The Song the Owl God Sang

The Song the Owl God Sang
Author: Yukie Chiri
Publisher: Bjs Books
Total Pages: 62
Release: 2013-06-21
Genre:
ISBN: 9780992600600

Among the vanishing cultures of the world, the Ainu of north-east Asia stand out for the startling richness of their oral literature. These thirteen beautiful Ainu chants were collected by Chiri Yukie in 1922 -- the first Ainu literature to be written down by an Ainu. This book presents new English translations of Chiri's remarkable work. Originally written in "yukar" form, a type of chant used by female storytellers among the Ainu villages of Hokkaido, these stories tell of the relationship between mankind and the world of spirits. Each "yukar" is narrated by a spirit -- fox, whale, frog, or even shellfish. Most important is the owl god, Kotankor Kamui, whose two long songs describe the covenant between humans and the spirits who provide them with food. Other tales focus on the balance of nature, on the respect due between animal spirits and people, and on the strength of Okikirmui, the human hero. The Ainu oral tradition was in danger of dying in the early 20th century, when the teenaged Chiri Yukie resolved to begin writing down these chants. Descended from a line of female storytellers, she devised a way of representing Ainu language in the Roman alphabet, and made Japanese translations of the most important tales. Although she died at 19, the thirteen tales she had written down went on to become a sensation. Her clear and beautiful yet intricate and emotive Japanese translations brought Ainu culture to a wide audience in Japan and created a movement to record and preserve Ainu belief in a living state. In many ways, the idea of trying to learn from and preserve tribal wisdom goes back to Chiri's book. Chiri's work includes the best-known passages of Ainu literature: Chiri's original introduction, an elegy to the vanishing Ainu way of life, and the tale 'Silver drops fall around, golden drops fall around'. This translation tries to preserve the rich texture of Chiri's versions in English, while remaining absolutely true to the details of the original. A clear introduction to Chiri, her book, and its language is provided, giving the reader a vivid insight into this startlingly sophisticated spiritual tradition.

The Witch's Book of Power

The Witch's Book of Power
Author: Devin Hunter
Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2016-07-08
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 073874915X

"Devin Hunter's new book digs deeply into the roots of what makes a witch powerful. He doesn't gloss over the soul-searching work with simple spell "bandaids." Instead, he offers readings and exercises that empower the witch in mind, body, and soul."—Courtney Weber, author of Brigid: History, Mystery, and Magick of the Celtic Goddess Ignite the Holy Fire Within: Become the Witch You Were Meant to Be Witchcraft isn't always about the search for enlightenment; sometimes it's about power and the path to obtaining it. The Witch's Book of Power shares the secrets to unlocking the Witch Power within you, offering specific techniques for working with personal, cosmic, and ally energies to realize your full magical potential. Professional witch and psychic Devin Hunter has helped thousands of people discover their power and gain influence, and in this book he skillfully explores the concepts behind creating magic that can change your life. The Witch's Book of Power is the perfect resource for witches who intuitively feel that more power is available but seems to be just beyond reach. Praise: "You may or may not choose to follow the path that he has laid out exactly, but I'll wager that you will find something that you want to borrow into your practices. True Witches use what works and you'll find much in this book that yields results."—Ivo Dominguez, Jr., author of Spirit Speak "The Witch's Book of Power is a missing link in modern witchcraft training. Readers will find just what they need to ignite the spark of power that all witches need for an effective practice."—David Salisbury, author of The Deep Heart of Witchcraft "Devin Hunter is this generation's Headmaster of Witchcraft."—Jacki Smith, author of Coventry Magic

Ainu Spirits Singing

Ainu Spirits Singing
Author: Sarah M. Strong
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Total Pages: 338
Release: 2011-10-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 0824860128

Indigenous peoples throughout the globe are custodians of a unique, priceless, and increasingly imperiled legacy of oral lore. Among them the Ainu, a people native to northeastern Asia, stand out for the exceptional scope and richness of their oral performance traditions. Yet despite this cultural wealth, nothing has appeared in English on the subject in over thirty years. Sarah Strong’s Ainu Spirits Singing breaks this decades-long silence with a nuanced study and English translation of Chiri Yukie’s Ainu Shin’yoshu, the first written transcription of Ainu oral narratives by an ethnic Ainu. The thirteen narratives in Chiri’s collection belong to the genre known as kamui yukar, said to be the most ancient performance form in the vast Ainu repertoire. In it, animals (and sometimes plants or other natural phenomena)—all regarded as spiritual beings (kamui) within the animate Ainu world—assume the role of narrator and tell stories about themselves. The first-person speakers include imposing animals such as the revered orca, the Hokkaido wolf, and Blakiston’s fish owl, as well as the more “humble” Hokkaido brown frog, snowshoe hare, and pearl mussel. Each has its own story and own signature refrain. Strong provides readers with an intimate and perceptive view of this extraordinary text. Along with critical contextual information about traditional Ainu society and its cultural assumptions, she brings forward pertinent information on the geography and natural history of the coastal southwestern Hokkaido region where the stories were originally performed. The result is a rich fusion of knowledge that allows the reader to feel at home within the animistic frame of reference of the narratives. Strong’s study also offers the first extended biography of Chiri Yukie (1903-1922) in English. The story of her life, and her untimely death at age nineteen, makes clear the harsh consequences for Chiri and her fellow Ainu of the Japanese colonization of Hokkaido and the Meiji and Taisho governments’ policies of assimilation. Chiri’s receipt of the narratives in the Horobetsu dialect from her grandmother and aunt (both traditional performers) and the fact that no native speakers of that dialect survive today make her work all the more significant. The book concludes with a full, integral translation of the text.

