to eat, but after breaking into Ota's house, the brown bear found a woman in the house and immediately wanted to kill her. The panicked Ota's wife took out a burning wood stick from the stove and threw it at the brown bear in an attempt to resist, which made the brown bear have a great appetite for energetic food. The brown bear decided that Ota's wife was a more delicious food than corn, so the life of Ota's wife was no longer in his hands. The temptation of delicious food overcame the burning pain of firewood. The brown bear rushed forward and first bit the head of the young child of the Ota family and ate it in one bite. The child's head was instantly bitten to pieces, and blood and brains splashed all over Ota's wife. Then the brown bear ate the baby in front of Ota's wife. At this time, Ota's wife was so frightened that she couldn't even shout. She wanted to escape but couldn't move her feet. In the end, she was caught by the brown bear and dragged alive to the forest near the village. A cruel feast began like this. The heart-wrenching wails in the forest did not reach the ears of the villagers of Sanmaobie Village at all. After eating, the brown bear buried the remaining body of Ota's wife in the snow and left.

The interior of a simple hut built by mountain dwellers in Hokkaido in the early 20th century was restored

At noon, Ota returned home and saw the horrific scene of blood splattered all over his house. Ota screamed and the whole village was in an uproar. The next morning, December 10, villager Saito Ishigoro helped Ota find the leftovers left by the brown bear, Ota's wife's two legs and broken bones under the snow in the mountain forest soaked with blood.

That night, Saito rushed down the mountain to report the case. Because it was too late, he stayed in the village hotel that night. His wife and children were placed in the home of his neighbor Mingjing, and Mingjing also visited a local bear hunter, Yamamoto Heikichi, that night. Yamamoto was a veteran who participated in the Russo-Japanese War. He was an excellent shooter. At this time, he was nearly 60 years old, but his physical fitness was surprisingly good. Hearing about the brown bear eating women, he remembered an incident in the vicinity where a brown bear ate three women. He named that bear "Kasakake". Yamamoto felt that the brown bear that loved to eat women was probably the brown bear that caused the accident at Ota's house this time. But since the hunting rifle was no longer with him, Yamamoto refused Mingjing's request. It was late, and Mingjing stayed overnight nearby, but they didn't expect that leaving his wife and children at home would be a big mistake.

On the night of December 10, the brown bear came to the village again. This time, it chose Mingjing's house as its target. As mentioned above, the wives and children of Saito and Mingjing were hiding in Mingjing's house. Although there was a fire in the house, the brown bear, who had successfully snatched a woman from the firewood attack last time, was not afraid at all. It broke through the wall and rushed into Mingjing's house and overturned the fire. The house was dark and everyone called for help in panic. Mingjing's wife, who was closest to the door, escaped. However, seeing that her second son was unable to escape because of his weak legs, Mingjing's wife, who was anxious, stepped forward to pull up the second son and ran away, but was caught by the bear. The bear came forward and bit down, biting Mingjing's fourth son who was carried on his wife's back.

Reconstruction of a brown bear breaking into a house through a wall at the Tomamae Town Museum

Just when Mingjing's wife's life was in danger, a lumberjack named Changsong Yaoji who was in the house escaped from the house. The brown bear, which was sensitive to fast-moving objects, left Mingjing's wife and chased Changsong. After injuring Changsong's waist with its claws, the bear lost interest in this man in his 60s and turned to look for other women in the house. Changsong Yaoji thus escaped and fled in pain.

The bear destroyed the house crazily. Several children in the house tried desperately to escape in panic, but they had no chance to escape from this hell of death. The bear first caught up with the third son of Mingjing family and knocked him to the ground with one palm. Then the fourth son of Saito family was also caught up and suffered the same fate. Then the bear pounced on the stunned third son of Saito family cruelly, threw the young child to the ground like a toy, scratched, bit and threw him, and finally trampled him to death. Finally, the bear targeted Saito’s wife who was hiding in the corner. As mentioned earlier, this bear likes to eat women. It was fierce and drooling as it approached the 33-year-old wife of Saito. When the wife of Saito found that she had become the target of the bear’s attack, she was pregnant. In order to protect the child in her belly, the wife of Saito began to kneel on the ground and begged for mercy from the bear. However, the bear did not understand human language. It cruelly dragged the wife of Saito out of the bedroom and started a cruel dinner. Saito's wife watched distressedly as the bear used its nails to cut open Saito's belly, and the fetus was taken out along with blood and eaten up as a dessert. Then the bear began to tear and devour Saito's wife's body. Saito's wife no longer had the strength to scream, and could only moan in pain.

