Iomante

Scene of toying with cub. Ainu kumamatsuri byōbu (アイヌ熊祭屏風) by Yoshinori Murase (Taisho era)

Iomante cub (1930 photo )

Men engaged in iomante, making offerings (1930 photo )

The nusasan (offering altar) with wood-shaving sticks erected. The skull will be placed here, and offerings such as dried salmon are arranged here. (Exhibit at the National Museum of Ethnology in Suita, Osaka)

Reconstruction of the iomante of the Sakhalin Ainu (exhibit at Upopoy, the National Ainu Museum)

Iomante (イオマンテ), sometimes written as Iyomante (イヨマンテ) is an Ainu ceremony of Hokkaido and Sakhalin in which a hand-raised brown bear cub is ceremonially killed, under the notion that the soul merely returns to its god-world (kamuy mosir). The physical body of the bear god is considered to be only his "disguise" (hopunire) and the pelt and meat harvested are accepted as gifts that the god has left in gratitude for the ceremonious hospitality it received.

The term in some circles is used in the narrow sense of this elaborate ceremony of "sending" fostered animals (hand-raised bear cubs), as opposed to more general "bear sendings (kumaokuri (熊送り)), and the simpler rite performed for the bear or other game animals taken in the wild may be referred to as opunire or hopunire.

The iomante can technically apply to other animals such as owls (e.g. Blakiston's fish owl or shima fukurō), foxes, and raccoon dogs for special rites, and the Ainu home (chise) does accommodate for setting up the nurusan (god-food or offering area) for these animals.

Nomenclature

The term iomante (also styled iyomante ) derives from i ( 'that') + oman ('go, send to mountain') + te 'make do something', a causative suffix), thus meaning "to make that go", hence "to send it".

Technically, the term can generally apply to any game or prey, such as foxes, raccoon dogs, or owls (cf. § Non-bear sending).

While John Batchelor (1901) glossed "iyomande" as "sacrifice", but he takes pains to explain this translation superficially transmits less than the meaning the Ainu has given it, noting that it is not "sacrifice to [other] gods, but an offering to the victim [, the bear] himself". The meaning of the sending (that the corporeal body is an outer "disguise" that the bear-god can shed, and the disguise which consists of meat and hide is accepted by the people as a reward from the bear god in return for the hospitality given it) is better explained below.

Often, or at least in certain areas, the term iomante is reserved strictly to the "sending" that is performed during the special ritual that involves the bear raised in captivity, while the term opunire or hopunire is used for the more informal sending ritual performed on the bear (or other animals such as owls) killed at the hunting ground. hopunire derives from hop 'buttocks' + puni 'buttocks' + hop (causative suffix), hence "to cause it to be lifted, or cause it to start off and leave".

In the modern era, iomante generally refers to the sending performed on the brown bear, the only bear native to Hokkaido where the Ainu people were all eventually driven.

Also, when sending rather trivial small creatures, the term iwakte might be use. Although iwakte normally refers to the rite of sending off the soul of broken tools or vessels, the sending of a squirrel or hare may be called an iwakte.

Practice

circa 1930

A bear cub is captured and raised in its pen or cage, until the ceremony of iomante, in which it is ritually killed. However, the "bear god" (his soul, cf. below) is merely considered to have returned to his god-world (kamuy mosir), and his carnal body being merely his outer shell (or "disguise", called hayokpe in Ainu) the pelt and meat for food that is harvested is interpreted to be a gift from the bear god in exchange for the ceremonious hospitality it receives at home or in the iomante ceremony.

It is brought to the center of the village, tied to a post with the rope. The men in the village then take shots at the cub with blunted ceremonial arrows, and eventually slaughtered. The bear is skinned, and the meat is distributed amongst the villagers. Its bare skull is dressed in flowery wood-shavings (inau-kike), placed on a pole, which is then dressed up (or sometimes wrapped in the bear's own fur). This "doll" is an object of worship for the villagers. The bear has now been "sent off".

