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39-523: A kamuy ( Ainu : カムィ ; Japanese : カムイ , romanized :  kamui ) is a spiritual or divine being in Ainu mythology , a term denoting a supernatural entity composed of or possessing spiritual energy. The Ainu people have many myths about the kamuy , passed down through oral traditions and rituals. The stories of the kamuy were portrayed in chants and performances, which were often performed during sacred rituals. In concept, kamuy are similar to

78-572: A Hokkaido government survey on the lives of Ainu people. Participants were believed to be descendants of Ainu people or those who joined Ainu families by marriage or adoption. In response to survey questions about fluency in the Ainu language, 0.7% of participants answered that they "would be able to have a conversation" in Ainu, 3.4% answered that they "would be able to converse a little", 44.6% answered they "could barely converse at all", and 48.1% answered that they "would not be able to converse at all". In

117-452: A familiarity with Ainu oral literature that was becoming less and less common by that time. Although she had to endure bullying in school, she excelled in her studies, particularly in language arts. However, due to anti-Ainu prejudice, she suffered from an ethnic inferiority complex that afflicted many of her generation. Chiri's personal conception of cultural assimilation was complex. In one letter written during her teens, she remarked, "In

156-412: A rope around its neck. There is dancing and singing around the bear, and the bear is given food and a prayer. The men shoot the ceremonial decorated arrows at the bear, and the ritual master shoots the fatal arrow as the women cry for the bear. The bear is strangled with sticks and then taken to the altar where the people give gifts to the dead bear and pray to the kamuy again. The bear is dismembered, and

195-508: A subsequent survey of 472 respondents in 2023, these figures had shifted to 0.8%, 8.9%, 19.3%, and 69.3% respectively. The Japanese government made a decision to recognize Ainu as an indigenous language in June 2008. The Japanese government approved and passed a bill officially recognising the indigeneity of the Ainu people in 2019. On 12 July 2020, the Japanese government opened

234-479: A syllable in the stem. This will typically fall on the first syllable if that is long (has a final consonant or a diphthong), and will otherwise fall on the second syllable, though there are exceptions to this generalization. Typologically , Ainu is similar in word order (and some aspects of phonology) to Japanese . Ainu has a canonical word order of subject, object, verb , and uses postpositions rather than prepositions . Nouns can cluster to modify one another;

273-426: A twinkling the natural landscape as it had been since the ancient past has vanished; what has become of the folk who joyfully made their living in its fields and mountains? The few of us fellow kinspeople who remain simply stare wide-eyed, astonished by the state of the world as it continues to advance." Chiri was in her mid-teens when she first met Japanese linguist and Ainu language scholar Kyōsuke Kindaichi during

312-578: Is an endangered language with few native speakers. Although there are estimated to be at least 30,000 Ainu people in Japan, there is a low rate of self-identification as Ainu among people with Ainu ethnic roots. Knowledge of the language was already endangered by the 1960s and has continued to decline since. In 2011 , just 304 people within Japan were reported to understand the Ainu language to some extent. As of 2016 , Ethnologue listed Ainu as "nearly extinct" (class 8b). In 2017, 671 people participated in

351-404: Is in fact mandatory for incorporating oblique nouns. Like incorporation, applicatives have grown less common in the modern language. Ainu has a closed class of plural verbs , and some of these are suppletive . Ainu has a system of verbal affixes (shown below) which mark agreement for person and case. The specific cases that are marked differ by person, with nominative–accusative marking for

390-402: Is needed for prayers and ceremonies. She is the connection between humans and the other spirits and deities, and gives the prayers of the people to the proper spirits. The Ainu had no writing system of their own, and much of Ainu mythology was passed down as oral history in the form of kamuy yukar (deity epics), long verses traditionally recounted by singers at a gathering. The kamuy yukar