When Ming Jing's wife's cry for help attracted many villagers, they heard the sound of the brown bear gnawing bones and the groaning of Saito's wife. The villagers thought that Saito's wife had no hope of survival, so they planned to set fire to Ming Jing's house to burn the bear to death, but Ming Jing's wife, who was injured, was worried about her house and firmly opposed it. Finally, after a full meal, the bear abandoned Saito's wife's body and fled into the forest in the chaos.

The next day, Saito and Mingjing returned to the village. After hearing about the tragedy that happened in their home, they couldn't help but feel extremely sad and angry. At the suggestion of the villagers, Saito reluctantly abandoned the bodies of his wife and children, hoping that the bear would return to the house to eat the remaining bodies and then capture it, but the bear did not appear again all day on December 11.

On December 12, the vicious incident of bear attacks in Sanmaobetsu was reported to the Hokkaido Prefecture. The government of Yukei Village sent a bear hunting team to Sanmaobetsu. The bear hunting team ambushed on the beam of Mingjing's house, waiting for the bear to return to the house to continue eating the corpses, and then shot it to death with a shotgun. Although it was a cold winter day, several corpses had begun to rot, especially the corpse of Saito's wife, which was eaten to the point that it could not be seen as a human. The bloody smell filled the whole house, and the scene was horrible. That night, the bear really came to the village again and approached Mingjing's house, but at this time the bear began to sniff around, and then it seemed to realize something, turned around and quickly left Mingjing's house, but the bear hunting team ambushed at Mingjing's house did not realize this and continued to squat on the beam of Mingjing's house.

But the brown bear did not stop there. At that time, the women, children and the elderly in the village had been relocated, and the men spontaneously formed a civilian bear-hunting team to go up the mountain to look for bears. After leaving Mingjing's house, the brown bear saw that there was no one in the village, and he actually used Sanmaobie Village as his own stage to run wild. In this way, without the knowledge of the bear-hunting team squatting in the village, the brown bear almost ate up the winter surplus food in several people's homes, and demolished eight huts, including the Ota family where it committed its first crime. Under the crazy destruction of the brown bear, the entire Sanmaobie Village was a miserable scene, as if the brown bear wanted to vent his anger that the village did not provide him with a woman tonight. In the end, the brown bear really couldn't find a woman to eat, so he stole a chicken and made do with it, and then swaggered back to the mountains. This is the night of Sanmaobie Village under the "protection" of the bear-hunting team sent by the Z government.

When the villagers returned to the village the next day, December 13, and saw the scene in their village, they were both distressed and angry, and were extremely disappointed with the efficiency of the Z government. The Z government's bear hunting team failed. However, the reason why the Sanmaobie Bear incident was so talked about by the Japanese in later generations and even adapted into a drama was that it was extremely dramatic. Just like the Ultraman team beat the monsters to pieces and then Ultraman appeared, when the power trusted by the people failed miserably, there would often be a "hero" in literary works to save everyone's suffering. Reality is sometimes stranger than literary works. On this day, this "hero" really appeared in Sanmaobie Village. He was Yamamoto Heikichi, the bear hunter who Mingjing visited the day before. After hearing about such a terrible tragedy in Mingjing's home, Yamamoto realized that he could no longer sit idly by. So the night before, Yamamoto rushed to get his hunting rifle back and rushed to Sanmaobie Village the next morning. At the same time, upon hearing that the bear hunting team had failed, the Z government also sent 60 hunting rifles to arm the villagers. However, as if God wanted Yamamoto to become famous, these hunting rifles provided by the Z government were ultimately completely useless, just like the Z government's bear hunting team.

