RICHARD FREEMAN: Hibagon - ‘and the nature of monkey was irrepressible’

This weird Japanese ‘mini-yeti’ is described as an upright walking ape-like beast. It has been reported from the forests around Mount Hiba in Hiroshima prefecture.

In the Autunm of 1972, Reiko Harada and her son encountered a Hibagon whilst walking home near Hiwa. It stood at the roadside and raised its hands as if signalling her to stop. Both mother and son ran home terrified. A search later revealed crushed shrubs and a stench like a rotting cadava.

Yokio Sazawa was digging wild sweet potatoes in the foothills of Mount Hiba when he encountered the beast.

“All of a sudden, this thing stood before me. It was about five feet tall with a face like an inverted triangle, covered with bristles. Having a snub nose, and large, deep, glaring eyes.”

Mr Sazawa was certain that what he had seen was not a monkey.

Albert Kubo was spreading fertilizer on his rice fields when he saw a figuer standing on a path. It seemed to be holding a paper bag. Not knowing who it was Mr Kubo approached it.

“He seemed to be lost in thought or puzzled…I was just about to say something when I realized it was the Hibagon. I was petrified, but the stench was what really got to me. He must have bathed in a septic tank and dried off with cow dung. I mearly passed out. Luckily enough, though, I managed to turn and run before it realized I was there. I ran five miles straight home without ever looking back over my shoulder.”

A nervous populace began to attribute livestock and even human disappearances on the creature even though it never behaved in an aggressive manner.

Creatures much like Hibagon feature in many Japanese legends. One such is the Hi-Hi, an ape like yokai that was covered in long silver hair that could turn back the blows of a sword. Those who drank its blood were said to be able to see demons usually invisible to the human eye. It may be the same species as Hibagon, but with mystic attributes grafted onto it. Some say the Hi-Hi was a monkey that rolled in turpentine to make its pelt bullet proof. Just how turpentine can turn back musket shots is unclear!

In Minamiaizu District, Fukushima Prefecture, the people were disturbed by a hideous screeching each night. A brave man called Teppōuchi set out to solve the mystery. He saw something white at the top of a tree and tried to shoot it. All the bullets turned back, except the last that struck the beast in the eye. Next morning he found a huge, dead Hi-Hi with white hair. It had plastered itself in pine sap then rolled in the riverbed sand.

Natives in Canada say that the sasquatch will smear pine sap upon its hide and roll in sand to give itself a hard coat against the winter frost. This led to the folk belief that it had a hide of stone. Could the same thing be happening here?

In his 1910 book ‘Tôno Monogatari’ (translated in 1975 as‘The Legends of Tono’) folklorist Kunio Yanagita records a belief in Iwate Prefecture that old monkeys use pine resin and sand to make their fur so hard that even bullets cannot penetrate it!

In Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka Prefecture a girl was sacrificed once a year to a Hi-Hi. The god of Mitsuke sent a dog called Shippeitaro to kill the beast. After it was dead, the Hi-Hi’s body was enshrined on Kannon Mountain near the village of Kuma.

Dogs and Hi-Hi seem to be enemies. Another story that took place in Tokushima Prefecture involved a Hi-Hi that devoured a hunter. The man’s dog rushed back home to alert the hunter’s brother. He followed the dog back to the Hi-Hi. The dog attacked the beast and the hunter managed to shoot it. But the dog was also killed in the fight. The gravesite of the hunter and his dog remain.

A soldier named Daijirō was fleeing from Sendai capital city of Miyagi Prefecture with his family. His brother and his family were following behind Daijirō when a Hi-Hi killed his brother’s daughter. Daijirō and his brother killed the beast. The monster and the weapons used to kill it were supposedly buried in the grounds of a primary school.

Another Hi-Hi was buried in land were now a modern primary school stands. It was meant to have been killed in Sannai Village, Hiraka District, Akita Prefecture. As far as I am aware, no excavations have been undertaken. Perhaps the remains of some kind of unknown primate lie there to this day.

Another weird monster ape from Japanese legend is the Yama-chichi. This creature is a nocturnal ape that inhales people's breath while they are sleeping and pounds their chest until they are dead. However, if it happens to rouse its victim's companion, then the victim will be blessed with long life. It is said that many of them once dwelt in Michinoku Province.

In 1665, the second year of the Meireki era, Tokuemon,who served under Mihayashi Banyaku of the Kiriguchi house, was on patrol in the mountain forest when he met the Yama-chichi. He slew it with a bayonet.

A hunter named Nagasōmura no Ennemon met a Yama-chichi in the mountains of Kochi Prefecture. It said that it was going to eat him, but the hunter persuaded it to watch him dance first. He did such a silly dance that the monster roared with laughter. The hunter took this opportunity and shot it in its gaping mouth.

What was Hibagon and its kin? The Japanese macaque (Macaca fuscata), or snow monkey is found throughout the wilder, mountainous areas of Japan. But the macaque is a quadruped and reaches a size less than half that of Hibagon.

Another idea is that Hibagon was an escaped pet chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes). Exotic pets are popular in Japan and strange as it may seem a number of these savage and dangerous apes are kept. Chimps can walk on their hind legs for a while but they are knuckle walkers by nature. This clashes with the description of Hibagon as a bipedal creature. It is likely that an escaped chimp would have also attacked humans.

Hibagon is more like other short, upright hominids or pongids reported elsewhere in the world. On mainland Asia there are supposedly three types of yeti. The giant Dzu-Teh, possibly a surviving form of the giant Pleistocene ape (Gigantopithecus blacki) the man sized Mi-Teh, perhaps a mainland species of orang-utan and the smaller Teh-lma. This last kind is four to five feet tall. In Malaya the Batutut is also a small upright walking primate. It is said to be fond of stealing shiny objects from human camps. On the island of Sumatra the orang-pendek or ‘short man’ is well known. It is a five foot tall muscular bipedal ape of great strength. It has black or honey coloured hair and a long mane that hangs down from its head. The author has twice taken expeditions into the deep jungle in search of orang-pendek and even followed its tracks. I have spoken to many witnesses including Debbie Martyr, head of the Indonesian tiger conservation group, who has seen orang-pendek no less than four times. I have no doubt it exists. My colleague Adam Davis brought back hair from Kerinchi National Park in Sumatra that was examined by Professor Hans Brunner, the world’s leading expert on animal hair. He announced that it was from a new species of ape related to the orang-utan

Could Hibagon be related to one of these creatures? Japan is certainly not tropical like Malaya or Sumatra but the Teh-lma inhabits cool mountain climates. There have, as far as I know, been no recent sightings of Hibagon. The animal might have died out or it just might still be awaiting discovery in Japan’s trackless mountain forests.