Reviewed by Roberta Louis. Reprinted from Shaman's Drum, Number 64.
In Harukor: An Ainu Woman’s Tale, distinguished Japanese author and journalist Honda Katsuichi sets out to introduce to contemporary readers the society and culture of the Hokkaido Ainu—the indigenous people of Hokkaido, Japan—as they were several hundred years ago, before the traditional Ainu lifestyle was virtually destroyed by centuries of subjugation by the mainland Japanese. In this pursuit, Katsuichi faces a challenge: the Ainu people had no written language, and there is no documentary record of their culture dating from that time period. He therefore draws his source material from the rich legacy of Ainu oral traditions, songs, and epics that have survived into the present day, supplemented with information acquired directly from living Ainu elders, as well as material from anthropological and archaeological research conducted by Ainu and non-Ainu scholars.
To present his information, Katsuichi borrows the form of the uwepeker, a type of Ainu oral literature that relates in prose a first-person narrative of human events, and tells the story of a woman named Harukor. Although Ha
rukor is a fictional character—or, more accurately, an ethnographic reconstruction—her experiences are based on a large body of oral history and tradition, as well as scholarly research, and thus are plausible for an Ainu woman living in that time period. Moreover, use of the uwepeker form enables Katsuichi to express his character’s reactions to and feelings about those experiences, thus providing readers with additional levels of insight into traditional Ainu culture.Before beginning Harukor’s story, Katsuichi offers background information on the Ainu in a section called “Ainu Moshir” (“Land of the People,” the traditional Ainu name for their homeland—here specifically relating to Hokkaido, the northernmost island of the Japanese archipelago). This section includes historical and cultural information on the Ainu, and some basic information on their cosmology and myths. As in many indigenous cultures worldwide, the Ainu had a close relationship with and great respect for the natural world, and their lifestyle and ritual activities honored both patriarchal divinities and deities of nature. This section includes a summary recorded in 1858 of one creation myth chanted as a night-long yukar (an epic utilizing melodic rhymed verse) by an eighty-three-year-old elder, and a retelling of a legend about Okikurmi, the divine founder of the Ainu. Also notable in this section is a factual account about Aoki Aiko, a midwife and diviner who lived from 1914 to 1995, and who provided some of the source material drawn upon in Harukor’s story. This account relates, among other things, how Aiko gained her midwifery skills, how she received in the palm of her hand a special ability known as tekeinu from her dying aunt through a ritual to pass down ancestral deities, and how she acquired the gifts of tusu (divination) and clairvoyance, relatively rare in the twentieth century, which she used thereafter to help her people.
Part II, the main section of the book, titled “Harukor” after the protagonist, presents the story of a young Ainu girl who grows into womanhood in eastern Hokkaido several hundred years ago. The tale imparts much information about daily life and a good sense of Ainu cultural and spiritual beliefs, and it describes some significant events in Harukor’s life. These landmark events include the day she and her sister were given their first tattoos (Ainu women traditionally wore dark tattoos around the mouth, and on the hands and arms); the events surrounding her engagement and marriage; the birth of her first child; and the death and funeral of her beloved grandmother.
Harukor’s story includes many incidents that deal with shamanistic and ceremonial themes. A long passage within the story describes the events surrounding an owl iyomante (“spirit-sending” festival). The iyomante was a major Ainu ceremony performed for the bear and the giant striped owl, in which the spirit of the animal, which had been sacrificed, was honored and then sent back to the spiritual world. Katsuichi’s description of the iyomante includes a partial telling of a beautiful and dramatic yukar that might have been sung at such an event. Another episode dealing with shamanistic themes involves an incident in which a tusukur (clairvoyant) rescues her village from an impending attack by a group of bandits. Near the end of Harukor’s story, there are some interesting passages in which a male character receives the power of divination and subsequently conducts a tusu ritual that results in an ominous prophesy, after which offerings are made to the fire god and the guardian deity of the home.
In telling Harukor’s story, Katsuichi uses the form of the uwepeker as a vehicle for presenting other types of Ainu oral tradition. As Harukor repeats songs, stories, and epics she has heard, the reader is introduced to such traditional forms as the yukar, the kamui yukar (a short form of yukar about plant or animal deities, characterized by the use of refrain and set melody), and the “Pananpe-Penanpe” stories of two brothers, which traditionally were told to young children. It should be noted that the songs and stories embedded within Harukor’s tale are based on or excerpted from traditional Ainu oral literature. These embedded stories and passages not only provide a glimpse into the great poetry and beauty of Ainu oral traditions but also serve to expose readers further to the shamanistic concepts that underlie the Ainu belief system.
The third, and by far the shortest, section of the book is titled “Pasekur.” It is a story about Harukor’s son Pasekur, told in the traditional form of the upashkuma (historically based legend). Near the end of Harukor’s story, Pasekur had set out on a long journey as a kind of rite of passage. Now, he endures hardships, survives to start a family of his own, and eventually encounters an omen that foreshadows the Ainu uprising against mainland Japanese encroachment. As Katsuichi informs us, this section is intended as a link between this book, which deals with the “legendary age” of the Ainu, and the first of several planned sequels about the Ainu in the historical period, beginning with the so-called Koshamain War (1456-57).
We learn in the foreword, by David L. Howell, that Katsuichi’s goal in writing this book was more than simply to document Ainu history and culture; it was also to begin to educate the Japanese people regarding the injustices historically perpetuated against the Ainu. While the Japanese state never engaged in systematic physical violence toward the Ainu, it colonized their homeland, appropriating their land, denying them access to the natural resources necessary to sustain their traditional lifestyle, and subjecting them to an aggressive policy of ethnic negation. Howell comments that Katsuichi presents an “unabashedly partisan” portrayal of Ainu history and an idealized version of Ainu culture. Nonetheless, Howell offers a defense of Katsuichi’s approach, which is intended to undermine the prejudices that some of his Japanese readers may hold, and to force them to face their complicity in the government’s policies toward the Ainu. Now that this book has been translated into English, thanks to the work of Kyoko Selden, Katsuichi’s message can reach an even larger audience.
The book includes approximately one hundred black-and-white photographs and drawings, including portraits of historical and more contemporary Ainu, photographs of Aoki Aiko performing healing and ritual, and illustrations of a wide variety of household, ritual, and other cultural objects.
There are also frequent and very informative notes scattered throughout the book; many of these give helpful explanations regarding Ainu words and concepts, while others note the source of the material being presented. As these notes are presented on the page bottoms, rather than in a list at the end of the volume, they are very easy for general readers to access. In addition, Katsuichi provides a glossary of Ainu terms and notable individuals, and a bibliography of English-language books about the Ainu for those who want to do further research.
This book serves as an accessible and well-written introduction to the Ainu culture, despite having been translated from Japanese—and, in some parts, from Ainu to Japanese and then to English. Harukor’s story is both touching and illuminating, although this reviewer felt it lacked some of the emotional nuances and immediacy present in many actual autobiographical narratives by indigenous people of various cultures. The embedded stories and examples of Ainu oral literature provide a glimpse of the beauty of the traditional forms, and they may serve to deepen readers’ understanding of the culture. This book should appeal not only to those readers with an interest in Asian shamanism but also to those wishing to expand their cross-cultural knowledge of shamanic cultures in general.
History tells us that Ainu culture was not static in form but exhibited great flexibility in adapting to changing situations. Although repression and exploitation have all but destroyed the traditional lifestyle of the Ainu, their culture is still very much alive today. It is hoped that this book will be of help to the contemporary Ainu in their efforts to preserve and perpetuate it.
Roberta Louis is the associate editor of Shaman’s Drum.
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