For the folks with wolf questions, though the setting is Europe Medieval and wolves were common - there's a lot of connection to the Shinto and pre-Christian tales of the wolf and connection to the spiritual/agricultural beliefs. Lifted liberally from Wiki for those too lazy to click
Quote:
The term "Japanese Wolf" (狼 or オオカミ, Ōkami?) refers to two extinct subspecies of the Gray Wolf. The subspecies that the name 'Japanese Wolf' usually describes is the Honshū Wolf (Canis lupus hodophilax (日本狼 or ニホンオオカミ, Nihon Ōkami?)), which occupied the islands of Honshū, Shikoku, and Kyūshū in Japan. The other is the Hokkaido Wolf. The Honshū Wolf is thought to have become extinct due to a combination of rabies, which was first reported in Kyūshū and Shikoku in 1732, and human eradication. The last known specimen died in 1905, in Nara Prefecture.
The gray wolf (Canis lupus), also known as the timber wolf or wolf, is a mammal of the order Carnivora. The gray wolf is the largest wild member of the Canidae family and an ice age survivor originating during the Late Pleistocene around 300,000 years ago.[2] Its shoulder height ranging from 0.6 to 0.9 meters (26–36 inches) and its weight varying between 32 and 68 kilograms (70–150 pounds).
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There are no pictures of the japanese wolves ... but if you look at a Grey Wolf you've got the idea.
Interesting resources on the Japanese view of the Wolf:
http://www.wolfsongalaska.org/Wolves_Japan_on_extct.htm
http://books.google.com/books?id=iDq...f4n4J4#PPA3,M1
http://www.heartofthewolf.org/WolfGames.htm (Okami, a PS2 game specifically about the Shinto connection to Amaterasu).
http://www.wolf.ties.k12.mn.us/Previ...nal/Japan.html