Ainu Folk Tales - Part One

The Story of the Bear God Who Wanted to Hear the Yukar

I was a bear god.

In the land of gods I looked like a human though.

In the land of the gods I lived a happy, comfortable life.

Nothing much was happening and I was getting bored. So one day I felt like taking a walk.

I took on the shape of a bear. I slowly descended a steep mountain.

As I was approaching human realm, a beautiful girl suddenly appeared on the forest path. She said to me,

"Bear God, Bear God! My family's Fire-god asked me to come and fetch you."

I saw that it was Princess Matsuyani. I brushed her hand away and went on my way, when another girl, just as beautiful, appeared and beckoned me over. It was Princess Torikabuto. She was perfumed in the most noble of fragrances, unlike anything I had ever sniffed before.

As I walked, brushing away the outstretched hands of both princesses, I suddenly noticed that pine resin got stuck to my feet. Princess Torikabuto's fragrance was overwhelming too. I felt a sweet kind of pain in my chest, and fell asleep in a blissful state.

A while later I awoke to find my large body stretched out and dead.

I had been shot in the chest with an arrow laced with aconite and pine resin. Now the soul of the bear god was sitting between my ears.

In the Ainu home, the gods of the house, including the fire god, welcomed me with repeated worship.

I was respectfully skinned, and that evening, many Ainu people gathered and joined the feast, gorging on my cooked flesh and drinking sake.

The people started telling me a yukar, their village epic. The story was about a bear who met a young woman in the forest. But just as it got interesting, the Ainu said,

"We'll tell you the rest when you visit us again."

Since then I have returned to the land of the gods.

I am aching to visit the Ainu village once more, to hear the rest of the Yukar.

 

*

I picked up the above story¹, itself a literary form of yukar, at the Bear Zoo in Hokkaido’s south-western region of Noboribetsu. In Ainu folklore, the bear god Kim-un-kamuy is viewed as the sacred sprit of the mountains. Bears who visit the human world are wearing a physical coat of fur. Iyomante is the sacred ritual where a young bear raised with love is ceremonially sent back to the spirit realm laden with gifts, gratitude, and traditional dances.

The story of the bear god is a traditional oral epic (kamuy yukar), reflecting the Ainu deep spiritual worldview where animals are divine visitors (kamuy) in human or animal form. Unlike human heroic tales, a kamuy yukar is typically sung in the first person ("I") from the viewpoint of a deity — such as the bear god or other animal spirits — describing their own lives, thoughts, and journeys to the human realm.

These tales relate to the bond between humans and nature, showing how animals willingly visit the human world (Ainu Mosir) as guests, leaving behind their fur and meat as gifts, while humans offer prayers, wine, and ritual willow sticks (inau) to send their spirits back respectfully. Traditionally performed by village elders and master bards (frequently women in the late 19th and early 20th centuries), these epic songs preserved the spiritual ethics, and were in tune with their natural environs. 

 

 ¹ Initially translated to English from Japanese (itself a translation from Ainu) by an AI app. I rewrote the story with a heavy dose of ‘poetic accuracy’.