Capture, caging, raising

As winter ends around February, a bear cub is captured from the open field, or having been born during its mother's hibernation. The mother bear is killed, and the cub is brought back to the village to be raised in captivity. In the beginning, it is raised like a human child indoors, and even breast-fed before it teethed After it is weaned and grows larger, it is moved to a cage barred with logs (also called a "pen") known as heper-set (where heper meaning "very young" refers to the cub being raised). It is treated with high-quality food as behooves a guest, practically meals fit for humans. The fostering lasts usually until it reaches 1, 2 , or up to 3 years of age.

When the bear-sending festival season arrives, it is taken out of its cage (sometimes poured sake (grain alcohol) as symbolic of farewell). Thus a specialized cord called the heper-tush{{Refn|According to a source this cord is woven from [[nettle] (Ainu: mose)}} is dangled from between the log bars, and when the loop (or three ropes) snags around the neck, and the bear is bound in tasuki fashion, then the lower logs are dislodged, so that the cub can be led out.

Festival grounds

The festival grounds are typically set up right outside a home. The coaxing of the bear cub out its cage may be conducted before the audience at the festival ground. The woman clap to rhythm raucously but melancholically, singing the 'upopo (festival song) and dancing the rimse to entertain the bear. After the bear is bound, it is made to wear a ponpake (literally "apron", and described as straw cape-like, but actually woven together into a sort of netting from wood-shavings, with decorated cloth called saranpe sewn ont it){{Refn|One source describes it in short hand as being like a straw cape (mino), but explains that in Ainu the term means apron, and details the material used, etc. The sending an owl, also involves making the bird wear a ponpake, which is similarly described (as woven from wood shavings, with beautifully patterned cloth sewn onto it). Another earlier source states the bear is given a sleeveless pretty garment to wear.}

The bear cub is brought to the open square, and tethered to a stake driven into the ground. The stake is referred to as a shutu-ni a "club-tree" The tip of the snake is decorated with inau wood-shavings.

Ceremonial arrow-shooting and slaying

Then comes the phase in the ceremony where blunted ceremonial arrows referred to as hana ya (花矢; "flower arrows") in Japanese and heper-ay are shot at the bear. These arrows have wooden hooks attached to the tip so that they may penetrate skin but only lightly. The arrowhead is dyed black and carved with intaglio patterns. Also silk-cloth (saranpe) might be tied to it. If the ceremony arrows happen to stick, it is swept off using a bamboo grass switch or broom (takusa). This portion lasts till sunset, and since both people and animal are exhausted, the bear is led back to the stake to rest. Slaughter involves crushing it to death by clasping its neck between two or more logs. This killing contraption is called rek-nunpa-ni ("manytimes-choking-tree"). Especiallyif the cub's size has become too unwieldy, an adept elder is chosen to shoot it through the heart with a real arrow. Batchelor (1901) withnessed some of the hardiest men engage in drinking the warm blood, apparently to have courange imparted on them. When the slaughter is over, someone shoots an arrow in the sky signaling the end. The girl who had been assigned to raise the bear is known to cry out in grief.

The brown bear is then butchered so the meat can eventually be served, (though the actual feasting on the meat takes place the next day, on the Poro-Ome-Kabu ("great feast").

Offering-place

On the festival grounds, the nusasan ("god-food place", "god's altar") is set up where special inau wood-shaving sticks are propped up, and laid out with nikap-umbe (ornamental mat). Various offerings from Ainu sword (emus), quiver (ikayop), sitoki (breast-ornament or necklace), armor, and sintoko (vessels, lacquerware). Also food items such as sito (dumplings made from millet or nowadays rice flour), dried fish, together with ceremonial arrows are bound together inside a rolled-up ornamental mat, so that the god can shoulder it as a take-home gift (heper-sike). Batchelor learned the name of the take-home gifts to be imoka-sike ("remembrance from the feast") and describes it as strung-up millet cakes.

The bear is laid flat, and arrows or quivers filled with dried salmon (sat-cep) is hung around the neck, and the ponpake apron is laid atop it. Alchoholic drink (traditionally millet brew) is offered in a kip (tall goblet).

