Prelude
At dawn in mid-November in 1915, an Ussuri brown bear appeared at the Ikeda family's house in Sankebetsu Rokusen-sawa, about 30 kilometers inland from the west coast of Hokkaidō. The surprise encounter panicked the family horse, but the bear fled after taking only harvested corn. In those days Sankebetsu was newly settled; encroachment by wild animals was not uncommon.
On November 20, 1915, the bear reappeared. Worrying about the safety of the horse, the head of the Ikeda family called on his second son, Kametarō, and two Matagi from his own village and a neighbouring village.
When the bear reappeared on November 30, they shot it but failed to kill it. The next morning they followed the bear's footprints, which led towards Mount Onishika (鬼鹿山, Onishika-yama?). Along the trail the hunting party discovered bloodstains, but a snowstorm forced them to turn back. They believed that the bear, having been injured, would now fear humans and would no longer raid settlements.
Read more about this topic: Sankebetsu Brown Bear Incident
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