One of the non-Japanese ethnic groups living in Japan, the Ainu, have a language and culture quite separate from that of the other inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago. Although the Ainu have been able to maintain their way of life until the present, their culture is now facing severe pressures from mainstream modern Japanese society and likely will not retain its unique qualities much longer. Most Ainu live on the northernmost of the four major Japanese islands, Hakkaido. Finding Ainu who speak only Ainu is difficult; virtually all the remaining Ainu speak Japanese, and for many it is the only language they know. The Ainu are still a distinct group, however, and many of them keep alive the customs that mark them as Ainu rather than Japanese.
One of the most distinctive features of Ainu society is the abundance of story. The Ainu have a long tradition of prose and verse narratives, both sacred and secular. It is perhaps most suggestive of the true nature of these stories to say that in them there exists no real distinction between the affairs of men and those of the animistic world that is both apart from them and everywhere surrounding them. Ainu see kamui--superior creatures of varying strength and rank--in everything, and their stories reflect that feeling.
One Ainu story concerns a small pot (nabe) and the kamui, or god, that is its essence. The woman who owns the pot always cleans it right after use; therefore, the kamui feels refreshed and has plenty of free time to practice his dancing for the Bear Festival. As the story illustrates, the traditional Ainu felt that the kamui were honored by attention paid to them. The reverse was true as well: Gods ignored by the people could become dangerous and, since most of the gods were not clearly visible all the time, care must be taken in observing proper behavior.
Kamui and humans live in nearly interchangeable worlds. The beings in these worlds--the kamui, men, and animals (especially bears)--have similar goals and life-styles, and have correspondingly similar motifs in stories. One cycle of stories concerns Okikurumi, the father of the Ainu, the progenitor of the people. One of these origin myths describes the birth of Okikurumi as an interaction between man and kamui.
A man and a woman lived in the very remote past. The man
died, and the woman later gave birth to a child. Others
asked her who the father of the child was, and she answered
by telling the story that one night after the death of her
husband she had a dream in which someone with the shape of
a man, but dressed in black garments--a sign that the shape
is really a kamui--spoke to her, saying that he had
something to say and that she was to listen very carefully.
"I am not a man, though I come to you in that form. I am
the god of the mountain and therefore a bear. Your husband
is dead," he said, "and you are left alone. I have noticed
this and have come to inform you that I have given you
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