Poroto-kotan Ainu Museum

Seino-san picked me up promptly at 12:30 and we drove to Shiraoi where he treated me to a delicious Japanese lunch. We then headed to the Poroto-kotan Ainu Museum. There I got to see and read about the various implements used by Ainu in hunting, daily life, ritual, etc. After seeing the main museum exhibits, I went into the replica Ainu house also on the museum grounds. The style and construction of Ainu houses has both practical and spiritual bases, so most details of the home, including window and hearth placement, were pre-determined. For example, the east-window of the house was the Window of the Gods, and was used to pass food into the house (to venerate the spirit of the killed beast and thank it for giving its flesh to the Ainu) and to offer food to the Gods outside of the home.

The hearth, facing east toward the Window of the Gods

At the museum, I also had the pleasure of seeing a traditional Ainu performance and listening to a lengthy explanation about the structure of the traditional Ainu village (kotan) and home. The performance included songs and the dance performed at when sending a Bear’s spirit back to the world of the Gods after receiving its body in the hunt. I have seen the Ainu language transcribed in romanji many times, but this was my first time hearing it in its original spoken form. I was deeply moved by how beautiful the language sounds, something that you cannot judge from seeing it put into print. I have a new-found appreciation for the kamui yukar (chanted legends) that I am researching, because I now have a sense not only of their meaning (from the translated texts that I have been studying) but also of their aural impact upon delivery.