Walnut-tossing

In the modern-day iomante, after the bear has been slaughtered, there occurs the event of so-called "walnut-tossing", (which from the obvious similarity to mochi-maki "mochi tossing" done at shrines), can be seen as the product of contact bewteen Ainu and Japanese cultures.

In the bear-sending performed at Fushiko, Tokachi Subprefecture, after the bear is slaughtered some men climb atop the cage and throw walnuts and chestnuts to the crowd. And during the ceremony in Suwankotan formerly of Nishibetsu, Nemuro-shichō (now part of Shibecha, Kushiro Subprefecture), after the bear is butchered, the elders throw walnuts and think cuts of dried salmon, which the people vie with each other to collect. A 1920s book also records the distributing of walnuts and mikan oranges.

A much older record survives in Murakami Shimanojō (村上島之允) (aka Hata Awakimaro (秦檍麿))'s paintingEzo-shima kikan (蝦夷島奇観; 1799/1800, "Curious views of Ezo Island") that chestnuts and kibi (millet or perhap rice cake).{{Refn|Japanese: "栗の実や粢（キビないし米の餅のこと）" (Cf. § Progress of the rite).

Overall flow after slaughter

There follows the process of trying to remove the fleshed head from the entire fur-pelt with the head part still attached. That head is then "cleaned" The skull (marat) is then taken indoors to have un-memke (decorating the skull, explained further under § Un-memke), after which the skull is moved out through the "window of gods" and affixed to a pole, which propped up in the decorated nusasan (god-offering) area. Now the hopunire (sending) of the head (marat) is considered complete, and the ceremonial part of the iomante is virtually done as well, with the carousels to follow until the third night.

Un-memke

The skull decorating or un-memke is typically performed indoors in front of the altar, but may be performed outdoors at the kamuy-nusa (the bear's nusasan) with wood-shavings or inau-kike, inaw-kike ({{nihogno|kezuri-bana|削り花|extra=lit. "shaving flower") done on it. Cavities like the eye-sockets are filled with these, and other decor is made, differing depending on the region.

It is noted that some pieces of skin or flesh may remain on the skull which will eventually decay away after it is propped up on display (cf. below), but as illustrations show, the bear's ears remain attached,Batchelor (1901), p. 495 and this is deliberately done so in some regions. Thus in the aforementioned Suwankotan hamlet, it had been customary to leave the snout portion beyond the eyes intact on the skull, until this was discontinued due to mercantile reasons of preserving the hide's fetch price. But the custom of keeping the ears intact has remained. Furthermore, a film of subcutaneous connective tissue is crafted into a torii-shaped (Π shaped) ribbon, and is then wound in shavings, to form a sike-tar ("gift rope") for carrying his takehome gifts back.

The skull is placed in front of the hearth, and here too offerings are made: necklace, shito dumplings, bows (ku), decorated sword (emus), etc. The sapanpe or ritual crown used by the elder may also be offered, and the final farewell prayer kamui-nomi is pronounced. A portion of the foodstuff such as the shito dumplings, the clouded sake (tonoto), and meshi (roughly speaking, "rice") has been set aside specifically for offerings, and separated from what people are allowed to consume.

When the decorating is done, the skull is moved out through "window of gods" or "spirit window" (kamuy puyar), and affixed securely to the yuk-sapa-o-ni (lit. "bear head mounting tree".), or keoman[t]e-ni ("pole for sending away")

The skull and pole might then get "dressed up" by having the ponpake cape/apron suspended from the head, or be made to wear a kapar-amip (embroidered dress).

