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Kenas-unarpe

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Kenas-unarpe (ケナㇱウナㇻペ) is an Ainu wen kamuy (evil god).

She is described as a being a mountain hag with matted hair, or a monstrous bird. An origin myth says that she was born from the creator god's failed fire making tool, another version says she spawned from the god's used and discarded axes that rotted into mire.

She is also described as using bears (or other animals turned bear) as minions for her misdeeds, including the killing of livestock or humans, and she is a trickster especially to the hunter. Sometimes she is accused of blood-sucking as well.

Nomenclature

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She is called Kenas-unarpe ("aunt of the woodland plain"[1] or "aunt of the swampy bush"[2]) and called Kenas-kor-unarpe[a] in the Saru District or Horobetsu [ja] region in former Iburi Province (present-day Noboribetsu).[3][4] She is otherwise know as Nitat-unarpe ("aunt of the swamps" or "marshes"[6]).[1][b][7][8] She is called iwa met e-yep[?][10] ("montain demon") in the Teshio District.[3]

Mythology

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Appearance

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The kenas-unarpe according to the folklore of Saru District or Horobetsu, has disheveled hair "as if wearing a half-woven saranip (Japanese: kodashi, a sort of woven bag)".[11] which is a cliché stock phrase,.[4][12] She is a monstrous woman,[12] compared to the yama-uba or "mountain hag".[13] She uses sorcery to use animals as minions or familiars, making them shapeshift, even to attack humans (e.g., turns a squirrel into a bear cub. Cf. the narrative of the § Bear cub in captivity).[14] She is said to be a she-monster dwelling inside hollows of trees or willow plains by the river shore, and people were cautioned never to camp out at such places.[3]

Her hair hangs over her face, so it is not easy to tell apart which is the front or the back of her.[7] In one story, a kenas-urupe appears with her hair hanging over the front her hide her face, and weds a man in an Ainu village, but eventually leaves with her children.[16] Another source says that her black face has neither eyes nor a mouth, but only a thumb-like nose.[8]

As bird monster

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According to some lore, the kenas-unarpe is a monster-bird resembling a type of a horned owl called ahunrasampe by the Ainu, according to Mashiho Chiri[17] and also according to him this particular bird species is the short-eared owl (Asio flammeus).[18] But another view is that the deity is a "scops owl".[19][c]

The kenas-unarpe, one informant tells, is an evil bird that tricks people.[20] (Cf. § Trickster and vampire below).

As Ainu expert Hisakazu Fujimura [ja] explains, an Ainu deity when assuming its natural animalistic form, whether this be the mountain bear god or the avian kenas-unarpe, is less a threat of humans, but when they shed their usual "armor" (hayokpe）) and assume human form, they are often ready to do more sinister harm on humans.[21]

Trickster and vampire

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According to a god-song or yukar, when people are trying to bring down a bear cub captured alive down from the mountain, she will strike the bear with her "evil god arrow" (wen-kamui ai) which will deteriorate the quality of the bear's fur [23]

According to Neil Gordon Munro she[b] sometimes takes on the appearance of Hasinaw-uk-kamuy, the goddess of the hunt, in order to deceive hunters: just as the hunter thought he had struck his prey with his arrow, it will disappear or escape unscathed. Her likeness to Hasinaw-uk-kamuy is not perfect, however, and she conceals her face with her long hair.[27][d]

She is also known as a blood-sucking vampire, who partakes of blood from injured people or from hunters sleeping in the wilderness.[27]

Kenas-unarpe's association with blood makes her important in childbearing. She is sometimes invoked during a difficult childbirth, in a sly way, using a type of liturgy called shi-upashkuma itak ("true-lore talk"), that is to say, presumably invoking an evil god under the auspices of a good good. The evil deity was supposedly bribed with a "swig of blood" into carrying out the impure ritual.[24][25]

Origin myth

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One etiological myth relates that when the creator god Kotan-kar-kamuy attempted to invent fire making, he first tried using poplar or Populus suaveolens (Ainu: yai-ni)[e] which didn't work and the tools turned into evil deities: the poplar "pestle" (fire drill) became kenas-urupe while the "mortar" base became mosir-sinnaysam [ja] (Cf. Kotan-kar-kamuy for furhter details).[17][28][29]

Whereas according to John Batchelor, Nitat-unarpe and "mother swamp" are said to have emerged from the mire left decomposing 60 axe tools that the supreme God had made for creating the earth.[31] They and their offspring subjugated bears used to attack horses and even humans. They also caused illnesses and epileptic attacks.[33]