429-462: Is no longer performed in the Horobetsu tradition. The only hints of the traditional chants are in written records, including those of Yukie Chiri (1903-1922), a Horobetsu Ainu woman who wrote fragments of traditional chants that her grandmother performed. She compiled the historical chants from her aunt Imekanu in a book titled Ainu shin'yoshu . The Ainu have rituals in which they "send back"

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468-532: Is one of the most threatened elements of Ainu culture ". Announcements on some bus routes in Hokkaido can since be heard in Ainu, efforts are being undertaken to archive Ainu speech recordings by the Agency for Cultural Affairs , and there is a popular educational YouTube channel which teaches conversational Ainu. While these measures have been praised for taking steps to protect the Ainu language and culture,

507-410: Is turned back towards the village to symbolize the kamuy's return to its world. In Ainu mythology, the kamuy are believed to return home after the ritual and find their houses filled with gifts from the humans. More gifts mean more prestige and wealth in the kamuy's society, and the kamuy will gather his friends and tell them of the generosity of the humans, making the other kamuy wish to go to

546-471: The Japanese kami but this translation misses some of the nuances of the term (the missionary John Batchelor assumed that the Japanese term was of Ainu origin). The usage of the term is very extensive and contextual among the Ainu, and can refer to something regarded as especially positive as well as something regarded as especially strong. Kamuy can refer to spiritual beings, including animals, plants,

585-511: The Kuril Islands . Due to the colonization policy employed by the Japanese government, the number of Hokkaido Ainu speakers decreased through the 20th century, and it is now moribund . A very low number of elderly people still speak the language fluently, though attempts are being made to revive it. The term "Ainu" comes from the endonym of the Ainu people , aynu ( アイヌ ), meaning "people" or "human". According to UNESCO , Ainu

624-611: The National Ainu Museum in Shiraoi , Hokkaido . It forms one of three institutions named Upopoy (which means 'singing in a large group' in the Ainu language) alongside the National Ainu Park and a memorial site on high ground on the east side of Lake Poroto (ポロト湖) where Ainu services are held. Its director, Masahiro Nomoto, says that "One of our main objectives is to preserve and revive the language, as this

663-400: The altar (nusa-san) , ceremonial arrows, liquor, and gifts for the spirit in order to prepare for the ritual. Prayers are then offered to ape-kamuy , and dances, songs, and yukar are performed. The main part of the ritual is performed the next day, taking place at a ritual space by the altar outside. Prayers are offered to various kamuy , and then the bear is taken out of its cage with

702-408: The kamuy to the heavens with gifts. There are various rituals of this type, including the iomante , the bear ceremony. The rituals center around the idea of releasing the kamuy from their disguises, their hayopke , that they have put on to visit the human world in order to receive gifts from the humans. The kamuy in their hayopke choose the hunter that will hunt them, giving them the flesh of

741-406: The animal in turn. Once the hayopke is broken, the kamuy are free to return to their world with the gifts from the humans. The iomante (also spelled iyomante ) is a ritual in which the people "send-off" the guest, the bear spirit, back to its home in the heavens. A bear is raised by the ritual master's wife from a cub. When it is time for the ritual, the men create prayer sticks ( inau ) for

780-400: The earth and flew over the waters, and pounded down the earth with its feet and tail. After much work, areas of dry land appeared, seeming to float above the waters that surrounded them. Thus, the Ainu refer to the world as moshiri , meaning "floating earth". The wagtail is also a revered bird due to this legend. Once the earth was formed, the first kamuy, otherwise known as kanto-kor-kamuy ,

819-403: The end of syllables. /h/ is heard as [ ɸ ] when occurring before /u/ . /n/ is heard as [ ŋ ] when before /k/ , as well as in final position. A glottal stop [ ʔ ] is often inserted at the beginning of words, before an accented vowel, but is non-phonemic. The Ainu language also has a pitch accent system. Generally, words containing affixes have a high pitch on

