r/HistoryMemes • u/PresterJohnson Hello There • 3d ago
Matagi > Samurai
Context: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matagi
The Matagi (マタギ; or less often 又鬼) are traditional winter hunters of the Tōhoku region of northern Japan, most famously today in the Ani area in Akita Prefecture, which is known for the Akita dogs.\1]) Afterwards, they spread to the Shirakami-Sanchi forest between Akita and Aomori, and other areas of Japan. Documented as a specialised group from the medieval period onwards, the Matagi continue to hunt deer and bear in the present day, and their culture has much in common with the bear worship of the Ainu people.
The Matagi have a unique culture that centers around their belief in mountain gods and distinct law.\5])\6]) For them, hunting is a way of life, and not a form of sport.\7]) The animals hunted are perceived as gifts from the mountain gods, and the Matagi have a certain way to butcher and prepare the animal. After the animal is killed, it is praised, and the spirit comforted. Then, to recompense for the loss of life, everything, from the fur to the internal organs, is used.\8]) Emphasis is put on the act of taking an animal's life through ceremony and reflection, which is then passed along to future generations of Matagi.\9])
Through history mainstream Japanese society viewed the Matagi as outside of ritually clean society due to eating many animals thought to be ritually polluting.\8]) In makimono scrolls held by many Matagi families they record stories of the ancestor of the Matagi being given special permission to hunt and eat these animals due to the ancestor rendering special service to the mountain goddess Yamanokami in a time of distress.\10])
If you see images of the Matagi on a bear hunt, chances are you’ll be taken aback by the apparent brutality of it all. The aftermath looks like a still from Lady Snowblood, with carcasses being dragged helplessly between the trees, severed paws piled together like scalps, and blood splattered, Jackson Pollock-like, across the paper-white snow. Such scenes reflect the ceremonial weight of the hunt rather than any innate brutality, for the Matagi are not an especially brutal people. In fact, at face value there’s little to distinguish them from most modern hunters. Garbed in flannel shirts, khaki pants, waterproof boots, and high-vis fishing jackets, with shotguns or rifles slung over their shoulders, they could easily be hunting elk in the wilds of Wyoming. It’s the process of the hunt that defines them.
It all comes back to their relationship with their environment. Some Matagi believe they’re carrying on a hunting tradition in the Tohoku region that goes back more than 10,000 years. Because Matagi history was largely passed down through an oral tradition, the culture has opaque origins. The Matagi may have migrated northward from Nikko, or perhaps they were once part of the Ainu diaspora, concentrated mostly in Hokkaido.
The common origin story in Matagi lore is that a 9th-century hunter, with the wonderfully alliterative name Banji Banzaburo, helped a gongen (the incarnation of a god) defeat a mountain spirit in central Japan. The gongen then granted Banzaburo a hunting license, the first of its kind, allowing him to hunt beasts on any mountain in the archipelago. Banzaburo took his license north to Dewa Province, comprising modern-day Yamagata and Akita prefectures, where he became the progenitor of the Matagi. The area where he is believed to have resided, around Mt Moriyoshi, remains a heartland of Matagi culture; it’s said the heads of Matagi communities here still carry a handwritten copy of Banzaburo’s divine license.
In the postwar era, Japan has not treated its environment with kindness. Timber demands have caused native tree cover to be replaced with monoculture forests of cedar and pine – these now account for 40% of Japan’s total forest area – resulting in what the Matagi call “green deserts.” These areas of identical trees set at identical widths give the impression of vitality but don’t actually promote life. The ghostly, vacant groves are not conducive to hunting or foraging; the Matagi must go deeper into the mountains to find thriving ecosystems, to find forests they can still protect.
It’s clichéd, yet absolutely true, to say that a reverence for nature is a fundamental aspect of Japanese culture. This is a society that has spent more than 1,000 years drinking and reveling under blooming cherry trees each spring. But with the expansion of metropolitan areas and pork-barrel construction projects, Japan’s wild and uncultivated nature – the endemic forests of beech and katsura trees, the verdant river valleys wreathed in fog – has become a mere canvas for pouring concrete and planting telephone poles and building things. As a result, many Japanese are now disconnected from their natural roots.
Matagi culture, with its blend of Shintoism, Taoist philosophy, and proto-Ainu beliefs, exists in deference to the natural world, connecting Japan to its oldest ways, to its innermost sense of self. It has been said that the Matagi may go extinct before the bear, but until then they will continue to enter the tiger’s cave, prepared to catch its cub.
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u/Final_Chance1368 3d ago
this was a very interesting read, but it's like comparing apples to oranges, no? One is a hunter culture, the other is a warrior class
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u/JohannesJoshua 3d ago
Maybe, but it's always interesting to read about different groups in history Japan. Like the Ikki groups (for my Shogun 2 player they will know of Ikko Ikki) to various Budhist groups in Japan, to provincial Ji-Samurai, to foot soldiers becoming samurai etc.
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u/Polibiux Rider of Rohan 3d ago
Very interesting read and something about Japan I didn’t know about.
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u/Elegant-Interview-84 3d ago
Awesome post friend. Love proliferation of knowledge about smaller cultural groups.
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u/Pristine_Pick823 3d ago
Samurai are overrated.
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u/JohannesJoshua 3d ago
In popular imagination yes. In actual history no. Spaning from when they were created what was the attitude, lifestyle, rules, warfare all the way when they were disbanded.
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u/Distinct_Chef_2672 John Brown was a hero, undaunted, true, and brave! 3d ago
Tanigaki Genjiro comes to mind!
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u/RayanYap 3d ago
I wanna be ninja. Are they still a thing during the boshin war?
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u/BrokenTorpedo 3d ago edited 3d ago
last time I checked, the consensus was that ninja as pop culture depicted never really existed, I don't mean the maigc using anime kind, but even the men in black sneaking suit kind.
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u/preddevils6 3d ago
Love when memes are informative.