Folktales

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Nibutani

Bear cub in captivity

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A tale from Nibutani settlement, Saru District. A man caught a bear cub separated from its mother and was raising it in a barred cage. One night when he peeked a look, he saw a messy-haired kenas-unarpe woman in front of the cage, and the cub had turned into a bald-headed boy. The boy was dancing to the beat of her hand-clapping. The village elder decided to rid of these demons, by first having six special inau (ritual poles with wood-shaving decor done on them) and placing them in strategic positions. Then, he commenced a mock bear-sending ceremony (iomante), choosing exactly the wrong direction to properly conduct it, then dragged out the bear with a chastity belt and clubbed it, whereby the beast turned into a dead squirrel (that is to say, kenas-unarpe can transform one creature into another [4]). The moral is never to pick up a strayed cub just because an easy opportunity presents.[3]

In a similar tale, the Nitat-unarpe transforms her own son into a bear cub and releases it, and a beguiled rich mam (nispa) takes the cub in and raises it in a barred cage, but it turned out to be such a glutton, the man was nearly bankrupt. As the bear-sending ceremony season approached, the dogs making rancor drew the man to take a peak, and he saw the woman outside the cage dancing the set kari upopo meant for the iomante ceremony, and she had her son also dancing in red clothing. They were actually doing the dance for a sort of reverse iomante sending, that is to say killing the people of the household instead. Again, there is a moral, not to readily take every windfall as a gift from god.[35]

Daughter of the rich man upstream

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In the tale recited by Steno Orita [ja] (recorded 1981) entitled Kawakami no chōja no monogatari (川上の長者の娘の物語; "Daughter of the rich man upstream"),[f] the girl named in the title has spiritual powers, so the father sends her on a dangerous task to investigate and help out the rich man mid-stream, whose younger son has been trying to marry many times only to have the bride killed straightaway. The girl gains even greater skill of awareness by praying to the fire goddess, so that when the demonic culprit loses patience and decides to kill the younger son and carry him off, the girl forces the poisoned wine cup away. She then asks the fire goddess to capture the evil goddess, namely, "the woodland plain's weird-woman" (kenas-unarpe) who had fallen in love with the groom. The groom recovers thanks to prayers and medicine, and as the girl was about to leave, she was asked to stay and become the wife.[37][36] As in this tale, evil deities whose identity has been unmasked suddenly lose their magical powers.[38]

Origin of nightjar or scops owl

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Batchelor (1901) records a story that relates the origins of the nightjar (or "goat-sucker", which perhaps should be emended to "scops owl", as explained below). A mother leaves the child in a cradle, placed dangling in a tree in the garden, and the Nitat-unarpe[40] steals the child away. The villagers all resigned to the probability that some wild animal must have taken it. But the child appears in the dreams of all of them, relating what actually happened. He had managed to slip away and returned to the garden, crying hapo totto, huci totto meaning "give me milk, granny, mommy", but went unheeded, as it was mistaken for some wild creature's cry. And the "swamp hag" returned and recaptured him, this time turning him into a bird, whose cry ever became the same milk-begging exclamation.[41][42]

Batchelor gives the Ainu name of the bird as tokitto and insists this is a nightjar ("goat sucker")[43] called Caprimulgus by the Romans,[44] apparently to draw a parallel between the Ainu milk-begging boy-bird story and the ancient Roman lore that nightjars suckled on goats. However, Japanese commentators disagree and gloss tokitto as the scops owl, whose Japanese name is konohazuku, but which also has the nickname Buppōsō (仏法僧; "Buddhist-law monk") which its screeching is supposed to sound like.[45][46]

There is yet another version where an old woman loses track of her granddaughter when they go hunting together for Cardiocrinum cordatum lily bulbs (Japanese: ubayuri), and the girl is abducted by the "weird-hag of the forest", and transformed into the scops owl that screeched like a child begging for milk (Kushiro or Tokachi).[45] Still another version has a grandmother go gathering wild grapes in the mountain with her grandchild who gets lost and dies. A god sympathized and transformed the child into a tokitto (scops owl).[47]

See also

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Explanatory notes

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  1. ^ Japanese: ケナシコルウナルペ.
  2. ^ a b Munro styles the evil goddess "Kenash (or Nitat) Unarabe".
  3. ^ Irimoto (1988), p. 137 also writes that the evil deity is a konohazuku (Oriental scops owl). However, this particular species is known in Japan for the peculiar screeching and figures in the Ainu tale below, cf. § Origin of nightjar or scops owl.
  4. ^ Irimoto in Japanese actually cites this material frmo Munro ms.(Munro's Ainu Material (Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland) rather than the printed Munro (1963) edition.[26]
  5. ^ The Ainu name means "just ordinary tree"; the Japanese name doro no ki means "mud tree".
  6. ^ The Ainu title is I-petpeni nispa kor matnepo but in actuality, the reciter gave two tales (uwepeker) under the same title, version U1 involving fishery, and this present version U2.[36]

