Hey, it's Michael. Today we have something really special for you. A blissful break from the news. It's a new series from NYT Audio called Animal. My colleague, Sam Anderson from The Times Magazine traveled the world to have encounters with animals, not to claim them or to tame them, but just to appreciate them. Each episode is a journey to get closer to a creature that Sam loves. For the next six weeks, we'll be running this limited series
every Sunday here on The Daily Feed. But if you want to hear all the episodes right now, you can search for it wherever you get your podcasts. Today, Episode 5. Take a listen. From The New York Times, this is an animal. I'm Sam Anderson. Episode 5. Wolves Well, we should... The shop closes at 6. Do you think we'll be back by then? Yes, 515. Maybe. I can't imagine that it would be like a ton to do that. No, I agree. I don't think we
need to do that much. We just want to make the pilgrimage to the statue. You know about the statue? We're going to tell you in the car. You can tell the driver. The first thing I remember about our trip to the Wolf statue is that we almost didn't go. People told us not to bother. The memorial is out in the middle of absolute nowhere on the edge of this tiny village in Japan. It would take all day to get there and probably be a giant
anticlimax. But I was already in Japan because I was working on a story for the magazine about Hayao Miyazaki, the animator. And since I'd come this far, I just felt like I really needed to do this. Bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto. Regular train from Kyoto to a smaller city called Nara, just famous for its deer. We come out of the train station and it's pouring rain. That's another reason not to go on the pilgrimage because it's just soaking
rain constantly all day long. I'm with Crystal DuHame who's carrying a gigantic microphone around everywhere. And then Samson Yee, our incredible interpreter. And so we step out of the train station into the rain and there's this black car waiting for us. And out steps are driver who's this 30-something man nicely dressed. He's wearing like a gray suit. The red tie. Samson talks to him and says his name is Dysuke. Dysuke's on to be the polite.
And Samson climbed into the front of the taxi to sit next to Dysuke so that he can interpret our conversation. Thank you for your time. It's okay for you to record his dog. He might not be able to meet your expectations. We start heading out of the city on this kind of wild, windy, backroad. And immediately we're sort of in the middle of nowhere. And it's still pouring. It's foggy.
It's passing through woods and bamboo. And it is really beautiful. It feels like we're driving into an old landscape painting. So Samson let me tell you about the statues. And so you have no idea what we're doing. Yeah, I remember asking. Well maybe ask Dysuke's on if he knows anything about the Japanese wolf. Can you ask Dysuke's on our driver if he knows anything about the Japanese wolf? So Samson did and no, we'd never heard about it. But I don't know anything about the
wolf but I love animals and I have a Chibawawa. I have a Chihuahua. And Samson laughed because Go-Toro is a very male Japanese name. It's like apparently like some kind of warrior name. He said the Chinese character for it means like hard metal. Dysuke named this Chihuahua, the most masculine tough name you could think of because Chihuahua is so fierce and have such strong personalities. So he did that deliberately.
And the fact that he would connect that to wolves, that was a funny thing about him. It's like instantly we said wolves and he was like, oh I love animals and I have a dog, a Chihuahua which is on one hand a hilarious answer. But on the other hand makes perfect sense because wolves and dogs I came to learn on this trip are essentially the same thing.
I mean we went to talk to one of the great dog scientists on planet earth and he was telling me that dogs are really just wolves that have developed over thousands of years, very intimate relationship with human beings. He's done all this incredible research including discovering that dogs cry when their owners come home after a long period of way. They have moisture in their eyes and wolves don't so that's one of the ways they're different. But otherwise
they're just it's more a continuum than it is a bright line that divides them. So Dysuke got that right away. He was like you're asking me about wolves? I'm going to talk about my dog. So I've been spending the last few days of my trip in Japan learning about wolves. And so I started telling Dysuke's on the epic saga of the Japanese wolf. The basic stories there used to be wolves in these mountains everywhere all over Japan.
