Iomante

The term (also styled iyomante ) derives from ( 'that') + ('go, send to mountain') + ('make do something', a causative suffix), thus meaning "to make that go", hence "to send it". Technically, the term can generally apply to any game or prey, such as foxes, raccoon dogs, or owls (cf. ). While John Batchelor (1901) glossed "iyomande" as "sacrifice", he takes pains to explain this translation superficially transmits less than the meaning the Ainu has given it, noting that it is not "sacrifice to [other] gods, but an offering to the victim [the bear] himself". The meaning of the sending (that the corporeal body is an outer "disguise" that the bear-god can shed, and the disguise which consists of meat and hide is accepted by the people as a reward from the bear god in return for the hospitality given it) is better explained below. Often, or at least in certain areas, the term iomante is reserved strictly to the "sending" that is performed during the special ritual that involves the bear raised in captivity, while the term or is used for the more informal sending ritual performed on the bear (or other animals such as owls) killed at the hunting ground. The term breaks down into 'buttocks' + 'to lift something' + (causative suffix); hence it means "to cause it to be lifted, or cause it to start off and leave". In the modern era, iomante generally refers to the sending performed on the brown bear, the only bear native to Hokkaido where the Ainu people were all eventually driven. Also, when sending rather trivial small creatures, the term might be use. Although iwakte normally refers to the rite of sending off the soul of broken tools or vessels, the sending of a squirrel or hare may be called an iwakte. ==Practice==

