Tōkina-to

The quiet human villages

the beautiful, peaceful villages

The seas

and the rivers

are full of fish

the fields are green and ripe

          The people are smiling

          happy every day

          protected by my Elder Brother

Tōkina-to

My Elder Brother

is the Owl God

who watches over the human villages

I, his Little Sister,

am a girl god

          To the human eye

          we are Owls

But

the true form of a god

is the exact likeness of a human

Like the human people

we too live happily together

Tōkina-to

One day

my Brother goes out to the mountains

and I stay at home alone

I’m doing needlework with some lovely thread

that’s what I do

Oh,

something is coming

towards the house

I wonder what it might be…

Not human, I think

Not a fox either, I think.

A horrible smell is coming

Tōkina-to

BA-BAM

Suddenly

the door opens

          a nightdark Wibbly-Wobbly Man

          comes into the house

          I’m all alone

          HELP! ELDER BROTHER!

The Wibbly-Wobbly Man

carries me away to the sea

makes me board a boat

Then

the boat travels

far, far on the ocean

Tōkina-to

Many nights

many days

far, far away

the boat travels on

          Here

          A sea of birds’ feathers

          fuwa fuwa, hira hira, moku moku

          fluffy, fluttery, fleecy

          Above and below

          left and right

          blanketed white with white feathers

fuwa fuwa, hira hira, moku moku

fluffy, fluttery, fleecy

Oh dear,

I can’t see anything at all

Tōkina-to

Many nights

many days

far, far away

the boat travels on

          Here is an ocean of bamboo

          SPLOSH!

          Water drumming down.

          When the huge bamboo branches bend and bounce

          a rush of water storms down

Over there

and over here

SPLOSH!

Water drumming down.

Lightening strikes and thunder crashes

rumble rumble rumble BANG

Tōkina-to

Many nights

many days

further and further away

the boat travels on

          This is the cloud gate.

          All the world’s clouds

          leave from here

          in the morning

          all the world’s clouds

          return here

          in the night

Our world

ends here.

If we go past this point

we can’t go back home

I’m shivering, shaking, shivering

Tōkina-to

Elder Brother! Elder Brother!

Aah, aah

my tears are falling

drip-drop, drip-drop

          Beyond these clouds

          the world of demons

          no more living creatures

          Goodbye, my dear fish

          bears

          deer

          Goodbye, goodbye

Aah, aah

Drip-drop, drip-drop

Even my Elder Brother’s enormous eyes

cannot see

beyond this point

Tōkina-to

And here we are

the beginning of the world of demons

          the Wibbly-Wobbly Man

          hoists me up

          climbs a tall, tall mountain

and monsters appear

one after the other

          bata bata,

          flip-flaps the bird monster

kero kero

croaks the frog monster

          Oh dear,

          mud-clump monsters live here

yura yura,

sways the snake monster

          Oh dear                 

          one-eyed monsters live here too

Tōkina-to

We go

into a pitch-black cave

Red eyes are glowing

are they a monster’s eyes?

golden eyes are glinting too

I can also see

a mouth

with a slimy tongue

slithering out

Oh I’m scared!

So very

scared

I might stop breathing

Tōkina-to

In the end

we’ve arrived at a huge room

with the flames in the fire pit

pachi pachi,

crackling in the pitch dark

          Apart from that

          I can’t see anything at all

          The Wibbly-Wobbly Man

          puts me down

          next to the fire pit

wavering and worn out

I collapse

and with a si-i-igh

I faint.

Tōkina-to

Oh!

What’s that noise?

UH-WOH-OH-OH

BAHAA BAHAA

a Demon as big as a mountain

is laughing

          one of its eyes

          is an eye as round as the moon

          the other eye

          is a tiny, tiny eye

The Demon’s face is very strange.

The Wibbly-Wobbly Man

greets it,

          “Great Demon King,

          as you commanded

          I have brought you

          the beautiful Maiden”

Tōkina-to

I’m captive to the Demon King

a number of days have passed

RUMBLE RUMBLE RRRRRIP

          Oh!

          Someone’s come to help me!

          A white mist arises

          and I am lifted up

A stern, noble voice rings out

 “Demon King!

You have done such a foolish thing —

for this I will throw you down into the underworld!”

          In an instant

          the Demon King and the cave and the mountain

          scatter into pieces

          and fall down into the underworld

shudder judder CRASH SMASH   

          rattle RAT-A-TAT

                      crumble

Tōkina-to

Swooosh

A puff of wind from the white mist

blows me up

onto a cloud in the sky

and then the cloud, in one leap

sends me home

to my familiar village

          Look!

          I can see that white mist

          up in the sky

          the golden sword scabbard

          glistens

That must be—yes,

the half-god

half-human

youthful hero,

Ainu-rak-kur!