I think of a wolf as an American I think of like a big timber wolf or a gray wolf like a big snarling mean dog. Japanese wolves were different. They were smaller and sort of a reddish khaki color and cute, weirdly cute for a wolf. Before I went on this trip I read this book called The Lost Wolves of Japan by a historian named Brett Walker. And basically for many thousands of years wolves roamed all over Japan and people revered them. They saw them as sacred guardians.
They protected crops. People worshipped at wolf shrines and they left offerings of rice and beans outside of wolf dens. But then in the 1700s there was this big rabies outbreak that made wolves actually quite dangerous. Wolves were killing people. And then in the 1800s there is a huge cultural shift in Japan where the country started to quote unquote modernize. People started doing western style agriculture, huge cattle herds. And so wolves began to seem like pests. They were
killing livestock. They were you know encroaching on these cities that were growing deeper into the wilderness. And so Japan decided it was done with its wolves. And the government sends out these hunting parties to systematically exterminate the Japanese wolf. And they did. They used guns, they used poison, they used traps. As far as we know the last Japanese wolf was killed in 1905. And there is historically documented and they know where it was exactly. And they know
which wolf it was. It was a male wolf. And it was brought dead and sold to a western man in 1905. They say the last known Japanese wolf it was seen kind of skulking around this lumber yard in a little remote village. And somebody shot it and sold it to a western man who was passing through town collecting zoological specimens. And so the statue that we're going to is the memorial to that last wolf. The black metal statue based on the body of that wolf near where that wolf died.
And so we were driving up to sea. I'm really happy that I'm able to be part of the trip because I really love dogs myself. And I'm able to maybe share how you might feel about this trip. We're going to look for the dog. Dysuke was the chattyest, probably the chattyest cab driver I've ever had. And whatever he talked about, it always came back to Goat Hero.
For instance, he was telling us like, oh, I'm a YouTuber. And I have a YouTube channel about cars. And I said, what's the name of the YouTube channel? Because I immediately wanted to look it up. And he said, something something I don't speak Japanese so I can understand her. But I distinctly heard the word go to roll. I said, wait a second. Did he say go to roll again? It says YouTube channel named after the Chihuahua and Samson said, yes, it's basically driving with go to roll. Driving channel.
Hi. We're here. I'm here. That's right. Wow. So, Shui-ui, we really like the dog. Yeah. So, where are we? We really are out in the middle of nowhere. And this tiny road. So, we are in this car for a very long time. Driving on these windy roads into the mountains through forests, there's just occasional houses, fog, still pouring rain. And then, dice case on starts telling us his life story, which turned out to be much more than we were prepared for.
So, we are still in this car. Maybe we're halfway to the trip at this point. And dice case started ruminating and then told us the entire story of his life, basically. I remember Samson being like, okay, he's telling me his life story now. So, he's talking about his life story now. And how he used to live in Osaka. Osaka, yeah. So, he got married with his wife in Osaka and lived there for two years. He used to drive a garbage truck.
And his wife's dad, after they got married two years, asked him to come live with them. So, his parents in law asked him to come live with them. And he's heard that, the wife's dad works the same taxi company as this company. And hence, he and his wife and daughter moved from Osaka to Kyoto to Nara. And I lived with his father for four to five years. But then his father in law left the taxi company.
So, yeah, he's a garbage truck driver in Osaka and he got married and they agreed to move in with his father-in-law, his wife's father. In Japan, traditionally, is a very hierarchical society. So, your wife's father would be someone you pay a lot of respect to. So, they moved in with him. So, his father-in-law didn't like animals at the time, but then he knew that if his family would come and live with him, the dog would come along. The chihuahua would come along.
And because Goudaro is a dog you have in the house, so his father-in-law knew that and then they brought the dog over. So, the dog was a little bit tired and he was a little tired. And my wife was a little tired and he had to work and he was a little tired. Because that left his job and no longer drive, his father-in-law was at home all the time. So, he started, the father-in-law started being really rough to the chihuahua, so like violent.
So, Daisuke says a couple times he came home from work and it seemed like Goudaro was hurt. And there'd been no one home all day except Goudaro and the father-in-law. So, at the time, for the first and second time, when he saw the scars, he knew immediately that the scars on the dog was caused by a person. So, unless there is some thief who broke into the house, he could only have been his father-in-law.