A bear cub is captured and raised in its pen or cage, until the ceremony of iomante, in which it is ritually killed. However, the "bear god" (his soul, cf. below) is merely considered to have returned to his god-world (), After it is weaned and grows larger, it is moved to a cage barred with logs (also called a "pen") known as (where heper meaning "very young" refers to the cub being raised). It is treated with high-quality food as behooves a guest, practically meals fit for humans. Slaughter involves crushing it to death by clasping its neck between two or more logs. This killing contraption is called ("manytimes-choking-tree"). If the cub's size has become too unwieldy, an adept elder is chosen to shoot it through the heart with a real arrow. Batchelor (1901) witnessed some of the hardiest men engage in drinking the warm blood, apparently to have courage imparted on them. When the slaughter is over, someone shoots an arrow in the sky signaling the end. The girl who had been assigned to raise the bear is known to cry out in grief. The brown bear is then butchered so the meat can eventually be served, (though the actual feasting on the meat takes place the next day, on the ("great feast"). Offering-place On the festival grounds, the nusasan ("god-food place", "god's altar") is set up where special inau wood-shaving sticks are propped up, and laid out with (ornamental mat). Various offerings from (), quiver (), (breast-ornament or necklace And during the ceremony in Suwankotan formerly of Nishibetsu, (now part of Shibecha, Kushiro Subprefecture), after the bear is butchered, the elders throw walnuts and thick cuts of dried salmon, which the people vie with each other to collect. A 1920s book also records the distributing of walnuts and mikan oranges. A much older record survives in (aka )'s painting that chestnuts and kibi (millet or perhaps rice cake) were distributed. Overall flow after slaughter ) There follows the process of trying to remove the fleshed head from the entire fur-pelt with the head part still attached. That head is then "cleaned". The skull () is then taken indoors to have (decorating the skull, explained further under ), after which the skull is moved out through the "window of gods" and affixed to a pole, which propped up in the decorated nusasan (god-offering) area. Now the hopunire (sending) of the head (marat) is considered complete, and the ceremonial part of the iomante is virtually done as well, with the carousels to follow until the third night. Un-memke The skull decorating or un-memke is typically performed indoors in front of the altar, but may be performed outdoors at the (the bear's nusasan) adorned with wood-shavings called in Ainu or in Japanese. Cavities like the eye-sockets are filled with these shavings, and other decor is made, differing depending on the region. It is noted that some pieces of skin or flesh may remain on the skull which will eventually decay away after it is propped up on display (cf. below), but as illustrations show, the bear's ears remain attached, and this is deliberately done so in some regions. Thus in the aforementioned Suwankotan hamlet, it had been customary to leave the snout portion beyond the eyes intact on the skull, until this was discontinued due to mercantile reasons of preserving the hide's fetch price. But the custom of keeping the ears intact has remained. Furthermore, a film of subcutaneous connective tissue is crafted into a torii-shaped (Π-shaped) ribbon, and is then wound in shavings, to form a ("gift rope") for carrying his takehome gifts back. The skull is placed in front of the hearth, and here too offerings are made: necklace, shito dumplings, bows (), decorated sword (emus), etc. The sapanpe or ritual crown used by the elder may also be offered, and the final farewell prayer is pronounced. A portion of the foodstuff such as the shito dumplings, the clouded sake (tonoto), and meshi (roughly speaking, "rice") has been set aside specifically for offerings, and separated from what people are allowed to consume. When the decorating is done, the skull is moved out through "window of gods" or "spirit window" (), and affixed securely to the ( "bear head mounting tree". The skull and pole might then get "dressed up" by having the ponpake cape/apron suspended from the head, or be made to wear a (embroidered dress). So the gift to the bear-god is in part a bribe to induce its return (or blessing). In fact, during the iomante, the reciting of the yukar is deliberately interrupted at climactic spot, so that the frustrated god will return to hear the rest of it. Similar rites are known among the hunter people of the taiga terrain of the Eurasian polar regions, such as the Nivkh people around Sakhalin. The prefectural government of Hokkaido issued a notification signed by the governor in 1955 that declared iomante a "savage rite", that de facto banned the practice. The notification was revoked in April 2007. Progress of the rite The shogunate official pen named painted annotated with inscriptions. This is perhaps the oldest documentary attestation to "iomante". The painting has been recopied many times over by a number of artists (including the 1807 held by the Tokyo National Museum). It contains 5 scenes relating to the bear-sending ceremony: • Inau-making and people surrounding the caged cub (cf. Fig (1) below, Brooklyn Museum copy) • Cub being shot with flower-arrows • Cub being choked by logs (cf. Fig. (4) below, Hakodate Library copy of 1847) :The inscription states that chestnuts and millets (or rice cakes) were cast at the gathered Ainu crowd. and also that the bear's caretaker-woman tumbles to ground in tears. • Arranging the bear on the altar and offering prayer (Fig. (5) British Museum copy of 1850–80). • Banquet inviting Japanese officials File:Brooklyn Museum - Ezo Shima Kikan 3 of a set of three scrolls.jpg|(1) Preparations. An elder shaving the inu, the women preparing sake. On the left villagers surround the caged bear and lamenting their parting. File:Brooklyn Museum - Local Customs of the Ainu.jpg|(2) Coaxing the caged bear out by a leash, to the ceremony grounds. The bear's keeper woman follows. File:Sacrifice of a bear (10795600014).jpg|(3) Bear tied to stake, and shot with the heper-ai (the blunted "cub-arrows"). A 1914 photo. File:Copy by Matsuura Takeshiro of Curious Sights of the Island of Ezo by Murakami Shimanojo (Hakodate City Central Library).jpg|(4) Bear choked between logs to release its soul from its body. File:AinuBearSacrificeCirca1870.jpg|(5) The bear's pelt and flesh already separated from its soul is laid out on the shrine altar, with offerings of sake, inau, prayer, etc. After this, the skull will be propped up in the nusasan area and magnificently decorated with inau. File:Ainu-iomante-bear-spirit-sending-ceremony-by-Hirasawa-Byozan-1875.png|(6) The festivities after the iomante. The villagers regale themselves in carousal and dance. At the head seat (kamiza) nearest the altar sits the shihainin (manager) of the commerce center. An Ainu-e by (1875). Non-bear sending As for iomante conducted on animals other than the bear, sending of the (Blakiston's fish owl, 'guardian of the community') is held to be of importance in certain areas. Owl-sending is also known as . and the sending of Blakiston's fish owl () in particular has been designated . Also there is iomante conducted for the orca ( 'god of far sea'). The brown bear, the kotan-guarding owl, and the orca which are honored with the iomante ceremony are considered to be kamuy of higher order. == Early history and origins ==