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858-732: The first person singular, tripartite marking for the first person plural and indefinite (or 'fourth') person, and direct or 'neutral' marking for the second singular and plural, and third persons (i.e. the affixes do not differ by case). クイタㇰ。 Ku-itak. 1SG -speak クイタㇰ。 Ku-itak. 1SG-speak 'I spoke.' エイタㇰ。 E-itak. 2SG -speak エイタㇰ。 E-itak. 2SG-speak You (SG) spoke.' イタㇰ。 Itak. speak イタㇰ。 Itak. speak 'He spoke.' クアニ Kuani I クイタㇰ。 ku-itak. 1SG -speak クアニ クイタㇰ。 Kuani ku-itak. I 1SG-speak 'I spoke.' Yukie Chiri Yukie Chiri ( 知里 幸恵 , Chiri Yukie , June 8, 1903 – September 18, 1922)

897-406: The head brought inside. There is a feast with the bear's boiled flesh, with performances of yukar , dances, and songs. On the third and final day of the ritual, the bear's head is skinned and decorated with inau and gifts. It is then put on a y-shaped stick and turned to face the mountains in the east. This part of the ritual is to send the bear off to the mountains. After another feast, the skull

936-629: The head comes at the end. Verbs, which are inherently either transitive or intransitive, accept various derivational affixes . Ainu does not have grammatical gender . Plurals are indicated by a suffix. Classical Ainu, the language of the yukar , is polysynthetic , with incorporation of nouns and adverbs; this is greatly reduced in the modern colloquial language. Applicatives may be used in Ainu to place nouns in dative , instrumental , comitative , locative , allative , or ablative roles. Besides freestanding nouns, these roles may be assigned to incorporated nouns, and such use of applicatives

975-433: The heavenly spirit, sent other kamuy to the earth. Of these kamuy was ape-kamuy (see also kamuy huchi, ape huchi) , the fire spirit. Ape-kamuy was the most important spirit, ruling over nusa-kor-kamuy (ceremonial altar spirit), ram-nusa-kor-kamuy (low ceremonial altar spirit), hasinaw-kor-kamuy (hunting spirit), and wakka-us-kamuy (water spirit). As the most important kamuy, ape-kamuy's permission/assistance

1014-409: The human world themselves. In this way, the humans express their gratitude for the kamuy , and the kamuy will continue to bring them prosperity. Kamuy can be found in proper names, especially place names in Hokkaido, such as Kamuikotan ( 神居古潭 , literally "Village of Kamuy") or Cape Kamui ( 神威岬 , Kamui-misaki ) . Kamui ( 神威 ) is also a male proper name, and the spelling is the same as

1053-785: The museum and related government efforts have been criticised for failing to acknowledge the history of Japanese discrimination against the Ainu people, and for the government's refusal to apologise for past misdeeds against the Ainu. Ainu syllables are (C)V(C); they have an obligatory vowel, and an optional syllable onset and coda consisting of one consonant. There are few consonant clusters . There are five vowels in Ainu: Obstruents /p t ts~tʃ k/ may be voiced [b d dz~dʒ ɡ] between vowels and after nasals. /t͡s/ can be heard as [ t͡ʃ ] in free variation among speakers. Both /ti/ and /tsi/ are realized as [t͡ʃi] , and /s/ becomes [ ʃ ] before /i/ and at

1092-421: The nation's Taishō period . He was traveling around Hokkaidō in search of Ainu transmitters of oral literature, and had come to seek out Imekanu and Monashinouku . Upon meeting Chiri, who was still living with Imekanu, Kindaichi immediately recognized her potential and spoke to her about his work. When Kindaichi explained the value he saw in preserving Ainu folklore and traditions to Chiri, she decided to dedicate

1131-490: The preface and content are written entirely by her. Her book contains both Japanese translations and, invaluably, the original Ainu, in Roman script. It received great popular acclaim in the period press, creating a newfound respect for Ainu culture among Japanese readers, and remains the most important source for yukar today. Her younger brother, Chiri Mashiho , later pursued his education under Kindaichi's sponsorship and became

