Reconstitution of the Rite of Passage of the Ainu before the mid Nineteenth Century, based on “The Illustrated Manuscript of Manners and Customs in Ezo”, by Takeshiro Matsuura
This article aims to reconstitute the rite of passage of the
Ainu, based mainly on T. Matsuura's unpublished hand written
manuscript, which for the sake of this article, I have entitled
"The Illustrated Manuscript of Manners and Customs in Ezo",
and in part on other documents written before the mid-Nineteenth
Century.
Takeshiro's manuscript can be considered the most accurate
and detailed material illustrating the entire life cycle of the
Ainu. It contains the following the descriptions: a legend on
their progenitor, teaching of sexual intercourse, children's play
and games (and learning the art of life through them), a boy's
wearing a loincloth for the first time, a boy's wearing a formal
sapanpe for the first time to enter adulthood, tattooing (a girl's
being tatooed to prepare for marriage), the hot water trial (
judging a crime by putting one's hands into hot water), marriage
ceremony, civilities, exchange of tobacco, iyomante (a ritual to
send back the spirit of bears), treatment of disease and shamanism,
funeral rites, burning the house of the departed, and special
funeral rites for a person who died an unnatural death.
Adding upsor (women's loincloth expressing their descent)
to these descriptions, we can reconstitute the entirety of the rite
of passage as elucidated by Takeshiro.
No Japanese has paid enough attention to the concepts on
death and rebirth of the Ainu, and Takeshiro, too, did not fully
understand them. But what is deserving of special mention is
that he clearly stated that there was a social order in Ainu
society, which was in no way inferior to that of Japanese society.
The Ainu, in those days, were governed by the Japanese,
from whom they suffered discrimination and exploitation.
By trying to publish the manuscript, Takeshiro intended to
correct such a false view of the Ainu, but, unfortunately, his
ambition was not realized.
19世紀中葉以前におけるアイヌの通過儀礼 : 松浦武四郎筆画『蝦夷風俗画誌』稿本を中心に
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