The course and the branching patterns of the external carotid artery were investigated macroscopically in a total of 550 bodies or 1100 head sides of Japanese subjects, donated for student dissection at Kumamoto University from 1994 to 2014. With the exception of 14 head sides, the external carotid arteries running between the posterior belly of the digastric and stylohyoid muscles were found in 42 (3.87 %) out of 1086 head sides. Strictly speaking, they passed between the stylohyoid muscle and the stylohyoid branch of the facial nerve in 23 out of these 42 head sides. In the remaining 19 instances, the stylohyoid branch of the facial nerve was cut and its relationship to the external carotid artery was not clear. The external carotid artery running lateral to the intact stylohyoid branch of the facial nerve, medial to the digastric muscle was not found. The external carotid arteries running lateral to the digastric muscle were found in 4 (0.37 %) out of 1086 head sides. As a result, it is proposed that plural, potential courses of the external carotid artery originally exist and that some parts of such potential courses remain as branches of the external carotid artery in the usual instance, while the anomalous courses of the external carotid artery are induced mainly by anastomosis between the muscular branches supplying the wall of the head and neck in contrast to the usual external carotid artery induced mainly by the branches originally supplying the pharynx.