Beware Bear Sign Kyoto

くま出没注意京都

In the mountains of northern Kyoto city, there is a small village called Kumogahata.

It is just a thirty-minute drive from downtown, but a world away.

Until the 1860s, it was the hunting grounds for the emperor, and game still exist in large numbers. Deer, fox, boar, and bear are all common.

This year because of the brutal heat of summer, the bear are causing havoc among city and town dwellers. Their usual food supply is in short supply, and all over Japan bear have been wandering into areas where bear and humans meet.

In Kumogahata, this is not unusual. The sign above is mainly for children who attend the small elementary school nearby. (Behind it is a crossing guard's sign.)

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Beware Japanese Bears

熊

The Japanese kanji for bear (kuma) is a useful one to know if you are out hiking in the mountains at this time of year. The sign reads: kuma shutsubotsu chui (lit. "Beware of haunting bears" or a better translation may be "There are bears about.")

Bear attacks are rare in Japan, but they do occur. In September last year, a black bear injured nine people at a highway rest stop in Nyukawa, a small village in northern Gifu Prefecture and caused havoc as it broke into a souvenir shop before it was shot dead by a registered hunter.

The Sankebetsu brown bear incident in Hokkaido in 1915 is Japan's worst bear attack in which a huge brown bear killed seven people over a period of time.

The following site www.davidbjack.com has information on Japanese brown bear attacks in Hokkaido, some of them fatal, and the author's close encounter with our furry friend on one of its "hauntings".


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