References

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Citations

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  1. ^ a b Kimi Kimura (reciter) (1986), "Kimun ainu no musuko no hanashi" キムンアイヌの息子の話, Katari no naka no seikatsusi 語りの中の生活誌, translated by Nakagawa, Hiroshi [in Japanese], Commentary as dialogue by Hiroshi Nakagawa and Hisakazu Fujimura, Ainu muke bunka denshō hozonkai, p. 48
  2. ^ Yamada, Takakao (2001). The World View of the Ainu: Nature and Cosmos Reading from Language. Kegan Paul. p. 59. ISBN 9780710307323.
  3. ^ a b c d e Chiri, Mashio ed. tr. (1981) [1961]. "Ezo obake retsuden" えぞおばけ列伝. Ainu mintan shū アイヌ民譚集. Iwanmi Bunko. Iwanami Shoten. pp. 212–215. ISBN 978-4-00-320811-3;「えぞおばけ列伝」@Aozora bunko
  4. ^ a b c Ishii (2011), p. 175.
  5. ^ Batchelor (1901), p. 41.
  6. ^ Styled "Nital unarabe" by Batchelor who glosses the term thus.[5]
  7. ^ a b Kato, Megumi (December 1989). "Tokubetsu kikaku Kenbetsu Nihon yōkai jiten" 特別企画 県別・日本妖怪事典. Rekishi tokuhon (in Japanese). 34 (24/cumul. 515). Kadokawa: 311. ndljp:7975468. ニタッウナラベ：女の姿をした妖怪で、髪が長い。顔の方にも垂れているので、前後がわからない。ケナシウナラペともいう
  8. ^ a b Murakami, Kenji (2000). "Kenashiuranape" ケナシウナラペ. Yōkai jiten 妖怪事典. Mainichi Shimbunsha. p. 153. ISBN 978-4-620-31428-0.
  9. ^ 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. p. 130. ISBN 9784096803110. ndljp:12141895.
  10. ^ Japanese: イワメテイェプ. In Ainu apparently iwa "mountain", iwa "deep mountain", and eyep, ayep "said to be". Possibly a portion is missing. The bear god is sometimes called met so e-horari a kamuy (メトトソエホラリアカムィ), composed with so "seat, place to be", so "seat, place to be", e-horari "lives in", a "was there".[9]
  11. ^ Chiri's note (30)
  12. ^ a b Tanigawa, Ken'ichi [in Japanese], ed. (1988). "Kenas-kor-unarpe" ケナシコルウナルペ. Yōkai 妖怪. San-ichi Publishing . p. 397. doi:10.11501/13255025.
  13. ^ Ishii (2011), p. 175 citing Takashima (2003).
  14. ^ Ishii (2011), p. 175 citing Chiri (1973c) = Ezo obake retsuden.[3]
  15. ^ Kawakami, Matsuko (recorded August 1976) "uwepeker minwa 3 ウウェペケㇾ 民話 3", AA-ken Archive
  16. ^ Ishii (2011), p. 179, example K9.[15]
  17. ^ a b Chiri, Mashiho (1936), "Bunrui Ainu go jiten" 分類アイヌ語辞典, Jōmin bunka kenkyū (68): 364–365
  18. ^ Chiri (1972) apud Yamada (2001), p. 154
  19. ^ Yamada (2001), p. 54
  20. ^ "[(I. Chitose-hen)] 10. Shizen genshō" 【Ⅰ.千歳編】10 自然現象 (PDF), Heisei 5-nendo Ainu minzoku bunkazai chōsa hōkokusho 平成5年度 アイヌ民俗文化財調査報告書, Hokkaido Education Committee, 1993, p. 67 Reciter: Nabe Shirosawa 白沢ナベ (snippet@google)
  21. ^ Nakagawa & Fujimura annot. (1986), p. 47.
  22. ^ Kubodera, Itsuhiko [in Japanese] (February 1977b). "Kamui −yukar　13　Peurep　kamui　isoitak". Ainu jojishi shinyō seiden no kenkyū アイヌ叙事詩神謡・聖伝の研究. Iwanami Shoten. pp. 110–115. doi:10.11501/12572431. ndljp:12572431.
  23. ^ "Peurep　kamui　isoitak (The epic of a bear kid kamui)".[22] apud Irimoto (1988), p. 137 and note 18).
