Something you mention that is really right on target is that indeed many cultures throughout the world have their own “wildmen” and folklore concerning them. Even cultures that live in areas that don’t have any naturally occurring primates of any kind have wildman stories going back years and years. I’m not sure what to make of it. Maybe it’s some sort of subconscious archetype that us humans have buried deep in our psyche? Maybe these wildmen are more widespread and far ranging than we give them credit for? I’ve heard a lot of hypotheses about just this thing, and I think it’s open to debate.

What do you think about it?

Anyway, keep posting things you find out. This is a very interesting subject. One thing I’m finding is that almost all cultures have some form of “wildman”. I don’t quite know what to make of that. Any thoughts?

I’m glad I could give you guys a laugh, or at least a smile. This world needs humor sometimes.

The Hibagon is pretty obscure and a lot of Japanese you ask probably will not have heard of it. It was sighted mostly in Hiroshima. You can probably find references to it online. It is quite different than the Yeren, and reported as more apelike than other hairy hominids. Another interesting Asian hominid to be sure.

In my opinion Japan is for the most part pretty open minded about these sorts of cryptids and undeniably there have been a lot of great research expeditions carried out by Japanese teams. The general public seems to have a genuine curiosity in these phenomena, as is evident from the decent amount of cryptozoology themed shows, toys, and magazines here, but I don’t know how seriously it is all taken or whether anyone really entertains the idea of these creatures being out there. I do know that a lot of folklore is taken seriously, so this could have an effect on people’s willingness to consider cryptids.

I don’t have any idea about China, as I’ve never even been there in all this time in Asia, but from the sounds of this article at least the authorities involved here took heed of the sightings and made an effort to check them out.

I asked one of my knowledgable colleagues about the Japanese “yajin” (野人) — which would be the Japanese reading for the characters for “yeren” — and did so without any mention of the context. She said that those characters, while little used, would be used to refer to “people from long ago..” adding in English, “like Australopithecus.” Couldn’t get much beyond that.

Also, a few people mentioned that there is more open-mindedness towards cryptids in the East — that may be the case with the Chinese and the yeren, but in other cultures (thinking of Tibetans and Nepalese here, with respect to the dremo or yehteh or yeti) what we in the West consider cryptids may not be cryptids at all. As far as Japan, I’m in the rural backwater… I can’t say I’ve found that kind of open-mindedness here — at least not with respect to Japan’s own cryptid, the tsuchi-no-ko (which means “child of the earth”). When I’ve mentioned the tsuchi-no-ko (in one instance, I did this to contextualize a talk I was giving to elementary and junior high students about wildlife in Canada, which included sasquatch), people laugh and say that most people who believe in the tsuchi-no-ko are ignorant, deluded, or have little education. In one of my favourite manga, the school bully, who ends up becoming a nice guy, has an obssession with the tsuchi-no-ko (while another geeky kid is a UFO nut). I believe mystery_man and Pentastar mentioned having had quite a different experience here… I wonder if tsuchi-no-ko was something that they might have raised with Japanese friends and colleagues…

Some sense but no cents.

Bucko- Sorry it took some time to get in on the conversation. I’ve been pretty busy lately and have not had as much time as I would like to get on here and post. You’ll probably find stretches where I won’t be around, followed by stints of heavy commenting when I am able. I do try to get on here as much as I can, though. I love this site! I am happy that you are interested in all of this posting by elsanto, Pentastar, and myself on Asian cultures and language! Thanks for the kind words.

About the story, I hope we here more about this sighting, but I just get the bad feeling that it may just kind of fade away and be swept under the rug as so many of these hairy hominid sightings tend to be. I hope I’m wrong, I’d love to hear about any follow ups on this.

How ever, Japanese is not even on my top three (skillwise that is) of the languages I can speak:)

I also read the article in Chinese and it didn’t give me much more than it gave you.
Chinese is O.K when in China and trying to get around but I have a hard time to understand details when I read their newspapers et cetera.