Ainu Religion

The Ainu are an ethnic group of related indigenous peoples native to northern Japan. The aboriginal Ainu are one of the only major ethnic minorities in the Japanese islands, with a distinct and highly unique culture and way of life. Discrimination agaist the Ainu led to lower levels of education, income, and participation in the economy in comparison to the ethnic Japanese. The Ainu are animists, believing that everything in nature has a kamuy (spirit or god) inside of it. The most important of these are Kamuy-huci, goddess of the hearth, Kim-un-kamuy, the god of bears and mountains, and Repun Kamuy, god of the sea, fishing, and marine animals. Kotan-kar-kamuy is regarded as the creator of the world in the Ainu religion. Although he stands on top of the hierarchy of gods in Ainu mythology, he is only rarely worshipped. The Ainu religion has no priests. The village chief performs religious ceremonies; libations of sake, prayer, and the offering of willow sticks with wooden shavings attached to them which are placed on an altar used to return the spirits of killed animals. Ainu ceremonies for returning the spirits of back bears are called Iyomante. Traditional Ainu believe that their spirits are immortal and will be rewarded in the hereafter by ascending to kamuy mosir, the Land of the Gods. The Ainu are part of a larger collective of indigenous people who practice arctolatry, or bear worship. The Ainu believe that the bear holds particular importance as Kim-un Kamuy's prefered method of delivering the gifts of the bear's hide and its meat to humanity. In a sending ritual called Omante, a bear cub would be captured alive and raised among the villagers as a child. When the bear reached maturity, they would hold another ritual called Iomante. Members of the village would dispatch the bear back to spirit realm by gathering around it and using special ceremonial arrows to kill it. Afterwards, they would eat the meat. In 1955 this ritual was outlawed as animal cruelty. In 2007 it was legalized because of its cultural significance to the Ainu.