Rereading the History of Hunting Dogs in Modern Japan

— Breeds, Institutions, Methods, and Social Reception (Meiji to Prewar/Wartime Shōwa)

1. Introduction: Problem Statement and Approach

From the Meiji era onward, hunting in Japan was rapidly transformed by the interaction of technology transfer (firearms, breeds, training methods), institutional development (hunting law, explosives control, protected designations), and social reception (leisure/occupation/mobilization).Using fragmentary surviving sources, this article reconstructs the modern history of hunting dogs from four angles:

1. Breed history: the reception of Pointers/Setters and the marginalization of native Japanese dogs.

2. Institutional history: closed seasons, licensing, regulation of dangerous devices, and protected status.

3. Methods and safety: explosive traps, poisoned bait, practical training gear, and regional variation.

4. Society and war: the organization of hunting associations, relations with ministries, and wartime mobilization (fur donations, resource controls).

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The central claim is that hunting dogs were not only “technology” but also institution, culture, and instruments of mobilization.

2. Meiji as an Introduction Phase: A Triad of Firearms, Gundogs, and Media

2.1 The Spread of Sporting Hunting

Early modern hunting now included not only professional hunters by trade but also urban hobbyists. With the influx of imported guns, the English Pointer and English Setter were embraced as emblems of the “rationalization” of bird hunting.

• Periodicals (from the late 1880s) disseminated training methods, husbandry, and gear nationwide, building a market via dog dealers and outfitters.

• Prior to urban build-out, the abundance of hunting grounds accelerated consumption driven by practical need, taste, and display, while systems and ethics to prevent overharvest lagged behind.

2.2 Distorted Technology Uptake and Its Side Effects

As Ōta Sōichi (1929) observed, evaluative axes became tangled between the exhibition track (bench shows) and the field track (trials), and appearance-first breeding soon diverged from real-world performance.

• Whereas Europe and the U.S. kept shows and trials institutionally separate, Japan adopted a “middle way”; weak field-aptitude criteria fostered a proliferation of dogs that failed to deliver in the field.

3. Overharvest, Poaching, and Dangerous Devices: A Safety and Ethics Threshold

3.1 The Mechanics of Overharvest

More capable firearms, shrinking grounds, and lax enforcement rapidly depleted wildlife. A circular to curb overharvest appeared in 1891 (Meiji 24), but countryside surveillance was weak and poaching normalized. A growing taxidermy export market further intensified pressure.

3.2 The Social Costs of Dangerous Methods

Explosive traps (so-called kuchibappa) and poisoned bait caused injury and death to hunting dogs and accidents among the public. Published reports from 1893 (Meiji 26) and a policeman’s line-of-duty death in 1929 (Shōwa 4) highlighted the social costs of unregulated methods.

• Technological asymmetry: efficiency gains by a minority of poachers raised risk for society at large.

• Institutional response: the Hunting Law moved toward explicit bans on explosives, poisons, and dangerous traps.

4. Institutional Architecture: Hunting Law, Enforcement, and the Logic of Protection

4.1 Essentials of the Hunting Law (1918; Taishō 7)

The law framed hunting across space, means, and time:

• Space: no taking in imperial preserves, closed zones, public roads, parks, temple/shrine precincts, cemeteries, etc. (safeguarding public order).

• Means: bans on explosives, poisons, dangerous traps, and set-guns (trap guns) (establishing safety and ethics).

• Time/conditions: prohibitions on dangerous shooting before sunrise/after sunset and around urban areas (accident prevention).

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It introduced exception permits for research and pest control and restrictions on transfer of take to suppress commercial overharvest. Later license-tax hikes curbed hunter numbers and promoted the organization of hunting associations.

4.2 Hunting Associations as Both Interest Group and Auxiliary Enforcer

Associations represented hunters’ interests while serving as auxiliaries for enforcement (e.g., monitoring poaching).In this setting, hunting dogs symbolized both technology (efficiency) and norms (legality, restraint). Conversely, rampant illegality undermined trust in “hunting-dog culture,” prompting urban backlash and tighter regulation.

5. Twisted Breed Trajectories: Overseas Hegemony and Native Marginalization

5.1 The Functional Logic of Pointers and Setters

Optimized for bird work—scent, style, stamina—Pointers/Setters were embraced by results-oriented hunters.

• Market expansion: dealers (e.g., Tanaka Chiroku’s “Greater Japan Hunting Dog Company”) handled imports/sales, knitting nationwide distribution networks.

• Trials and shows underpinned selection and diffusion.

5.2 The Exit and Mythologization of Native Dogs

Large native-dog big-game hunting declined; small- to medium-sized natives persisted. By late Meiji–Taishō a post hoc narrative spread that Japanese hunting had “always” centered on small dogs.

• The preservation movement (from 1928; Shōwa 3) salvaged cultural value while practical hunting value ebbed.

• A Shōwa-era boom saw pet dealers buy up mountain village dogs, depleting the canine base of the hunting grounds.