Photos of Yamamoto Hyokichi

After arriving at Sanmaobetsu on December 13, Yamamoto Hyokichi checked several huts that were damaged by the brown bear but not collapsed. This time he found an important clue. He found that the brown bear not only liked to eat women, but also was particularly interested in women's products, such as pillows used by women, and would drag the pillows used by women to the ground. This made Yamamoto more convinced that the perverted bear "Kasakake" was the one who caused the Sanmaobetsu tragedy.

On that day, Yamamoto Hyokichi led a bear hunting team composed of villagers to search for the killer bear around the village, but to no avail. Everyone searched until late at night, and they were exhausted. Yamamoto and his team planned to return to the village to rest for a while. At this time, a villager in the bear hunting team found a mysterious upright black shadow faintly appearing on the opposite side of the river. At first, he thought it was a villager who was looking for a bear together, and hurriedly shouted to the black shadow on the opposite side of the river, "It's too late! Don't look for it! Go to rest first!" However, there was no response. Yamamoto was keenly aware that something was wrong, so he ordered the gunman to fire at the other side of the river. When the gunshots rang out, everyone finally understood what was going on. The black shadow in the distance, who was thought to be a companion just now, immediately revealed a ferocious figure with four feet on the ground after hearing the gunshots, and quickly ran into the mountains and forests and disappeared.

Yamamoto knew that the shadow must be the "Kasakake" they had been looking for, but unfortunately the villain escaped again. Yamamoto immediately led the villagers to conduct a detailed search along the river bank, but the brown bear did not show up again that night. Yamamoto did not lose heart, as he was sure that the brown bear must not have run far away, but it was already too late, and it would be too difficult and dangerous to continue searching, so they temporarily set up camp near the river bank and waited for dawn to continue searching.

In the early morning of December 14, when a few rays of light appeared in the east, a gust of cold air blew in his face, and then, crystal snowflakes fell silently and darkly. Yamamoto knew that once it snowed heavily, the traces left by the bear would be completely buried by the snow. He could not delay any longer. Under the guidance of a villager named Kamejiro Ikeda who was familiar with the mountain road, Yamamoto Heikichi discovered the footprints and bloodstains left by the brown bear and followed it all the way.

Yamamoto Heikichi was quite experienced and would not be fooled by the brown bear's trick of leaving footprints. After a period of hard searching, Yamamoto found a strange brown-gray mass under a white oak tree in the distance. Yamamoto hid and sneaked away quietly. Soon, Yamamoto excitedly found that it was the evil bear "Kasakake" sitting under the white oak tree. This guy had played hide-and-seek with the villagers for two days and was now very tired and was taking a nap under the tree.

Yamamoto pulled out his hunting rifle and slowly walked forward. When he was still 20 meters away from the bear, Yamamoto decisively pulled out his hunting rifle and fired a shot at the bear's heart. Then Yamamoto fired a second shot, hitting the bear's head accurately. The brown bear's body tilted and fell to the ground. The brown bear that had been causing trouble for Sanmaobie Village for a week finally fell under Yamamoto Heikichi's gun.

The angry bear hunting team carried the brown bear's body back to the village. After measurement, the brown bear's body lying on the ground was 2.7 meters tall and weighed 380 kilograms (some say 340 kilograms). When its stomach was cut open, the remains of the women and the remnants of their clothes were exposed to the villagers. The angry villagers cooked the bear meat and shared it. The bear's fur and skull were later lost, and the tragedy came to an end. In order to erase this horrible memory, the villagers burned down the mountain village hut and moved downstream to leave here forever.

Among the injured in the tragedy, Ming Jing's wife gradually recovered, but Ming Jing's fourth son, who was bitten by the bear, died of sequelae of the injury more than two years later. Nagamatsu Yokichi, who was injured in the waist by the bear, became ill because of the incident and later died on his way home from cutting firewood. The only uninjured Ming Jing's second son later joined the army and was eventually buried in the Pacific battlefield during World War II. Yamamoto Heikichi became a hero in everyone's mind after killing the vicious bear. He died peacefully in 1950 at the age of 92.