So, he approached his father-in-law and told him to stop hitting the dog and he was telling his father-in-law that you wouldn't like it if someone hit your grandson or grandchild, his son or child. So, please stop. I want him twice. We talked about it. The third time. When I got home, so the third time, when I got home, the chihuahua's left eye was really red and was like bulging. We took the chihuahua to the hospital and he lost his left eye.
Even Goudaro is a dog, Goudaro is also a family and I just couldn't forgive him. I told him that we just cut left together. We decided to leave his house. I told my wife and my children that they are free to stay if they want. My wife can stay with his parents if she wants but I'm leaving. I'm leaving my chihuahua. I'm leaving. We never see her dad ever again after that incident. When we fact-checked the story, we talked to Daisuke's wife and the vet who treated Goudaro for her injuries.
They both corroborated what Daisuke told us. Daisuke told us his father-in-law denied her name. We also found out a couple of other things. Goudaro lost the vision in her right eye, not her left eye. Goudaro was not always named Goudaro. When his father-in-law got angry, he would shout the word love over and over. Daisuke decided he didn't want to relive that trauma anymore and that's when he thought of this name Goudaro. This dog never去看到 Goudaro felt the pain and worried about Goudaro.
He Seeing Goudaro always 그럴 for not believing and sorrowfully caused the problem to condition for him. Basically, cultural constraints are shown to be a perfect quality white modo shrimps. Indeed, it's a long story, but definitely in short. Although English has the language of a grown-up, lotta women occur as well- I'm saying women act, lol. So he's saying how you know how when humans like you are excited.
You know how when humans when you lose sight, use your sight of one eye, it can really affect your everyday life. But then it's not so much for dog because for dog of course the dog can see but he also relies on his smell a lot more. So perhaps it doesn't affect the dog's life. It's interesting when he said life when he referred to dog, he says Jin-se which means human's life.
So he really think that the dog is just like human and the fact that he has lost his left eye might not have as much of the effect to the dog. As a world it was a past. Despite the fact that the incident made me really angry and really sad and it was like a huge thing to me. Perhaps and I tried to think it this way. I tried to put it this way. Perhaps for the dog it's almost like a blocked nose. And maybe it's not that big a deal for it.
I tried to think it like that so that I can keep my keeps keep safe. And it's really you know the dog itself it is really healthy and and and both are always just fine. It's very good timing but I don't know. If we have a chance later I can show you video of go to the dog. I will show you the video of the dog. And he says how to say like wolves how to. So I just signed the name of where we're going. What is it called again? He goes to the ocean. And he had a wolf on it.
He had like a little wolf silhouette. I think we are close maybe four or five minutes away. Okay. Well this this life of the story of his has become so much more intense than I imagined. I thought we were just going to sell our taxi and go and see a statue. Go dog. Yeah I mean as we approach the wolf statue here I think that's actually the perfect conversation for us to have approaching the statue.
Because part of why I think I felt drawn to see this statue was that it does represent one individual animal. It's not just a symbolic wolf. It is an animal that was as much an individual as go to row or as walnut my dog or as any of us in this car. This was a specific creature. And as the last wolf it had lost everyone. It had lost its family, its friends, its a whole community and pack. And that's just really deep to think about. So yeah suddenly we're there. It's just like the GPS was like.
We're here and and it was really a nothing like it was. It's really quiet maybe because of the sun days. There was like a little roadside sign and then you just had to kind of pull off the road onto the shoulder traffic. You know cars driving by we're just right there driving by right next to you. And so it was really a nothing of a sight. That said we get out it's pouring rain. Dice cake gives us some brellas. And it's so beautiful. We truly are out in the country.
I mean there's a road that runs by but right on the other side of the road is this beautiful river rushing with all this rain. And then just these cascading mountains with fog all over them that really look like a beautiful classic Japanese painting. Be careful I don't think cost thoughts. I don't think anyone ever comes here. It was completely quiet except for when occasionally a car would go racing past. There's a big sort of stone tablet with a lot of Japanese on it that Samson read to us.