• Some records (e.g., Miyamoto Shōichirō) document boar/bear hunting with native dogs, but the mainstream shifted to Pointers/Setters.

Decisive was the bifurcation of value: “preservation = cultural asset” vs. “practical hunting = technical asset,” now running on separate tracks due to policy, market, and ethical differences.

6. Regional Variation and an Ethnographic Lens

Topography, climate, and quarry produced regional diversity in methods and dog use—e.g., scent/enduranceprized in snowfields and alpine zones; rough-search in thickets and plateaus.

• Ainu vs. Wajin differed in hunting systems (including poison arrows, amappo) and dog worldviews.

• Feralization: seasonal abandonment by urban hunters created feral packs and incidents mislabeled as “wolf damage” (e.g., mis-shootings of large brindled dogs).

A history of hunting dogs risks flattening unless read through regional history, ethnography/folklore, and environmental history.

7. Self-Correction and the Incorporation of Protectionist Thought

The impasse of overharvest spurred hunter-led conservation (observing closures, cooperating in banding, refraining from shooting homing pigeons). These intersected with Home and Agriculture-Forestry ministry designations (e.g., ptarmigan, serow), steering toward coexistence of protection and use.

8. Rural Relations: Damage, Control, and Reconciliation

As crop damage grew, associations became public agents of vermin control, mending ties via “service days,” etc.

• Information sharing (on quarry locations) and reciprocal thanks reframed hunters from “senseless killers” to “community guardians.”

• In this context, hunting dogs emerged as a regional public asset, key to efficient control.

9. Wartime Mobilization: Fur, Controls, and Discourse

9.1 Resource Controls and Donations

From the Sino-Japanese War, Commerce and Industry leather controls coupled with Agriculture and Forestry produced fur-donation schemes (rabbit, boar, fox). Under “patriotic hunting,” associations were folded into supplying raw hides for military needs.

• Standards/prices were fixed; leaving trapped rabbits uncollected was banned to enforce full utilization.

• Military-dog personnel joined rabbit-hunting drives, showing how dog culture was absorbed into wartime administration.

9.2 Anti-Enemy Rhetoric vs. Field Realities

Despite rhetoric purging English, British/American firearms and British-line gundogs remained in use. Tobita Hoshū argued the irrationality of exclusionism and the indispensability of imported technical assets.Late-war fuel and transport controls constricted hunting; feed shortages helped drive a wartime collapse of dog culture.

10. Defeat and Transition: Rupture and Continuity

Japan’s defeat hollowed out the wartime regime. Returnees’ memoirs attest to the depth of attrition suffered by hunting and dog culture. Reconstruction advanced gradually amid occupation-era controls, food shortages, and a reframed animal-protection ethos.

• On breeding lines, reimportation and propagation of Pointers/Setters proceeded alongside preservation—and patrimonialization—of native dogs, perpetuating a two-layer structure.

11. Redefining the Hunting Dog: What Kind of “Technology” Was It?

Hunting dogs can be mapped to four quadrants:

Perspective	Content	Actors	Canine Status
Technology	Scent, style, training, safety	Hunters / trainers	Tool that produces results
Institution	Hunting law, protection, licensing, controls	Administrations (Agriculture/Forestry, Home, Commerce), police	Object of regulation / unit of resource
Culture	Shows, trials, magazines, discourse	Dog dealers, media, associations	Representation, display, aesthetics
Society	Control, safety, rural relations	Residents / hunting associations	Mediator of public value

The hegemony of Pointers/Setters advanced on the twin wheels of technology × culture, while native-dog preservation persisted with a tilt toward culture × institution.In the wartime period, institution × society expanded, and dogs shifted into media for resource mobilization.

12. Future Research Agenda and Archiving Plan

1. Regional hunting histories: prefecture-level timelines (grounds, quarry, breeds, accidents, protection).

2. Cross-matching registries & pedigrees: link Pointer/Setter import ledgers, dealer catalogues, and trial records with association journals/newspapers.

3. Cross-ministerial document analysis: correlate Hunting Law, explosives rules, animal protection, Natural Monument listings, and fur controls.

4. Ethnographic supplementation: recover field notes on Ainu hunting and mountain native dogs.

5. Safety history: case-base (mapping/seasonality) for explosive traps, poisoned bait, and accidents.

6. Quantifying wartime mobilization: reconstruct volumes, prices, standards, and aggregate mobilization.

Practical proposal: OCR newspapers, association journals, and dealer ads to build a knowledge graph by dog × owner × region × year × event, visualizing correlations between breed turnover and institutional change.

13. Concluding Note: The Dual Fault Lines of Modern Hunting-Dog History

Modern Japan’s hunting-dog history shows:

• A technological fault line—Pointers/Setters rapidly displaced native dogs’ hunting roles.

• An institutional fault line—protection, policing, and controls redefined dogs as resources and regulated entities.

Between these rifts, hunting dogs wereneither mere tools nor mere petsbutmediating proxies linking technology, institutions, culture, and society. Their rise and decline mirror thetransformations in resource use and governancein modern Japan.