Revival of Salmon Resources and Restoration of a Traditional Ritual of the Ainu, the Indigenous People of Japan

Type:

Book Chapter

Author:

Yōsuke Kosaka

Published:

2018

Publisher:

ANU Press

How Ainu people have traditionally regarded salmonAmong the Ainu gods' tales compiled and translated into Japanese by the young Ainu woman, Yukie Chiri, two stories out of 13 were on the theme of salmon.Yukie died at the age of 19 in 1922; however, her work has been well-known in Japan through her beautiful poetic translations, such as the following: 'Silver droplets falling, falling all around, golden droplets falling, falling all around' (Chiri 1978: 11).One of the tales about salmon begins with a scene in which, 'A vicious man changed a clear stream into poisonous water by setting up walnut tree trunks in the river' (Chiri 1978: 135).As a result, the salmon could not come back to the headwaters.Having discovered such a malicious act, a son of Okikirmuy, a personal god of the Ainu, fights against the spiteful man and finally defeats him in order to recover the clean water and salmon.This tale, I think, reminds us how important it is to protect the river environment for the salmon.

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