Ookami no gofu satobito to yamabito no awai ni

The Wolf Talisman - where town and mountain meet

オオカミの護符 - 里びとと山びととのあわいに -

(c)Sasala Production

Release Date: March, 19th, 2008

Running Time: 114 min

Genre: Historical , Documentary

Color: Color

Screening Format: Digital Betacam

Screen Size: Standard (1:1.37)

Sound Processing: Stereo

[ Directed by ]

YUI Suguru

[ Produced by ]

[ Staff ]

ITO Mitsuo ── Cinematography
YUI Suguru ── Cinematography
KAWAAI Juka ── Sound
NAKAJIMA Miki ── Assistant Director
ITO Hiroshi ── Narrator
OGURA Mieko ── Narrator
JIANG Xiao-qing ── Chinese Gu Zheng
CHIJIMA Yukiaki ── Bamboo Flute
NAGATA Saren ── Title
Jefferey IRISH ── Translation
Kimberly FORSYTHE ── Voiceover
Chris WELLS ── English version narrator

[ Production Company ]

Sasala Production, Environment Television Trust　

[ Distributor (Japan) ]

Sasala Production

[ Story ]

A documentary closes in on the mystery of the "Wolf Talisman" which is believed to provide protection for arable land while showing that the land-based belief still remains in the Kanto region including Tokyo. The winner of the Bunka-cho Film Prizes 2008 Documentary Award.
Idyllic residential areas spread along the Tokyu Denentoshi railway line. Some farm houses still remain in the area, where wolf talismans bearing a wolf's image are seen placed on doors of barns and houses and at the corners of fields. Wolves are usually feared as they prey on people and domestic animals, but here they are worshiped because wolves are thought to protect agricultural crops from destructive animals as well as protecting households from various difficulties. The mountains surrounding the Kanto Plain used to be the home to Japanese wolves. The "Wolf Talisman" are issued by the shrines scattered in the mountains, and farmers from each village of the region have been visiting the shrines every year for the last few hundred years to receive the talisman. It goes beyond the Shinto ritual, it shows that the farmers pay respect to the mountains and hence nature as a whole and that they perform a number of tasks. Bones of a Japanese wolf along with the painting block of the talisman are still kept safely at a house in Mitake Mountain, demonstrating the relationship between people and wolves.