Hokkaido: The Creation Myth
Today I picked up a little book in the Uryu Middle School library called 「アイヌのむかし話」, or Folktales of the Ainu, by Yotsuji Ichiro. For anybody who didn't know (it isn't exactly common knowledge), the Ainu were and still are the native tribes of Hokkaido, and they've been around since before colonization by the Japanese. The book is fascinating and at the perfect reading level to challenge me a bit while still allowing me to read for pleasure--I only have to look up one or two difficult words a sentence. Since it's interesting me so much, and since so few non-Japanese know anything about the Ainu, I thought I'd translate the first brief chapter here for you guys.
Part 1 - 神がみがつくった国 / A Country Made By The Gods
Chapter 1 - Gods and Men
The Highest of All the Gods looked upon the ruddy-blistered earth, grassless and treeless. "Somehow, I should like to make an earth of beautiful greenery," he said, and thought and thought.
The God called upon Kotankara Kamui, the Land-Building God, and commanded him to build a beautiful earth.
Kotankara Kamui took one finger and with it sank rivers into the earth, dug out the valleys and made the lakes, heaped up stones to make the mountains, and made a beautiful land, the sort in which humans could live.
Presently, the gods in heaven heard about the beautiful earth, and they all proposed to go down and have a look, and the Highest of All the Gods was troubled by which of them would best be the very first messenger, and thought and thought.
The Highest of All the Gods chose as the first messenger the kind-hearted and beautiful goddess Chikisani, the Spring Elm Lady, and commanded her to go down to the earth and create a marvelous country.
Chikisani at once sank a great root into the earth, and became a marvelous tree, and in the times when humans lived there she became the most precious harunire (fire-making tree).
Then she brought up many beautiful flowering trees and all the other trees.
That beautiful country became a land unlike anything in Kamui-Moshiri, the Land of the Gods, and the gods came from Kamui-Moshiri in the guises of human beings to sport in that world; which the long-ago Ainu still remembered.
To that northernmost island of Japan that the gods made (present-day Hokkaido), the tribes called the Emishi (Shrimp Barbarians or Hairy Ones)* crossed the ocean, and settled down to dwell there.
The Emishi were the ancestors of the present-day Ainu tribes, one thousand and five or six hundred years before modern times.
Soon, this northern island became known as Koshinoshima, Koshinowatarijima, or Watarijima ("Leapt-over Island", "Crossing Leap Island", or "Crossing Island"), and the people who lived here were called the Ezo.**
Then, around the end of the Heian Era and the beginning of the Kamakura Era, the island's name was changed from "Crossing Island" and became called Ezochi or Ezogashima ("Land of the Ezo" or "Island of the Ezo").
The Ezo kept eking out a living on that cold northern island, and when the Wajin (colonial Japanese) made the crossing to the island, they made contact with them and became disgusted with hearing themselves called, "Ezo, Ezo," all the time.***
Soon, around the beginning of the Meiji Era, they became known by a name of their own, Ainu ("the People").
The Ainu believed that this magnificently beautiful northern island was created by the gods above especially for them, and they called it Ainu-Moshiri (Land of the Ainu) and continued to dwell there.
And this Ainu land called "Ezogashima" was, on August 15th of the 20th year of the Meiji Era****, renamed Hokkaido.
_
Translator's notes:
*Obviously this was a name given to them by the "civilized" mainland Wajin, not themselves.
**An alternate pronunciation of Emishi.
***If you're wondering why, see the definitions of the term "Emishi" above.
**** 1888 A.D. The Meiji Era was a period of major social reform and progressive thought. Hokkaido (北海道) is a rather pretty and much more PC name meaning, "Northern Ocean Way".
Edit (5-7-08): According to various sources, many Ainu people are trying to change their name again, this time to "Utari" (comrades/friends), because of the pejorative pronunciation of "Ainu" among some racist Japanese as, "A! Inu!" ("Oh! A dog!") And the ongoing cycle of battle between racists and PCers marches on...
Part 1 - 神がみがつくった国 / A Country Made By The Gods
Chapter 1 - Gods and Men
The Highest of All the Gods looked upon the ruddy-blistered earth, grassless and treeless. "Somehow, I should like to make an earth of beautiful greenery," he said, and thought and thought.
The God called upon Kotankara Kamui, the Land-Building God, and commanded him to build a beautiful earth.
Kotankara Kamui took one finger and with it sank rivers into the earth, dug out the valleys and made the lakes, heaped up stones to make the mountains, and made a beautiful land, the sort in which humans could live.
Presently, the gods in heaven heard about the beautiful earth, and they all proposed to go down and have a look, and the Highest of All the Gods was troubled by which of them would best be the very first messenger, and thought and thought.
The Highest of All the Gods chose as the first messenger the kind-hearted and beautiful goddess Chikisani, the Spring Elm Lady, and commanded her to go down to the earth and create a marvelous country.
Chikisani at once sank a great root into the earth, and became a marvelous tree, and in the times when humans lived there she became the most precious harunire (fire-making tree).
Then she brought up many beautiful flowering trees and all the other trees.
That beautiful country became a land unlike anything in Kamui-Moshiri, the Land of the Gods, and the gods came from Kamui-Moshiri in the guises of human beings to sport in that world; which the long-ago Ainu still remembered.
To that northernmost island of Japan that the gods made (present-day Hokkaido), the tribes called the Emishi (Shrimp Barbarians or Hairy Ones)* crossed the ocean, and settled down to dwell there.
The Emishi were the ancestors of the present-day Ainu tribes, one thousand and five or six hundred years before modern times.
Soon, this northern island became known as Koshinoshima, Koshinowatarijima, or Watarijima ("Leapt-over Island", "Crossing Leap Island", or "Crossing Island"), and the people who lived here were called the Ezo.**
Then, around the end of the Heian Era and the beginning of the Kamakura Era, the island's name was changed from "Crossing Island" and became called Ezochi or Ezogashima ("Land of the Ezo" or "Island of the Ezo").
The Ezo kept eking out a living on that cold northern island, and when the Wajin (colonial Japanese) made the crossing to the island, they made contact with them and became disgusted with hearing themselves called, "Ezo, Ezo," all the time.***
Soon, around the beginning of the Meiji Era, they became known by a name of their own, Ainu ("the People").
The Ainu believed that this magnificently beautiful northern island was created by the gods above especially for them, and they called it Ainu-Moshiri (Land of the Ainu) and continued to dwell there.
And this Ainu land called "Ezogashima" was, on August 15th of the 20th year of the Meiji Era****, renamed Hokkaido.
_
Translator's notes:
*Obviously this was a name given to them by the "civilized" mainland Wajin, not themselves.
**An alternate pronunciation of Emishi.
***If you're wondering why, see the definitions of the term "Emishi" above.
**** 1888 A.D. The Meiji Era was a period of major social reform and progressive thought. Hokkaido (北海道) is a rather pretty and much more PC name meaning, "Northern Ocean Way".
Edit (5-7-08): According to various sources, many Ainu people are trying to change their name again, this time to "Utari" (comrades/friends), because of the pejorative pronunciation of "Ainu" among some racist Japanese as, "A! Inu!" ("Oh! A dog!") And the ongoing cycle of battle between racists and PCers marches on...