Religion:Kotan-kar-kamuy

From HandWiki

Kotan-kar-kamuy (コタンカㇻカムイ, lit. 'village-making-deity')[1][2] is the creator deity of the Ainu people. He should not be confused with god of the land Kotan-kor-kamuy,[3] or the god of the sky Kandakoro Kamuy.

According to missionary John Batchelor, all kamuy are intermediaries responsible to Kotan-kar-kamuy in the Ainu religion, who is regarded as the almighty and eternal ruler of the universe.[4] This led to assumptions that the Ainu faith had originally been monotheistic.[3] Although he stands on top of the hierarchy of gods in Ainu mythology he is only rarely worshipped.[3] Therefore, Norbert Richard Adami criticises the monotheism theory, and holds that Batchelor's views leading into this direction resulted from a straitened and sometimes misinterpreted mode of perception based on his faith, through which they would lose in value.[5]

One etiological myth explains the spawning of two bad deities and two good, when Kotan-kar-kamuy tried to invent fire making to make a gift of it to mankind. When he first tried using a poplar (Populus suaveolens, Ainu: yai-ni)[lower-alpha 1] the attempt failed and the poplar "pestle" (fire drill) became kenas-unarpe (the evil "marsh aunt") while the "mortar" base became mosir-sinnaysam [ja; ja; モシリシンナイサム] ("monster of the land"). Then he switched to using an elm (Ulmus davidiana var. japonica, Ainu: cikisani)[lower-alpha 2], and was successful. From the white shavings appeared the huntress goddess Hasinaw-uk-kamuy, and from the black shavings appeared the Mountain God (the bear, or kimun).[6][7][8]

Explanatory notes

  1. ↑ The Ainu name means "just ordinary tree"; the Japanese name doro no ki means "mud tree".
  2. ↑ Japanese name of this elm tree is harunire.

References

  1. ↑ アイヌ民族博物館. "アイヌと自然デジタル図鑑" (in ja). https://ainugo.nam.go.jp/siror/dictionary/detail_sp.php?book_id=P0144. 
  2. ↑ 公益財団法人 アイヌ民族文化財団. "単語リスト（アイヌ語・日本語） -静内-" (in ja). https://www.ff-ainu.or.jp/teach/files/shizunai_tango.pdf. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Dettmer, Hans A. (1994). "Die Mythologie der Ainu". in Haussig, H.W. (in de). Götter und Mythen in Ostasien. Wörterbuch der Mythologie. Band VI. Klett-Cotta. pp. 199–200. ISBN 9783129098608. https://books.google.com/books?id=Q4BQ0YmlPKIC&pg=PA199. 
  4. ↑ John Batchelor: The Ainu and Their Folk-Lore, London 1901, p. 35, p. 575–585.
  5. ↑ Norbert Richard Adami: Religion und Schaminismus der Ainu auf Sachalin (Karafuto), Bonn 1989, p. 40-41.
  6. ↑ Chiri, Mashiho (1936), "Bunrui Ainu go jiten", Jōmin bunka kenkyū (68): 364–365, https://books.google.com/books?id=gpYkAAAAMAAJ&q=kenas+unarpe 
  7. ↑ Kubodera, Itsuhiko (20 January 1977a). Ainu no bungaku. Iwanami shinsho ao-ban 989. Iwanami Shoten. pp. 58–59. Template:NDLDC. https://books.google.com/books?id=eENNAAAAMAAJ&q=白楊. 
  8. ↑ "Dai-8shō. Sanbun no monogatari", Tokyo Gakugei Daigaku kenkyū hōkoku, 7 besssatsu: bungaku, Tokyo Gakugei University, March 1956, p. 52, Template:NDLDC 




Retrieved from "https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Religion:Kotan-kar-kamuy&oldid=4011320"