The Ainu are an indigenous people of Japan and Russia who currently live almost exclusively on the island of Hokkaido, Japan. Traditionally, these people were hunters-gatherers and also fished for food. Unlike other Japanese, they did not practice rice farming. They engaged mainly in hunting animals, such as; bears, deer, sea otters and other wild animals, gathered wild plants, and fished for salmon, sea lions, whales, and swordfish until they were displaced inland by the Japanese.
The Ainu people practiced religion and centered their beliefs on the presence of spirits and the after-life. They carried out blood-sacrifices and animal rituals to guide spirits through the spiritual and living worlds. They also presented offerings of rice, swords, and sake to express thankfulness for life. Animals that were sacrificed include owls, foxes, and bears of which were considered to have the most spiritual significance. Although religious ceremonies were presided over by a community leader, the Ainu Shaman were considered more powerful as they were believed to have the power to travel the realm of the dead and bring spirits back to the world of the living. The Shaman held high status and were sought after to intercede with the spirits and to cure particular ailments (Yamada 79).
Bear Rituals
To the Ainu, bears were important animals; they provided food, fur, and bone for tool making. They hunted them, kept them as pets, and used them for exorcism ceremonies. Moreover, the Ainu believed that bears were mountain gods in disguise. As a result, bears were not only feared but also respected. Women would domesticate bear cubs and nurse them with their breast milk until they were old enough to be used for rituals. The bear sending ritual or ‘iyomante' was regarded as the most important among the Ainu rites. The ritual was conducted in the spring and was essentially a funeral ceremony for the mountain god spirit. A female bear and her cubs would be caught; the bear would be used for the sending ceremony while the cubs were raised for 1 to 2 years before they too could be sacrificed (Yamada 80).
During the ‘iyomante' ceremony, people wore their traditional regalia and engaged in a lot of drinking, feasting, and dancing. The event led the locals to believe that they had pleased the mountain god and that good fortune would be upon them. Through such rituals, people maintained respect to nature. The Ainu believed in various deities who inhabited the physical elements like the trees, mountains, animals, and lakes (Kimura 309). The most important deities were associated with fire, houses, the sun, and mountains. During the period of the sending ceremony, these gods were praised and worshiped. The Ainu traditions greatly defined how the people related not only to the world around them but also each other; this is why men, women, and children all shared in religious rites and ceremonies.
Conclusion
The bear ritual in the Ainu culture is an inference of how people in the past related to nature. People derived a way of life by observing customs and traditions that were taught to foster a better relationship between people and the uncontrollable forces of nature. Ceremonies such as the ‘iyomante' brought people together and made them believe that were sharing in a quest to safeguard the community through showing respect and gratitude to nature and gods.
Works Cited
Kimura, Takeshi. "The Beginning of a Long Journey: Maintaining and Reviving the Ancestral Religion among the Ainu in Japan." Handbook of Indigenous Religion (s) (2017): 309.
Yamada, Takako. "Bear Ceremony as an Expression of Ainu Worldview." Paleo-Asiatic Peoples (2017): 79-81.
