During the early 1970s there were multiple reported sightings of a frightening ape-like creature that emerged from deep in the Chugoku Mountain range in western Japan, sparking angst among locals and even a police investigation.
As the story began to take hold, with dozens of sightings reported around Mt Hiba in Hiroshima Prefecture, the beast eventually came to be known as "Hibagon."
More than five decades have passed since the first sightings, but believers from around Japan have continued to search in hopes of laying eyes on the mysterious creature.
According to the local Saijo Tourism Association, the Hibagon stands about 160 centimeters tall, has a hairy body and an inverted triangular face with a head twice the size of a human's.
From ancient times, Mt Hiba has been a place of worship where myths abound related to Izanami-no-Mikoto, the goddess of birth and death in Japanese folklore.
It was here on the night of July 20, 1970, that a man in his 30s said he saw from his car an unusual two-legged creature walking down a mountain road in the Yuki district in the former town of Saijo, now incorporated into the city of Shobara, before it slowly retreated back up the trail after noticing it was being watched.
Eyewitnesses have described the unidentified figure as resembling a gorilla covered in dark brown bristles -- the Japanese equivalent of the North American Bigfoot or Himalayan Yeti.
Many people reported spotting the Hibagon over time, causing some residents to be wary of leaving their homes.
The story grabbed headlines, with an article published in the Chugoku Shimbun newspaper on Aug. 26, 1970, recounting the tales of three now-deceased local farmers who spoke about seeing the Hibagon on separate occasions.
One man who was mowing grass near his home early in the morning of July 23, three days after the first sighting, claimed to have seen a creature in a grassy area with a "human face." Another man on July 30 called out to a person whom he believed was a relative walking along a footpath to a rice field, but it turned out to be a "gorilla-type monster."
News of the sightings caused a sensation that eventually drew the attention of police, local government and researchers.
The former reporter, then Shobara bureau chief of the Chugoku Shimbun, who wrote the article, was quoted in the Hiroshima-based daily as saying, "I didn't take the first call seriously because I thought it was just a hoax, but then I got another call from someone else who gave an eyewitness account."
After meeting separately with the three eyewitnesses to hear and compare their stories, the reporter said all appeared shaken up, with one saying, "I can't live here anymore." Another complained of people accusing him of "faking" the story and not believing him.
The Saijo town office later set up a consultation center to deal with residents concerned about the Hibagon sightings. In the end, there were 29 reported encounters.
By the mid-70s, talk about the Hibagon had died down, and the consultation center was closed in June 1975. These days, the Hibagon has become a symbol of the town, and signs with its imagined likeness are everywhere.
A plaster "footprint" purported to belong to the Hibagon was kept in the chief's office of the Shobara Police Station, which is part of the Hiroshima Prefectural Police.
In 2021, when the town's tourist association introduced the footprint in a video on its website, it became a hot topic of conversation, especially among Japan's cryptid enthusiasts.
The police department states that although there is a record of having collected it on Dec. 16, 1970, and storing it, nobody knows its provenance.
As well as the Hibagon, "Tsuchinoko" serpentine monsters are rumored to exist in Nara Prefecture and local tourism authorities in that region are attempting to cash in on visitors' curiosity.
Last year, the Shobara Police Department donated the "footprint" to the tourism association, which moved it to JR Bingo-Saijo Station. The tourist association used the donation as an opportunity to start recruitment for a "Hibagon Explorers" fan club that has seen about 40 people from around Japan join.
A tour of the mountain road where the first sightings supposedly took place is planned for May. Kazuo Yamaguchi, chairman of the tourist association, said, "The Hibagon is an important presence. We would like to promote it as our strength to appeal to the charms of the northern part of the prefecture."