On the origins of iomante, scholar Takao Ikeda (2000) recently wrote a survey on the various theories by scholars. (Cf. ) Whereas Hiroshi Udagawa (1989) delivered the opinion that while the simpler forms of bear-sending is archaeologically evidenced in skulls found at 15th (or 14th) century sending sites, the "iomante in the stricter sense" (cub-fostering type) probably didn't develop until the latter half of the 18th century, so the older culture cannot be directly linked. Ainu history professor Kazuyuki Nakamura assessed that the iomante ceremony was already established in the time before Shakushain's revolt, (1669), since an altercation developed between Shakushain and another chief over whether the former was willing to part with one of the two bear cubs he obtained. Early recorded instances where the Ezo people conducted an iomante type bear-sending occurred is documented in 's and Sakakura Genjirō's , stating the Ainu fostered the bear by having a woman suckle the cub, slaughtering it within the year, and holding a banquet. However, these Edo Period Japanese writers regarded the conduct as strictly a venal enterprise to fatten the cub and harvest its meat and gall bladder, so the sending aspect is not clearly elaborated. Perhaps the earliest explicit mention of iomante occurs in the in Hata Awakimaro's followed by Ezo-shima kikan (1799) already detailed above. A heretofore overlooked piece of evidence according to is the mention of iomante being conducted by the Ainu in Kitashiretoko Peninsula, Karafuto (present day Cape Patience, Sakhalin) in the 1643 voyage logs of Maarten Gerritszoon Vries. There certainly was a cultural transmission of some sort, and the change from earthenware to metalware usage marked the advent of the so-called "Ainu Culture", dated to approximately the 1450–1667 period, and while it may be possible that a field-type sending rite had been transmitted in that time frame, iomante in the narrower sense of "cub-fostering type sending" is not evident until the so-called "New Ainu Culture" age (from later half of 18th century), Udagawa has argued one cannot establish a direct connection, with some other explanation needed to bridge the gap. Jōmon culture derivation theory Another hypothesis is that the wild boar rites conducted during the Jōmon period eventually evolved into a sending rite for bears (archaeologist , 2016). Another archaeologist, (1995) had already floated the idea that pork-farming was transmitted from the Mohe people () on the Asian continent, and this eventually developed in to bear-raising and bear ceremony. Reconstruction of the past It is believed that in the past, iomante could be performed to send back the kamui of any game animal hunted and killed. In particular, even though the iomante has generally become associated with sending brown bears (which dwell in Hokkaido), when the Ainu still lived in parts of the Honshu mainland they could have only hunted the Asian black bear (tsukinowa guma), and that bear species must have been used . ==Legality==

Hokkaido encouraged local governments to abolish the Iomante in 1955, but the prefecture-issued notice was revoked in April 2007, because the Ministry of the Environment of Japan announced that animal ceremonies were generally regarded as an exception of the animal rights law of Japan in October 2006. ==Museum displays==

Iomante videos and artifacts are on display at the Nibutani Ainu Culture Museum in Nibutani, Hokkaidō, as well as the Ainu Museum in Shiraoi-cho, Hokkaidō. == Audiovisual resources ==

• Hokkaido University Botanical Gardens has in its archives on the northern people a footage of bear-sending made by Hokkaido University during the pre-war period when it was called an Imperial University. • A 1977 bear-sending in Nibutani conducted under the supervision of Kayano Shigeru was filmed by folklorist under the title . • In January 1985, Kawakami District revived the iomante after a 29-year hiatus, whose footage was published in laser disc format unde the title (Victor Company of Japan). == See also ==