What does it say? So it says wolf died and its spirits exist. Lives on. So wolf dies but its spirits live on. I feel like shy to approach the wolf. We've come all this way and I feel like hesitant too. But I guess let's go see him. There was something really powerful about the scale of it being the actual scale of the body of the animal itself. There's so much smaller than I thought. I've seen a photo of it before but standing in front of it. It looks like a pet dog.
It looks like a million dogs that I've played with. Just kind of like a small medium dog. It's just cute but it's also fierce. It's this black metal. It's got its mouth wide open. You can see it's teeth. I think it's howling. It reminds me they call it holland. Looking at my Japanese term. I'd learned this word earlier on the trip. This incredible Japanese word which is pow-wa sputtle. Which is just an adoption from English power spot. So just a place that's really full of power.
And this to me standing by the statue was powerful. Just this humble modest little thing. Kind of an afterthought of a memorial. One Japanese term from the book we were reading. The Japanese once revered the wolf as Obuchi no magami or large mouthed pure god. And you can see the large mouth. I mean the jaws are wide open. It's howling. I really would love to hear what that holland sounds like. So yeah we stood and Samson who...
One of the great things about Samson is he is just completely unflappable. Unimpressed by anything. So how do you feel having been on this journey with us? Knowing all that you know now about the wolf story. Coming all this ridiculous way to make this pilgrimage to stand at this statue that no one ever comes to I think pretty much. How do you feel standing in front of it? Was it worth it? Do you feel anything?
When I first heard about the story that we were going to go after a nanomore that was supposed to be extinct like over a hundred years ago. I wasn't sure what I was going to expect. And then we're here now. And I do feel listening to you talk about how this guy here we have in front of it particular lost everything. And he's the last one. Like what would the last statue or person be like? Or would the last statue of a dog or cat be like? How would human think of that?
Especially in Japan when he is literally a god. Big god. And now he is just a stone in a middle street. And it's even difficult to park your car because there's no road to this name. While we pray on other things that we call God that has we chased you from. Yes, pretty deep now. Yes, so you're having some feelings and thoughts. The unimpressive old Samsung. It's kind of sad. Are you thinking about it? It is really profound. This was the last thing of its kind. And the rain is coming down.
It's just like dripping off the fangs of the statue. And then Dyscape pulls out his phone. And says, oh, I want to show you a picture of Gotoro. Sure, let's see Gotoro. And as we're standing next to the statue of the last Japanese wolf, he shows us on his phone screen this picture of this little white Chihuahua. She's so cute. Our heart's melted. She's laying on her side in a nest of blankets and having her belly rubbed and her eyes are closed.
And it just looks like the sweetest little thing and she's so happy in heaven. One last question for Dyscape. The wolf is howling. I really wonder what its howl sounds like. And I wonder if maybe while he's waiting, could he find that video he told us about? So he went back to wait for us in the car and we stood for a while longer in the rain. And then eventually everyone was starving and we had to go get something to eat. And we got back in the car and Dyscape said, I found it.
I found the video. And he played us this video. Of Gotro the Chihuahua howling her little brains out at an ambulance. And it's like the most tender she's howling so hard. And it's such a soft little, such a soft little tender Chihuahua howl. It's so primal. Imagine it coming out past the fangs of this Japanese wolf echoing across the wilderness. What's up, Gotro? This episode was produced by Crystal DuHame and Larissa Anderson with help from Caitlin Roberts.
It was reported by me, Sam Anderson, and edited by Larissa Anderson and Wendy Dorr. It was engineered by Marion Luzano. The executive producer is Paulish Schuman. Original music by Marion Luzano, fact checking by Samson Yee and Josh Hunt. Special thanks to Jake Silverstein, Sasha Weiss and Sam Donick. Very special thanks to Song Wu Kim, Alex Martin, Hiroshi Yagi, Hiroyuki Yoshimura, Hajime Suzuki, and Takafumi Kikusui.
Thank you so much for teaching us all about the Japanese wolf and its relationship to dogs and humans and crying and all of that. You can listen to all of our episodes wherever you get podcasts or visit our website at nytimes.com slash animal. I'm Sam Anderson. Thank you for listening.