Tōkina-to

I drink in the sight of

my village

my beautiful village.

          My dear friends, the rabbits

          the deer

          the wildcats

          are delighted to see me

          “Welcome back!” they say. “We’re so pleased.”

I can hear the voice

of Ainu-rak-kur

          “Listen well.

          Your Elder Brother

          was worried every minute.

          Go straight back home

          and be sure to tell him

          exactly what happened.”

Tōkina-to

Elder Brother

worried and worried so

he had become sick

          Po-ro-ro po-ro-ro

          my tears plinked down

          and I told Elder Brother

          everything that had happened

Elder Brother

soon became well again

he said to me,

          “Any God I asked for help

          could not help

          so, Little Sister,

          I asked for help

          from our young relative

          Ainu-rak-kur.

          Let us offer him a feast in thanks”

Tōkina-to

The preparations for the feast begin

Thump thump thump

the mallet pounds the rice into dough

we shape the dough into lots of balls

we prepare plenty of saké to drink

Everyone is busy getting ready

Elder Brother, it seems

is keeping an important secret

I ask again and again but he won’t tell

Tōkina-to

On the day of the thank-you feast

Elder Brother

says to Ainu-rak-kur

          “This is a joyous turn of fate

          Will you take Little Sister’s hand

          in marriage?”

Ainu-rak-kur,

sparkling

approaches me with a smile

          What a dazzling hero!

          What a fine person!

          This was Elder Brother’s secret.

Elder Brother also gifts me

a beautiful necklace

Without delay

the two of us

sit before Elder Brother

Elder Brother holds inau*, the symbol of the gods,

and prays

          “May you be a happy husband and wife.”

Tōkina-to

The two of us

began to enjoy our lives together

in Ainu-rak-kur’s

castle in the mountains

The half-god

half-human

youthful hero

Ainu-rak-kur

and myself,

the Owl God’s Little Sister

live happily together

very young and well

very cheerful

to this day.

*Inau is a sacred item, said to have the gods residing within. Many are beautifully decorative, made with a piece of willow with fine strips of the wood shaven and curled into ribbons at one end.

Text: Tsushima Yūko

Original accompanied by needlework illustrations: Ukaji Shizue

Layout: Sugiura Kōhei

Fukuinkan Shoten Publishers, 2008

A Note on the Text by the Author 

Ainu epic chants are a form of oral literature, and include types such as kamui yukar (mythic epics), in which the gods narrate their own experiences, and yukar (heroic epics), in which young, great superheroes vanquish one villain after the other. These superheroes appear under many different names, and Ainu-rak-kur who features in this version is one example.

Both forms of Ainu epic chants are recited to a rhythm, but kamui yukar always repeat a sakehe (refrain), such as the phrase “Tōkina-to” in this story. Unfortunately, the meaning of “Tōkina-to” is not known, but examples of refrains from other stories include, for instance, an imitation of the fox’s call in a story narrated by the Fox God, or a reproduction of the sound of thunder in a story of the Thunder God, and phrases depicting the gods’ appearances also occur. The sakehe is unique to each story. There are so many — we may say countless — kamui yukar, but these unique refrains make it possible to distinguish each one. For that reason, conventionally these stories are named after the sakehe, much in the style of a story title. In kamui yukar, the sakehe would be chanted to keep the rhythm, as in this story: “Tōkina-to / The quiet human villages / the beautiful, peaceful villages”.

Kamui yukar encompass the feeling of the gods being present in every part of the natural world that humans encounter in their daily lives as well as the desire for humans to coexist with these gods. When on earth, these gods may take the form of animals, birds, plants, water, or air, but when in the heavens they are seen to take the same form as humans and live as they do. As such, within this worldview, if a human hunts this body in its earthly form, and offers the correct prayers to send its spirit to the heavens, then a new body will be brought back to the earth for people. Conversely, if the gods are angered by prayers being incorrectly offered, they will no longer come to the earth for humans.

The narrator of this story is a shimafukurō - Blakiston’s Fish Owl: a huge type of owl with a wingspan of up to two metres (about 6.5 feet), found only in Hokkaido. These owls have been revered by the Ainu people as the gods who protect the villages, but in recent years their habitats have dramatically reduced and it is feared they will become extinct.

The story here is based on the kamui yukar listed as Myth 59, told by Hiraga Etenoa (Date of recording: 2 September, 1932, Place of recording: Shinpiraka Village, Saru District, Hidaka Province) in Kubodera Itsuhiko’s Ainu Epic Chants: A Study of Kamui Yukar and Oina (Ainu jojishi: Shin’yō, seiden no kenkyū published by Iwanami Shoten, 1977). However, in order to write in the style of a picture book for children, I have purposefully condensed parts and made the language more easily understandable; for this I beg your understanding.