24.11.26／神話／中津井優

■Mythology
In every culture, humans have used stories based on a series of events that are said to have occurred in ancient times to explain the origin and meaning of all things in the world and humans, as well as the origin and basis of the norms, systems, and customs that humans must follow in each culture. These stories are the mythology of each culture, and myths always express the worldview unique to the culture that is their parent. Conversely, humans, without exception in every culture that has existed on earth from ancient times to the present, have created sacred stories that are considered to reveal absolute truths about the way the world is and the way humans live, which everyone must unconditionally accept and follow, and have continued to believe in these myths, build societies in accordance with them, and live their daily lives.
In fact, every aspect of human culture reflects the myths that it originally created, so the whole is nothing but an expression of mythology, and mythology can be seen as the source and mother that creates culture and continues to give it life. The meaning of customs practiced in a certain culture that may seem strange, incomprehensible, or barbaric to others can only be fully understood in the light of that culture's myths, which give them meaning and basis.
The myths that each culture produces are naturally unique to that culture, and the content of myths around the world is therefore extremely diverse. In ancient cultures that saw the development of so-called "civilizations," such as Japan, Greece, Germanic, Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Indian, and ancient Mexico and Peru, the protagonists of myths generally were immortal gods, whose activities gave birth to the world and humanity in ancient times, determined the fate and way of life of humans, and who are believed to still reside in the heavenly realm from which they rule the world. These gods were mostly anthropomorphized in appearance. However, this does not mean that all myths around the world have anthropomorphic gods who reside in the heavens and are characterized by their immortality as their protagonists. Among peoples who have no written language and have passed down myths orally to the present day, it is more common to find myths that feature not gods like these, but human ancestors, or their fellow animals who can speak human language and whose distinction from them is often very vague.
After the events described in these stories occurred, some of the ancestors and animals who appear as protagonists in these stories are said to have ascended to heaven and become the sun or moon, or to the afterlife and become rulers of the land of the dead, but most others are considered to have become ordinary humans or animals and eventually died, according to a distinction that was only clearly defined by the events that they themselves caused. However, it is said that their actions and the events that occurred as a result of them determined the order of the world and the destiny of humans, and gave rise to the systems and customs that people have followed to the present day, so in this respect they clearly have something in common with the gods of Greek, Japanese, and other myths. In other words, stories that feature ancestors or animals as protagonists are completely consistent with Greek, Japanese, and other myths in that they tell of ancient events that have the same meanings and through which they express the worldview of each culture, and therefore can be considered to be of the same kind.
The German ethnologist Jensen recognized that stories that feature ancestors or animals as protagonists, which are widely found among peoples who do not have written language, are clearly a type of myth because they have the meanings I have just mentioned, and therefore argued that the ancestors and animals of the protagonists should be considered to belong to the category of gods, since they are also the protagonists of the myths. While acknowledging them as gods, he proposed calling these beings "Dema Gods," borrowing the word Dema, which the Marind-Anim people of New Guinea use to call their ancestors who appear in their myths, in order to distinguish them from the immortal gods who live in the heavens and are the protagonists of Greek and other myths. Jensen's terminology is now adopted by many experts and is becoming established as an academic term.
Myths with Jensen's "gods of decoys" as protagonists are found in common, particularly prominent and distinctive forms, among people who live in tropical regions and cultivate tubers and fruit trees such as palms and bananas in an extremely primitive way. Jensen focused on this fact and proposed to collectively call these peoples "ancient cultivators." The most central incident recounted in the myths of these peoples is the murder of one of their own kind or an animal by the gods. In many cases, the corpse of the slain god or animal was chopped into pieces, and from each piece, different kinds of tubers and fruit trees sprouted, which enabled humans to cultivate these crops and live on them as their staple food. However, on the other hand, as a result of these ancient murders, death was determined to be the inevitable fate of humans, and at the same time, humans began to reproduce with men and women and leave behind offspring, and the previously vague distinction between humans and other animals, plants, spirits, etc. was clearly established for the first time at this time. According to this myth, the Demas, by committing murder in ancient times, gave rise to culture represented by the cultivation of crops, and at the same time created order in a world where the distinctions between various things had previously been vague and chaotic, with clear distinctions between all things, and at the same time became human beings who lived with culture, had offspring through sexual intercourse, and were forced to die.

