Ainu Spirits Singing: The Living World of Chiri Yukie’s Ainu Shin’yoshu

338 Pages·2011·3.313 MB·English

by  Sarah M. Strong

Th e Living World of
Ainu Shin’yōshū
Chiri Yukie’s
SARAH M. STRONG
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Ainu Spirits
Singing
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Ainu Spirits
Singing
The Living World of
Chiri Yukie’s Ainu Shin’yōshū
Sarah M. Strong
University of Hawai‘i Press
Honolulu
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© 2011 University of Hawai‘i Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
16 15 14 13 12 11 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Strong, Sarah Mehlhop.
Ainu spirits singing : the living world of Chiri Yukie’s Ainu shin’yōshū / Sarah M.
Strong.
p. cm.
Includes English translation of 13 Ainu chants.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8248-3512-5 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Chiri, Yukie, 1903–1922. 2. Chiri, Yukie, 1903–1922. Ainu shin’yōshū. 3. Folk songs,
Ainu. I. Chiri, Yukie, 1903–1922. Ainu shin’yōshū. English. II. Title.
PL495.9.C45Z87 2011
894’.6—dc23
2011019339
An earlier version of the author’s translation of Chant 3 (“Chant of the Fox About
Itself: Haikunterke Haikoshitemturi”) was published as “The Most Revered of Foxes:
Knowledge of Animals and Animal Power in an Ainu Kamui Yukar,” in Asian Ethnology
68.1 (2009): 45–47.
University of Hawai‘i Press books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the
guidelines for permanence and durability of the Council on Library Resources.
Designed by Publishers’ Design and Production Services, Inc.
Printed by Edwards Brothers, Inc.
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This book is dedicated to
the “beloved ancestors” of Chiri Yukie
and to my own parents,
Evelyn Chapman Mehlhop and
Donald Leigh Mehlhop (1915–2006)
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Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xv
Chapter 1
Chiri Yukie and the Origins of the Ainu Shin’yōshū 1
Chapter 2
The Living World of the Ainu Shin’yōshū 45
Chapter 3
The Ainu Social Landscape 81
Chapter 4
Weighty Animal Spirits and Important Game Animals 105
Chapter 5
Symbolic and Ordinary Animal Spirits 139
vii
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Contents
Chapter 6
Chiri Yukie’s Ainu Shin’yōshū 193
Notes 249
Works Cited 289
Index 301
viii
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Preface
I was introduced to the life of the Ainu writer Chiri Yukie (1903–1922) and
to her collection of Ainu chants of spiritual beings, the Ainu shin’yōshū,
rather abruptly on an occasion that I remember well and in a manner that
made these topics deeply intriguing to me. Professor Andō Toshihiko, a
specialist in environmental education, had kindly agreed to give a guest
lecture to my small class of Bates College students who were completing a
semester of study in Tokyo in the fall of 1998. At the conclusion of his talk,
which focused on the history of green space use and protection in Tokyo,
Professor Andō told the students that there were two writers he wanted to
recommend because he felt that they portrayed the natural environment
of Japan most effectively and compellingly in their works.
The first name, Miyazawa Kenji (1896–1933), came as no surprise. I
was already aware of Miyazawa’s poems and stories set in the rural land-
scapes of northern Japan and informed by his Buddhist worldview, his
knowledge of early twentieth-century science, and his delightful and often
whimsical animism. The second name Professor Andō offered, however,
was entirely new to me: Chiri Yukie. Professor Andō explained briefly that
she was of Ainu descent (in other words she was a member of a group
indigenous to northern Japan and other areas of northeast Asia) and that
she had transcribed and translated some of the oral traditions of the Ainu
people. It was her collection of these oral traditions that Professor Andō
was recommending.
Our group was scheduled to leave Japan and return to the United
States in early December, not long after Professor Andō’s talk. While
aware that oral traditions represented a very different kind of literary ex-
ix
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