Ainu bear sacrifice - Japanese scroll painting, circa 1870.
The Ainu people are the indigenous population of Japan (particularly the northern parts) alongside some regions in Siberia (most of them in Russia). They have been subjected to genocidal persecution by the immigrant Yamato people (the ancestors of modern Japanese and Korean people) which today have been reduced to a rare minority, similar to the many indigenous American tribes in the USA and Canada by the European colonial settlers.
Today most Ainu people live in reservations though a few have integrated into modern society. Being the first people to populate the Japanese islands, all the Ainu have an older religious and mythological belief which is based on shamanism, animism, toteism and nature worship.
Ainu Mythology provides examples of:
- Creation Myth: 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 inhabitable. The water wagtail bird saw the swampy state of 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.
- Just So Stories: Several Ainu myths are explanations for why animals behave the way they do, or why the world works certain ways. For example, the Sun and Moon used to have their roles swapped, but the Sun, being a woman, was embarrassed by all the things men and women did at night, so she begged to trade places with the moon, who was a man and didn't mind as much. The Moon agreed, but now the Sun has to put up with all the young people sneaking off and frolicking in the grass.
- Nature Spirit: In concept, kamuy are similar to 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, 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 the term kamuy applied as part of their names.
- Offerings to the Gods: The Ainu have rituals in which they "send back" 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 the animal in turn. Once the hayopke is broken, the kamuy are free to return to their world with the gifts from the humans.
- Top God: Kotan-kar-kamuy (lit. "world-making-god") is the supreme creator deity. According to missionary John Batchelor, all kamuy are intermediaries responsible to Kotan-kar-kamuy in the Ainu religion, who is regarded as the almighty and eternal ruler of the universe. This led to assumptions that the Ainu faith had originally been monotheistic. Although he stands on top of the hierarchy of gods in Ainu mythology he is only rarely worshipped.