  24. ^ a b Munro, Neil Gordon (2013) [1962]. "X. Various Rites". Ainu Creed & Cult. Routledge. pp. 113–114. ISBN 9781136165351. Also 1979 edition, "kenash" pp. 113 – "shi%20-%20upashkuma%20itak" p. 114
  25. ^ a b Ashkenazi, Michael (2003). "Kenash Unarabe (Ainu)". Ainu Creed & Cult. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. p. 197. ISBN 9781576074688.
  26. ^ a b c Irimoto (1988), p. 137.
  27. ^ a b Munro (1979)[24] also seconded by Ashkenazi[25] and Irimoto and Japanese.[26] both citing Munro.
  28. ^ Kubodera, Itsuhiko [in Japanese] (20 January 1977a). Ainu no bungaku アイヌの文学. Iwanami shinsho ao-ban 989. Iwanami Shoten. pp. 58–59. ndljp:12572430.
  29. ^ "Dai-8shō. Sanbun no monogatari" 第8章 散文の物語, Tokyo Gakugei Daigaku kenkyū hōkoku 東京学芸大学研究報告, vol. 7 besssatsu: bungaku, Tokyo Gakugei University, March 1956, p. 52, ndljp:11208599/1/32
  30. ^ Batchelor (1901), p. 44.
  31. ^ Bachelor (1901),[30] also paraphrased by Irimoto (in Japanese).[26]
  32. ^ Batchelor (1901), pp. 41, 44.
  33. ^ Batchelor (1901)[32] also paraphrased in Japanese by Irimoto (1988), p. 137
  34. ^ Nakagawa & Fujimura annot. (1986), p. 50.
  35. ^ Shitaku, Yae [ja], prose narrative or tuitak. apud Fujimura.[34]
  36. ^ a b Yoshinari, Naoki [in Japanese], ed. (2007). Koe to katachi no ainu ryūkyūshi 声とかたちのアイヌ・琉球史. Shinawasha. pp. 16–17. ISBN 9784916087775.
  37. ^ Orita, Steno [ja] (recited 1981) "Kawakami no chōja no musume no monogatari uwepeker 川上の長者の娘の物語 : ウエペケレ, Ainu go Ainu bunka kenkyūkai seika hōkoku, 1 アイヌ語アイヌ文化研究会成果報告, 1 , 198_. Reprinted in Katari no naka no seikatsushi 語りの中の生活誌 (1986),p. 112
  38. ^ Ishii (2011), pp. 176–177.
  39. ^ a b c Inada, Kōji [in Japanese]; Ozawa, Toshio [in Japanese], eds. (1989). "Yotaka to kodomo―Chichi motome (gendai: tokitto―konohazuku)" 夜鷹と子供―乳求め(原題・トキット―このはずく). Nihon mukashibanashi tsūgan: Hokkaido (Ainu minzoku) 日本昔話通観: 北海道(アイヌ民族). Dōhōsha. p. 959. ISBN 9784810406177.
  40. ^ Batchelor (1901), p. 184: "nitat un[a]rabe, i. e. 'the aunt of the swamps'" Japanese commentary is given by Inada and Ozawa (1989) which glosses the name as "grandmother of the swamp".[39]
  41. ^ Batchelor (1901), pp. 184–187.
  42. ^ Batchelor (1925), Ainu to sono setsuwa (Japanese translation), Fūkido, parphrased in Nihon mukashibanashi tsūgan.[39]
  43. ^ Batchelor (1901), p. 187.
  44. ^ Batchelor (1901), pp. 182–183.
  45. ^ a b Sarashina, Genzō [in Japanese] (1982). "妖婆"+"このはずく" Ainu no minzoku アイヌの民俗. Vol. 4. Miyama shobō. p. 85.
  46. ^ Nakagawa, Hiroshi [in Japanese], ed. (1995). "トキット" tokitto. Ainugo Chitose hōgen jiten アイヌ語千歳方言辞典 (2 ed.). Sōfūdō. p. 285. ISBN 9784883230778.
  47. ^ Kuzuno, Tatsujirō 葛野辰次郎 (1983) Kami no katari 神の語り, p .1. apud Nihon mukashibanashi tsūgan.[39]

Bibliography

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  • Takashima, Yōko (2003-10-31). "Kenshiunarup―Ainu no yamauba" ケナシウナルペ―アイヌの山姥. Hikaku bunka kenkyū 比較文化研究 [Studies in comparative culture] (61): 45–53.
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