1170-598: The rest of her life to studying, recording, and translating yukar. Kindaichi eventually returned to Tokyo , but sent Chiri blank notebooks so she could record whatever came to mind about Ainu culture and language . She chose to record the tales her grandmother chanted, using romaji to express the Ainu sounds, and then translated the transcribed yukar into Japanese. Eventually, Kindaichi persuaded her to join him in Tokyo to assist him in his work collecting and translating yukar. However, only months after arriving in Tokyo and on

1209-565: The same events to different deities or heroes; this is primarily a result of the Ainu culture's organization into small, relatively isolated groups. Records of these poems began to be kept only in the late 19th century, by Western missionaries and Japanese ethnographers ; however, the Ainu tradition of memorizing the yukar preserved many. Though kamuy yukar is considered to be one of the oldest genres of Ainu oral performance, anthropologist Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney supposed that there are more than 20 types of genres. Originally, it seems kamuy yukar

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1248-468: The same night she completed her first yukar anthology, she suddenly died from heart failure at the age of 19. Chiri's anthology was published the following year under the title Ainu Shinyōshū (A Collection of the Ainu Epics of the gods). Although her patron Kindaichi and series editor Kunio Yanagita must have taken the late Chiri's manuscript to press, they did not put their names anywhere on it;

1287-405: The term kamuy applied as part of their names. The Ainu legend goes that at the beginning of the world, there was only water and earth mixed together in a sludge. Nothing existed except for the thunder demons in the clouds and the first self created kamuy. The first kamuy then sent down a bird spirit, moshiri-kor-kamuy, to make the world habitable. The water wagtail bird saw the swampy state of

1326-560: The turn of the century, some Ainu writers came to argue that assimilation was the only viable method of survival for Ainu communities. Chiri was sent to her aunt Imekanu in Chikabumi , on the outskirts of Asahikawa , when she was six years old, presumably to lessen the financial burden on her parents. Imekanu lived with her aged mother, Monashinouku, a seasoned teller of Ainu tales who spoke very little Japanese. Chiri thus grew to be completely bilingual in Japanese and Ainu , and had

1365-458: The weather, and even human tools. Guardian angels are called Ituren-Kamui. Kamuy are numerous; some are delineated and named, such as Kamuy Fuchi , the hearth goddess, while others are not. Kamuy often have very specific associations, for instance, there is a kamuy of the undertow . Batchelor compares the word with the Greek term daimon . Personified deities of Ainu mythology often have

1404-426: The word shin'i that means "divine power". A star located in the northern constellation of Corona Borealis (The Northern Crown) is named after it. See HD 145457 . Ainu language Until the 20th century, the Ainu languages – Hokkaido Ainu and the now-extinct Kuril Ainu and Sakhalin Ainu – were spoken throughout Hokkaido, the southern half of the island of Sakhalin and by small numbers of people in

1443-677: Was an Ainu transcriber and translator of Yukar (Ainu epic tales). Yukie Chiri was born into an Ainu family in Noboribetsu, Hokkaidō during the Meiji era . At the time, the colonial government of Hokkaido rapidly increased immigration of ethnic Japanese people to Hokkaidō, forcibly relocating many Ainu communities and depriving them of their traditional means of livelihood. The Meiji government adopted extensive policies designed to discourage or ban Ainu cultural practices while encouraging or forcing their assimilation into Japanese society. By

1482-398: Was performed solely for religious purposes by the women who took on the role of shamans . The shamans became possessed and recanted the chants, possibly explaining why kamuy yukar is performed with a first-person narrative. As time passed, kamuy yukar became less of a sacred ritual, serving as entertainment and as a way to pass down traditions and cultural stories. Today, the kamuy yukar

1521-456: Was seen as a significant form of communication between the kamuy and the humans, along with prayers and rituals. Each kamuy yukar recounts a deity's or hero's adventures, usually in the first person, and some of them are of great length, containing as many as 7,000 verses. In general, however, they are considered to be shorter in length in comparison to other types of oral genres in the Ainu culture. Some yukar contradict each other, assigning

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