Interpretations

The bear god when freshly slaughtered still has his soul (ramat) abiding (usually "between the ears"), and this must be separated and released for its passage back home to the gods dominion (kamuy mosir), and this is the purpose of the festival. The religious interpretation is that the god assumes the guise of a brown bear to visit the human world, and after receiving hospitality for a time from the humans, the humans conduct a parting farewell carousel, to send him back to the god world. The flesh and hide gained from the slaughter is considered the god's parting gift, and reward for the iomante which was the act of humans entertaining the god. As for the take-home gift for the bear god (heper-shike), this was already discussed above. The ceremonial "flower-arrows" are also part of the gift, and according to Ainu belief, when these arrows are swatted down with the takusa broom and broken into shaft and point, the soul of the arrow is separated, and becomes able to be taken to the kamui world.

There is also the interpretation that when the bear god is entertained in this way, he is encouraged to return once again (or otherwise come under its auspices ), and the Ainu people are blessed with plentiful hunting harvest.

So the gift to the bear-god is in part a bribe to induce its return (or blessing). In fact, during the iomante, the reciting of the yukar is deliberately interrupted at climactic spot, in order that the frustrated god will return to hear the rest of it.

Similar bear-sending rites are known among the hunter people of the taiga terrain of the Eurasian polar regions, such as the Nivkh people around Sakhalin.

The prefectural government of Hokkaido issued a notification signed by the governor in 1955 that declared iomante a "savage rite", that de facto banned the practiece. The notification was revoked in April2007.。

Progress of the rite

The shogunate official Murakami Shimanojō (村上島之允) pen named Hata Awakimaro (秦檍麿) painted Ezo-shima kikan (蝦夷島奇観; 1799, "Curious views of Ezo Island") annotated with inscriptions. This is perhaps the oldest documentary attestation to "iomante".

The painting has been recopied many times over by a number of artists (including the 1807 held by the Tokyo National Museum).

It contains 5 scenes relating to the bear-sending ceremony:

• Inau-making and people surrounding the caged cub (cf. Fig (1) below, Brooklyn Museum copy)
• Cub being shot with flower-arrows
• Cub being choked by logs (cf. Fig. (4) below, Hakodate Library copy of 1847)

The inscription states that chestnuts and millets (or rice cakes) were cast at the gathered Ainu crowd. and also that the bear's caretaker-woman tumbles to ground in tears.

• Arranging the bear on the altar and offering prayer (Fig. (5) British Museum copy of 1850-80).
• Banquet inviting Japanese officials

• Scenes from the Ceremony
• 
  (1) Preparations. An elder shaving the inu, the women preparing sake. On the left villagers surround the caged bear and lamenting their parting.
• 
  (2) Coaxing the caged bear out by a leash, to the ceremony grounds. The bear's keeper woman follows.
• 
  (3) Bear tied to stake, and shot with the heper-ai (the blunted "cub-arrows"). A 1914 photo.
• 
  (4) Bear choked between logs to release its soul from its body.
• 
  The bear's pelt and flesh already separated from its soul is laid out on the shrine altar, with offerings of sake, inau, prayer, etc. After this, the skull will be propped up in the nusasan area and magnificently decorated with inau.
• 
  The festivities after the iomante. The villagers regale themselves in carousal and dance. At the head seat (kamiza) nearest the altar sits the shihainin (manager) of the basho system commerce center. An Ainu-e by Hirasawa Byōzan (1875).

Non-bear sending

See also: § Reconstruction of the past

As for iomante conducted on animals other than the bear, sending of the kotan-kamuy (Blakiston's fish owl, 'guardian of the community') is held to be of importance in certain areas.

Owl-sending is also known as kamuy-hopunire. and the sending of Blakiston's fish owl (shima fukurō) in particular has been designated mosir-kor-kamuy-hopunire.

Also there is iomante conducted for the orca (Rep-un-kamuy 'god of far sea'). The brown bear, the kotan-guarding owl, and the orca which are honored with the iomante ceremony are considered to be kamuy of higher order.

Early history and origins

On the origins of iomante, scholar Takao Ikeda (2000) recently wrote a survey on the various theories by scholars.

