I live in Japan and I’ve been to two festivals which involve legends of giant snakes.

This festival on Mt Kurama north of Kyoto dates from the 9th Century when a monk encountered two large snakes. One he killed and the other he spared on the condition to would protect the waters of the mountain. Every year in June they do festival where monks cut at bamboo stalks which represents the snake killed long ago.

Another festival in Niigata involves 2 giant snakes. A woodcutter encountered a giant snake and killed it. He pickled the meat and told his wife not to eat it till he got back. She did anyway and was transformed into a giant snake herself. She planned at one point to destroy the village but the villagers eventually killed her. The villagers make a long snake of bamboo that they parade through the town.

I wonder if not today then in the past large anaconda-like snakes might have lived in prehistoric Japan which had a warmer climate. It might have been encountered by the first paleolithic hunters 30,000 years ago downthru Jomon and Yayoi times and the stories of these encounters were passed down thru the generations as the species died out due to over-hunting and climate change.

It’s an argument that frustrates me whenever I hear it in the states too…I live in Iowa and everyone thinks there’s just endless corn fields. While we do not have the expansive forests of the Pacific Northwest, there is a fair amount of uninhabited ground here too…definitely enough for a larger than average bipedal cryptid to roam through…and probably other things too…just wish we had more deep, scottish type lakes here:)

So, thanks for the great post–I am always on the watch for cryptids in other countries, and Japan has a lot of history and definitely in a goood place for cryptids…especially the water varieties:)

I’m actually glad you mentioned it. Being someone who investigates and writes about Japanese cryptids and zoological mysteries as much as I do I often come up against that sort of thing, perhaps even more than those dealing with many other cryptids in other regions. Believe me, I’m used to it. People just have very set misconceptions about the amount of untamed land over here, and it is a constant battle to try and illustrate just how the ecology and wilderness in Japan really is rather than how people perceive it through the media or looking at statistics on a piece of paper.

It is sometimes hard to get this across and it is an argument I’m constantly and sometimes tiresomely faced with.

So you bringing that up allowed me a chance to yet again underline the fact that Japan is not filled to the brim with people on every square kilometer of land, and that the population is crammed into actually quite a comparably small area.

So yeah, I bit. No worries. Hey, at least it seems you were already aware of what I was saying.

I have to admit that I had an ulterior motive for writing what I did–I was taking a pot shot at an age old argument against cryptids, which concerns viable space available for a population of cryptids. I’ve heard it used against BF, Nessie, and the like…that there are SO MANY people, that how could a population possibly hide from humanity when we have 6billion+ people on the planet…and so on and so forth.

As you said, even in Japan, where population density can be staggering, there is still plenty of untamed wilderness for critters (often large) to live undetected.

Sorry for using you as bait, but I want to stress that point, and it applies across the board for any country.

People tend toward making their homes in places accessible to all the necessities in life, which usually means cities, and once you step outside those cities, there is plenty of ground (and water) for creatures of size to move through and even take up residence in without being seen very often.

Fhqwhgads, I just threw the Tatzelwurm for reference of other reptilian cryptids in mountainous and colder regions…you are right, there is no legitimate evidence for it either, but there have been accounts nevertheless…I do agree…finding a 30-50 foot snake up in the colder mountainous areas is rather far fetched, but then again if animals do anything on this planet, it is adapt…and animals have proved time and again, that if there is a niche to fill, animals find a way to do it. And there have been accounts of bigger than average snakes…so who knows…we keep our ears and eyes open and see if anyone else encounters something.

In the meantime, let’s not be speaking ill of Jörmungandr…

That being said I will say that a lot of the sparsely inhabited or remote land is not really extremely cold. A lot of it is just very steep, making it unfavorable for habitation due to landslides and other factors, and much of it is heavily forested or not good for agriculture. There are a lot of cool mountain woodlands that are not reaching a deep freeze or anything in winter. When I was discussing candidates, I brought up the boa constrictor, which does live in some surprisingly temperate climates within the extremes of its native range, and has even been observed to hibernate. While I’m not sure about a native snake getting that large, perhaps something like the boa constrictor could survive in some areas here. Perhaps it was surprising enough to cause size misjudgments.

The summers in Japan can be quite hot and humid, so an very large exotic of other species may have been able to hang on in those conditions, but the winter probably would have done them in, except in the more moderate zones where a boa might do alright.

So Japan is temperate, but not all of the forested regions are super cold in winter, especially if you consider the more low lying, temperate woodlands. Too cold for most very large snakes, probably. But I still do want to examine what might account for the stories, especially those settlers of these areas that once took the giant snakes as very real denizens of the forest, and not even particularly imbued with folklore at that.

As far as snakes using human habitation, I agree, houses in older times would not been much of a help, and it would be hard to imagine a snake that large not being noticed in the small dwellings of the time. It also still would be hard to figure how exotics would be there in the first place. Perhaps escapees from the various misemono sideshows that were once quite popular in Japan. These sideshows often had cabinets of curiosities that included elaborate gaffes as well as live specimens of exotic species. Some of these strange far away animals could have even instigated the tales to begin with.

As for a body or verification, well, tell me what cryptid isn’t in need of that. That sounds like the age old requirement for not only cryptozoology, but science in general. I’m just presenting the information for everyone to enjoy and come to their own conclusions. I am not trying to argue that these giant snakes are real. I am curious, though, and feel this is a phenomena worth considering.

springheeledjack: The plausibility of giant snakes in cold climates is not much improved by appealing to the Tatzelwurm. You might as well appeal to the Midgard Serpent — you can’t get any bigger, and it was a Norse legend. There is a plausible reason why large reptiles are not found in cold climates, and that reason would really need to be answered by verifiable observations.

dorksaber: I wonder if the big snake didn’t winter under the repair shop or some other human-occupied building. A heated building could take much of the sting out of a Michigan winter. But medieval Japanese buildings were built to be cool in summer, and they were COLD in the winter.

Japan is mostly mountains. The vast majority of Japan is sparsely populated, mountainous terrain, much of it unsuitable for mass settlement. There is actually a good deal of remote, uninhabited land in Japan. As a matter of fact, the rural areas that are inhabited are becoming ever less populated, as census figures for many such areas show a sharp decrease in population as more and more people head to the cities. So even the more isolated areas are becoming increasingly devoid of people.

All of this means that the image that everyone has of thrumming, neon filled metropolises pulsing with millions of souls is actually comprising only a fraction of the land area in Japan.

Trust me, I have slogged through the mountains and backwaters of Japan, and as far as the terrain goes, there is more than enough for something to remain hidden.

I hope this puts things into perspective a little and makes you consider the possibilities.

As for Japan, another obstacle is the population density. Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t Japan about as seriously populated as it gets, so to speak? Just how much untamed land is there in Japan? Enough to hide a 30-40-50 foot monster snake?