Ainu stories and their tellers

Literature & Publishing

Yukar: voices and transmitted stories

Ainu narrative poetry transmitted through performance, often voiced as a protagonist’s own experiences, with regional differences in names and forms.

Literature & Publishing↗

Belief & Thought

Kamuy: visits, prayer and reciprocal gifts

In Ainu traditions, kamuy are beings with an important role or powerful influence in human life, including fire, water and animals such as bears. Prayers, offerings and spirit-sending ceremonies sustain relationships with them.

Belief & Thought↗

Related history

Upopoy: A Museum in the First Person

How a national institution assembles a public account of Ainu life from words, family knowledge, and decisions about what can be shared.

HO History↗

Nibutani: What It Takes to Keep Making

Barkcloth, carved trays, and the transmission of Ainu knowledge beside a transformed river.

HO History↗