Blakiston's Fish Owl greets travelers arriving at Hokkaido's Kushiro Airport

Blakiston's Fish Owl Kotan Koru Kamui: The God of the Village

Link to Full Article

This enormous owl is rare, poorly known and little studied. Its main range takes in the mountains and rivers of the maritime provinces of eastern Russia (and perhaps still extreme northeast China), and Sakhalin, the southern Kurile Islands, and Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido.

To the indigenous Ainu people of Hokkaido, the fish owl was revered as a Kamui, a god or a spirit. Of a pantheon of deities significant in the ancient Ainu life-style, the fish owl was the god they were closest to, literally, for it was to them Kotan Koru Kamui - the god that protected the village.

I haven't gotten to read the full article yet, but in additional to much owl info and a number of pictures, it also discusses a brief history of Hokkaido, Japan's northern most main island, and its native people, the Ainu. The beliefs of the Ainu are deeply tied to the wildlife of the island, and they believe how they treat the animals is how the gods will treat them in return.

Photo Caption: Arguably the largest owl in the world, Blakiston's Fish Owl is also one of the rarest, here one sits beside a mountain river in east Hokkaido patiently searching for prey.