science

Sankebetsu brown bear incident

Sankebetsu brown bear incident is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Sankebetsu brown bear incident rather than just read about it. In short: The Sankebetsu brown bear incident (三毛別羆事件, Sankebetsu higuma jiken), also known as the Rokusensawa bear attack (六線沢熊害事件, Rokusensawa yūgai jiken) or the Tomamae brown bear incident (苫前羆事件, Tomamae higuma jiken), was a series of bear attacks which took place between December 9th and 15th, 1915, at the beginning of the Taishō era, in a remote area of Hokkaido, Japan. Over the course of six days, a male Ezo brown bear…

Key takeaways

Sankebetsu brown bear incident belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Sankebetsu brown bear incident to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Sankebetsu brown bear incident from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Sankebetsu brown bear incident (三毛別羆事件, Sankebetsu higuma jiken), also known as the Rokusensawa bear attack (六線沢熊害事件, Rokusensawa yūgai jiken) or the Tomamae brown bear incident (苫前羆事件, Tomamae higuma jiken), was a series of bear attacks which took place between December 9th and 15th, 1915, at the beginning of the Taishō era, in a remote area of Hokkaido, Japan. Over the course of six days, a male Ezo brown bear attacked a number of households, killing seven people and injuring a further three. The incident has been referred to as "the worst animal attack in Japanese history". The attacks ended when the bear was shot dead.

Background

At dawn in mid-November 1915, an Ezo brown bear appeared at the Ikeda family's house in Sankebetsu Rokusen-sawa, a small pioneer village in Teshio Province, about 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) inland from the west coast of Hokkaido. The family horse was loudly spooked by the surprise encounter, but the bear fled after taking only harvested corn. At the time, Sankebetsu was newly settled, so encroachment by wild animals was common. On November 20, 1915, the bear reappeared. Worrying about the safety of the horse, the head of the Ikeda family called on his second son, Kametarō, and two matagi from his own village and a neighboring village. When the bear reappeared on November 30, they shot at it but failed to kill it. The next morning, they followed the bear's footprints, which led toward Mount Onishika. Along the trail the hunting party discovered bloodstains, but a snowstorm forced them to turn back. The bloodstains led the party to conclude that the bear, now injured, would no longer raid settlements.

December attacks

December 9: Ōta family

On December 9, 1915, at 10:30 a.m., the giant brown bear turned up at the home of the Ōta family. Abe Mayu, the farmer's wife, and Hasumi Mikio, a baby being cared for by Mayu, were at the house. Mikio was bitten on the head and killed. Mayu fought back, apparently by throwing firewood, and tried to escape. She was overtaken, knocked down, and dragged into the Imperial Forest of Sankebetsu. According to contemporary descriptions, the scene resembled a slaughterhouse, with blood puddled on the farmhouse floor.

December 10

Search Early in the morning, Saitō Ishigorō and Miyoke Yasutarō left the village on errands. Meanwhile, a thirty-man search party was organized to capture the brown bear and recover the remains of Mayu. Entering the forest no more than 150 metres (160 yd), it met the bear. Five men shot, but only one managed to land a hit. The enraged animal retreated, and the men escaped injury. After the bear fled, the hunters scouted the area and discovered dried blood on the snow at the base of a Sakhalin fir tree. Beneath the snow was the corpse of Mayu with only the head and parts of the legs remaining. The bear had stashed the body of Mayu in the snow in an attempt to preserve it, as well as to hide it from scavengers: proof it was this brown bear in the attack.

Return to the Ōta farm The villagers believed that once the bear had a taste for human flesh, its return to the settlement was assured. Villagers gathered at the Ōta family's home with guns. Around 8:00 p.m. that night, the bear reappeared. Although the villagers had anticipated the bear's return, they were nonetheless panicked by it. One man did manage to shoot at the bear. By the time the corps of 50 guardsmen posted 300 metres (330 yd) away at the neighboring Miyoke house arrived, the bear had vanished into the woods. The corps reassembled and headed downstream on what was thought to be the bear's trail.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Sankebetsu brown bear incident

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Sankebetsu brown bear incident claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Sankebetsu brown bear incident before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Sankebetsu brown bear incident ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Sankebetsu brown bear incident

In research: Sankebetsu brown bear incident appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Sankebetsu brown bear incident in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Sankebetsu brown bear incident is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1915 in Japan, Bear attacks, Deaths due to bear attacks, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Sankebetsu brown bear incident outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Sankebetsu brown bear incident in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Sankebetsu brown bear incident means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Sankebetsu brown bear incident out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Sankebetsu brown bear incident in simple terms?

Why does Sankebetsu brown bear incident matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Sankebetsu brown bear incident?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Sankebetsu brown bear incident.