Harukor

Harukor
Author: Katsuichi Honda
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 364
Release: 2000-04-12
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780520210202

A memoir of Ainu life over five hundred years ago, before Japanese invasions nearly killed off this indigenous society. No written records remain, other than Japanese observations, but the author has relied on surviving oral accounts and extensive study of anthropological and archeological discoveries to construct a representative woman's life story.

Ainu

Ainu
Author: William W. Fitzhugh
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Total Pages: 424
Release: 1999
Genre: History
ISBN:

"Some 55 scholars, mostly Japanese but with a considerable number from the US and Europe, write about the ethnicity, theories of origin, history, economies, art, religious beliefs, mythology, and other aspects of the culture of the Ainu, the indigenous people of Japan, now principally found in Hokkaido and smaller far northern islands. Hundreds of photographs and paintings, mostly in excellent quality color, show a wide variety of Ainu people, as well as clothing, jewelry, and various artifacts."--"Choice". "The most in-depth treatise available on Ainu prehistory, material culture, and ethnohistory." - "Library Journal".--Amazon.com (2001 ed, book description).

Who Sang the First Song?

Who Sang the First Song?
Author: Ellie Holcomb
Publisher: B&H Kids
Total Pages: 24
Release: 2018-10-04
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 1462794459

Have you ever wondered who hummed the first tune? Was it the flowers? The waves or the moon? Dove Award-winning recording artist Ellie Holcomb answers with a lovely lyrical tale, one that reveals that God our Maker sang the first song, and He created us all with a song to sing. Go to bhkids.com to find this book's Parent Connection, an easy tool to help moms and dads (or anyone else who loves kids) discuss the book's message with their child. We're all about connecting parents and kids to each other and to God's Word.

Border-Crossing Japanese Literature

Border-Crossing Japanese Literature
Author: Akiko Uchiyama
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 251
Release: 2023-07-21
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1000917932

This collection focuses on metaphorical as well as temporal and physical border-crossing in writing from and about Japan. With a strong consciousness of gender and socio-historic contexts, contributors to the book adopt an intercultural and interdisciplinary approach to examine the writing of authors whose works break free from the confines of hegemonic Japanese literary endeavour. By demonstrating how the texts analysed step outside the space of ‘Japan’, they accordingly foreground the volatility of textual expression related to that space. The authors discussed include Takahashi Mutsuo and Nagai Kafū, both of whom take literary inspiration from geographical sites outside Japan. Several chapters examine the work of exemplary border-crossing poet, novelist and essayist, Itō Hiromi. There are discussions of the work of Tawada Yōko whose ability to publish in German and Japanese marks her also as a representative writer of border-crossing texts. Two chapters address works by Murakami Haruki who, although clearly affiliating with western cultural form, is rarely discussed in specific border-crossing terms. The chapter on Ainu narratives invokes topics such as translation, indigeneity and myth, while an analysis of Japanese prisoner-of-war narratives notes the language and border-crossing nexus. A vital collection for scholars and students of Japanese literature.

More Stories by Japanese Women Writers: An Anthology

More Stories by Japanese Women Writers: An Anthology
Author: Kyoko Siden
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2014-12-18
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 1317464362

This anthology introduces sixteen modern Japanese women writers spanning a century in time and a wide range of life circumstances and literary styles. No other collection offers usch a diversity of women's voices

Pacific Literatures as World Literature

Pacific Literatures as World Literature
Author: Hsinya Huang
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 410
Release: 2023-05-04
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1501389335

Pacific Literatures as World Literature is a conjuration of trans-Pacific poets and writers whose work enacts forces of “becoming oceanic” and suggests a different mode of understanding, viewing, and belonging to the world. The Pacific, past and present, remains uneasily amenable to territorial demarcations of national or marine sovereignty. At the same time, as a planetary element necessary to sustaining life and well-being, the Pacific could become the means to envisioning ecological solidarity, if compellingly framed in terms that elicit consent and inspire an imagination of co-belonging and care. The Pacific can signify a bioregional site of coalitional promise as much as a danger zone of antagonistic peril. With ground-breaking writings from authors based in North America, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Hawaii, and Guam and new modes of research – including multispecies ethnography and practice, ecopoetics, and indigenous cosmopolitics – authors explore the socio-political significance of the Pacific and contribute to the development of a collective effort of comparative Pacific studies covering a refreshingly broad, ethnographically grounded range of research themes. This volume aims to decenter continental/land poetics as such via long-standing transnational Pacific ties, re-worlding Pacific literature as world literature.