Hitoshi Watanabe (1974) proposed the theory that iomante was introduced from the medieval Okhotsk culture (until 13th cent.). (Cf. § Okhotsk derivation theory)

Whereas Hiroshi Udagawa (1989) delivered the opinion that while the simpler forms of bear-sending is archaeologically evidenced in skulls found at 15th (or 14th) century sending sites, the "iomante in the stricter sense" (cub-fostering type) probably didn't develop until the latter half of the 18th century, so the older culture cannot be directly linked.

Ainu history professor Kazuyuki Nakamura assessed that the iomante ceremony was already established in the time before Shakushain's revolt, (1669), since an altercation developed between Shakushain and another chief Onibishi over whether the former was willing to part with one of the two bear cubs he obtained.

Early recorded instances where the Ezo people conducted an iomante type bear-sending occurred is documented in Matsumiya Kanzan's Ezo-dan hikki (蝦夷談筆記, Hōei7/1710) and Sakakura Genjirō's Hokkai zuihitsui (北海随筆, Genbun 4/1739), stating the Ainu fostered the bear by having woman suckle the cub, slaughtering within the year, and holding a banquet. However, these Edo Period Japanese writers regarded them as strictly a venal enterprise to fatten the cub to harvest its meat and gall bladder, so the sending aspect is not clearly elaborated. Perhaps the earliest explicit mention of iomane occurs in the in Hata Awakimaro's Ezo kenbunki (蝦夷見聞記; "Record of things seen and heard in Ezo", Kansei 10/1798) followed by Ezo-shima kikan (1799) already detailed above.。

An overlooked piece of evidence according to Hiroto Hirayama is the mention that iomante was being conducted by the Ainu in Kitashiretoko Peninsula, Karafuto (present day Cape Patience, Sakhalin) which occurs in the 1643 voyage logs of Maarten Gerritszoon Vries.。

Okhotsk derivation theory

See also: Tobinitai culture

Due to the lack of archaeological evidence in Satsumon culture strata (until 1200 CE) for any sending rite ceremonies among the Ainu in Japan, there has developed the view that the simpler sending (hopunire) and iomante was probably transmitted from the Okhotsk culture (of the period to 13th century), which is associated with the Nivkh people, indirectly via the Tobinitai culture. There certainly was a cultural transmission, and the change from earthenware to metalware usage marked the advent of the so-called "Ainu Culture", dated to approximately the 1450–1667 period, and while it may be possible that a field-type sending rite might have been transmitted in that time fram, iomante in the narrower sense of "cub-fostering type sending" is not evident untile the so-called "New Ainu Culture" age (from later half of 18th century), Udagawa has argued one cannot establish a direct connection, with some other explanation needed to bridge the gap.

Jōmon culture derivation theory

Another hypothesis is that the wild boar rites conducted during the Jōmon period eventually evolved into a sending rite for bears (archaeologist Takurō Segawa).

Another archaeologist, Hideji Harunari (1995) already floated the idea that pork-farming was transmitted from the Mohe people (Katsumatu) on the Asian continent, and this eventually developed in to bear-raising and bear ceremony.

Reconstruction of the past

It is believed that in the past, iomante could be performed to send back the kamui of any prey animal hunted and killed. In particular, even though the iomante has generally become associated with sending brown bears (which dwell in Hokkaido), when the Ainu still lived in parts of the Honshu mainland they could have only hunted the Asian black bear (tsukinowa guma), and that bear species must have been used .

Legality

Hokkaido encouraged local governments to abolish the Iomante in 1955, but the circular notice was abolished in April 2007, because the Ministry of the Environment of Japan announced that animal ceremonies were generally regarded as an exception of the animal rights law of Japan in October 2006.

Museum displays

Iomante videos and artifacts are on display at the Nibutani Ainu Culture Museum in Nibutani, Hokkaidō, as well as the Ainu Museum in Shiraoi-cho, Hokkaidō.