In the 1960s, Kimura Moritake, a Hokkaido forestry officer and documentary writer who had heard of the tragedy when he was young, wrote the paper "The Greatest Tragedy in the History of Animal Killings: the Tomomae Bear Incident" and the commercial publication "The Valley of Lamentation" based on the compilation of documents and interviews with the descendants of the village survivors. "Bear Storm" written by Yoshimura Akira was the most influential. After the 1960s, a series of novels, comics, and even stage plays and movies about this incident were released, making the tragedy known to everyone in Japan and leaving people with endless thoughts.

After the tragedy, the Hokkaido Prefecture issued a bear extermination order. Hundreds of bears were shot and killed at one time. The bear hunter king Yamamoto Heikichi was "outstanding". According to Yamamoto's grandson's recollection, he killed more than 300 bears in his life. However, are the teeth of so many bears full of human blood? A bear like the brown bear that caused the Sanmaobetsu tragedy is rare among the rare ones! With the development of Japan's economy after the Meiji Restoration, more wildlife territories were invaded by humans. Sanmaobetsu Village was actually a human stronghold opened up in the mountainous forest area where brown bears originally lived. It was the invasion of humans into the brown bears' territory that caused the fuse of the conflict between humans and bears.

The giant bear "Hokai Taro" seems to have been shot during the bear eradication in Hokkaido. It is said to weigh nearly 500KG

In the Sanmao Biepi incident, the seemingly simple and honest bear showed its ferocious and cunning side. It took advantage of the absence of strong men at home to commit crimes, and specifically attacked women and children. The only adult man attacked, Nagamatsu Yokichi, was an old man in his sixties. Afterwards, he made a scene in the village under the noses of the bear hunting team, and arrogantly played hide-and-seek with the bear hunting team. He even detected the position of the bear hunting team, and his shrewdness was comparable to that of a human murderer. What's more outrageous is that the purpose of this brown bear attacking humans is not just to fill its stomach. In the Mingjing family tragedy, the brown bear had already taken Saito's wife as its predatory target, but before attacking Saito's wife, the brown bear first threw and bit Saito's three sons as toys, and finally played the children to death! This is no longer a simple hunting, but a way to kill humans for pleasure. Judging from the process of torturing Saito's wife, the bear also enjoyed the process of women begging for mercy and screaming in front of him.

It is worth noting that the brown bears ignored the horses and other livestock in the villagers' homes, and even dried fish, which were very attractive to the brown bears. They only went after the people. It was not until later that they could not find any unarmed people in the village that they began to frantically destroy the villagers' surplus food for the winter. This is obviously a cannibalism, and not only does it eat people, but it also almost exclusively eats women. Before invading Sanmaobie Village, "Kasakake" had eaten 3 women.

In the years before the tragedy, the bear may have initially attacked human food simply because of hunger, and developed a taste for human flesh after tasting it. Since men have strong defensive capabilities, bears specifically targeted women as their main target for food. Bears are much less serious than lions and tigers. This bear not only ate people, but also used the torture and killing of women and children as a means of entertainment, becoming more and more ferocious, and eventually led to the Sanmaobie Village tragedy in which seven people were killed in two days. The brown bear did not suddenly decide to eat people when it arrived at Sanmaobie Village, as can be seen from Yamamoto Heikichi's memories. As for its unusual interest in women's daily necessities, it should also be related to hunting, rather than any special psychological orientation.

The Sanmaobie incident, like many bear attacks, was caused by the conflict between humans and nature. However, the cruelty, madness and even perversion shown by the brown bear in this incident was really outrageous, so it naturally became the most serious beast injury incident in Japanese history and one of the most tragic beast crimes. However, this ferocious and perverted bear was forced out by humans? For the sake of their own development, humans inevitably come into conflict with wild animals. How can such horrific tragedies be avoided?

Science time is over!

After understanding this tragedy, and looking at the lines and pictures in the first episode, do you feel that the meaning of this animation is not simple? As for what profound truth Kunihiko Ikuhara wants to express, we have to continue to follow the show.