Audiovisual resources

• Hokkaido University Botanical Gardens has in its archives on the northern people a footage of bear-sending made by Hokkaido University during the pre-war period when it was called an Imperial University.
• A 1977 bear-sending in Nibutani conducted under the supervision of Kayano Shigeru was filmed by folklorist Tadayoshi Himeno under the title Iyomante kuma okuri (イヨマンテ 熊おくり).
• In January 1985, Kawakami District revived the iomante after a 29-year hiatus, whose footage was published in laser disc format unde the title Sekai minzoku ongaku taikei1: KIta/Higashi Ajia hen (世界民族音楽大系1 北・東アジア篇) (Victor Company of Japan).

See also

• Peijaiset, a bear sacrifice ritual of Finland
• Bear-sending, a looser terminology of the sacrificial/dedicatory rite
• Iyomante no yoru, a 1950 popular song composed by Yūji Koseki
• Clan of the Cave Bear, a novel about a prehistoric society centred on a similar sacrifice
• Bear worship

References

Bibliography

• Batchelor, John (1901). "Chapter XLII. Animal Cultus continua § Sacrifice". The Ainu and Their Folk-lore. London: Religious Tract Society. pp. 481ff.

• Fujimura, Hisakazu [in Japanese] (1977-02-28). "Minzoku chōsa nōto (4) Shiraoi chihō no kanshū" 民族調査ノート（４） 白老地方の慣習. 季刊　北海道史研究 (12): 89–81.

• Ikeda, Takao (2007-07-31). Kuma matsuri (shiiku wo tomonau kuma no rei okuri) no knekyū: Minzoku bunka jōhō to sono hyōgen wo meguru shomondai クマ祭り（飼育を伴うクマの霊送り）の研究－民族文化情報とその表現をめぐる諸問題－ (PDF) (Thesis). Nagoya University Graduate School of Human Information Science. hdl:2237/10326.

• Iyomante jikkō iinkai [executing committee], superv. ed. (1985). Iyomante: Kamikawa chihō no kumaokri no kiroku イヨマンテ: 上川地方の熊送りの記録. Shogakukan. ISBN 9784096803110. ndljp:12141895.

• Kindaichi, Kyōsuke (Winter 1949). "The Concepts behind the Ainu Bear Festival (Kumamatsuri)". Southwestern Journal of Anthropology. 5 (4). Translated by Yoshida, Minori: 345–350. JSTOR 3628594.

• Nakaji, Masatsune (2003), Akasaka, Norio [in Japanese]; Nakamura, Ikuo [in Japanese]; Harada, Nobuo [in Japanese] (eds.), "Iomante to yū okuri no shisō　" イオマンテという送りの思想, Kamigami no iru fūkei 神々のいる風景, Iwanami Shoten, pp. 63–88, ISBN 9784000268271

• Namikawa, Kenji (March 2008). "Honshū Ainu ni okeru iomante girei no kanōsei: Kiamei e no apurōchi to sono hōhō wo megutte" 本州アイヌにおけるイオマンテ儀礼の可能性 : 解明へのアプローチとその方法をめぐって (PDF). Bulletin of the Hokkaido University Museum 北海道大学総合博物館研究報告. 4: 133–138. hdl:2115/34690. ISSN 1348-169X.

• Sasaki, Toshikazu [in Japanese] (November 1990). "Iomante kō: Shamo ni yoru Ainu bunka rikai no kōsatsu" イオマンテ考―シャモによるアイヌ文化理解の考察. Rekishigaku kenkyū 歴史学研究 (613): 111–120. ndljp:13002819.

• Udagawa, Hiroshi (1989). Iomante no kōkogaku イオマンテの考古学 (in Japanese). Tokyo University. ISBN 9784000268271.

• Udagawa, Hiroshi (2000). "Ainu no hitotachi wa dō ikitaka: iomante wo chūshin ni" アイヌの人はどう生きたか-イオマンテを中心に-. Monagatari Nihon rettō ni ikita hitotachi ものがたり日本列島に生きた人たち (in Japanese). Vol. 1. Iwanami Shoten. pp. 239–279. ISBN 9784000265218.
• Udagawa, Hiroshi (June–September 1992). "The "Sending-Back" Rite in Ainu Culture". Japanese Journal of Religious Studies. 19 (2/3): 255–270. JSTOR 30234193.