In the myth of the Wemale people who live on Seram Island, one of the Maluku Islands in eastern Indonesia, the main character, who was killed by his peers in ancient times, and whose corpse was cut up and the pieces that became the basis for the development of crops, is a maiden of marriageable age named Hainuwele, who is said to have excreted all kinds of treasures from her body in endless supply in the form of feces while she was alive, and shared them generously with her peers. By telling the story of how the murder of Hainuwele established order in the world and that it became the destiny of man to live by eating crops that were born from the body of the murdered Hainuwele, i.e., the body itself, this type of myth expresses a worldview in which murder and cannibalism are inevitable for the maintenance of world order and for humans to remain human. In light of this worldview, it becomes possible to understand the important meaning that headhunting and cannibalism, which are also common and characteristic of the "ancient cultivators" and are generally considered to be the height of barbarism, actually had in their culture. In other words, for people who had and lived through the "Hainuwele type" myth, these customs were never performed for the sake of cruelty or the satisfaction of appetite, but were religious rituals that had to be repeatedly performed in order to rehabilitate the world order and for humans to confirm and accept the destiny that was destined for them within it.・Japanese mythology as a type of Hainuwere
According to the Kojiki, a goddess named Ohogetsuhime was killed by the command of Susanoo, and silkworms sprouted from her head, rice from her eyes, foxtail millet from her ears, adzuki beans from her nose, wheat from her genitals, and soybeans from her buttocks. The god Kamumusuhi then ordered these to be collected and used as seeds to found agriculture. The Nihon Shoki also contains a myth of a similar form, in which Tsukuyomi no Mikoto killed a god named Ukemochi, and grains, silkworms, horses, and cows sprouted from various parts of the god's corpse and were carried to the heavens, whereupon Amaterasu used these to found agriculture and sericulture. Moreover, in these stories, the gods of Japanese mythology who were killed and became the source of crops are said to have tried to entertain Susanoo with delicious food coming out of their mouths, noses, and anuses while they were alive, and Ukemochi tried to spit out various foods from his mouth and feed them to Tsukuyomi. In other words, in this respect too, they are said to have given away treasures to their companions through feces while they were alive. They are considered to be of the same kind as Hainuwele.

- Similarities in myths
As can be seen from this example, although the content of myths around the world is extremely diverse as mentioned above, there are also often surprising similarities and agreements between myths from far-flung regions. Broadly speaking, there are two reasons for this.

1. Harmony with other cultures
First, the myths that each culture produces form a coherent system, and as mentioned before, this system is unique to each culture as a whole, but that does not mean that each culture creates its own unique mythological system from scratch. In the mythological system of any culture, stories and ideas borrowed from the mythological systems of other cultures with which it has come into contact are always incorporated as material, and it is common for the majority of the materials to be borrowed from other cultures. In other words, throughout human history, mythological materials have been constantly transmitted from one culture to another in all times and places, and as a result, myths have always influenced each other in a mutual way. If we consider this process of transmission and mutual influence going back to the Paleolithic period, it should be possible to go so far as to say that no two myths in the world, including those in regions that have long been thought to be isolated from others, such as America and Australia, are completely unrelated to each other.

Possibilities can also be found between the myths of the indigenous people living in the depths of the Amazon region of South America and Japanese mythology. One of the events recounted in Japanese mythology that is clearly especially unique is the "crying of Susanoo no Mikoto." As soon as Izanagi returned from the underworld, he performed a purification ritual to wash away the impurities he had received in the land of the dead. Susanoo was born from his nose, and immediately after his birth, his father, the god, said to him, "Your life shall be known to the sea," and he was appointed ruler of the sea. However, he did not accomplish this important task, and instead longed for his mother Izanami in the underworld. He continued to cry bitterly until his long beard reached his chest, and in the end, he completely cried out the green mountains, and the waters of the rivers and seas dried up. When his angry father finally banished him from the earth, Susanoo ascended to Takamagahara, where he committed such terrible acts of violence that his sister, the sun goddess Amaterasu, became angry and hid herself in a cave, plunging the whole world into a state of constant chaos.

I have noted that many of the myths of the indigenous peoples of the Amazon region share a story that is almost identical to Susanoo's "Naki Isachi." In one story, the protagonist, like Susanoo, was born in water after his mother's death, and even after being pulled out of the water, he hated his father so much that he continued to cry noisily "like a newborn baby." Finally, like Susanoo, he also ascended to heaven, where he is said to have created a rainbow, which is generally feared in the Amazon region as the cause of human illness. In another story, the protagonist also began to cry noisily and loudly as soon as he was born, and never stopped, making human life completely impossible with his crying. Finally, it is said that after drying up the river, it ascended to the sky. It is generally believed that the ancestors of the indigenous people of the Americas migrated from Asia over the Bering Strait, which was then connected to the land, during the Paleolithic Age more than 10,000 years ago. It is assumed that the same myths brought to America from Asia by this migration were also transmitted to Japan from the Asian mainland at the same time, and that this is why the foundations of American and Japanese mythology contain common materials.
If we accept that mythology is as old as the history of Homo sapiens, and therefore consider that the process of its spread and influence also dates back to the Paleolithic Age, then we can assume a distant relationship between the myths of the old and new continents, which were previously thought to have arisen and developed completely independently of each other. If we take this view to its ultimate conclusion, we can see that all myths in the world can be traced back to the same roots and have a similar relationship with each other.

"Ultimately, all myths are related to each other in different versions."

2. Universal Unconscious - Leaving Parents - The Great Mother Who Swallows Them
Even if we accept that the spread of myths from one region to another has been occurring constantly on a global scale throughout human history, it seems impossible to explain all the similarities found among myths from around the world with just that. This is because modern depth psychologists have noted that some of the events and images that appear in common to myths around the world often appear in very similar forms in the dreams of people who are completely unfamiliar with those myths. Jung, a Swiss man who noticed this fact, considered the most fundamental layer of the unconscious that is common to all humankind, even deeper than the personal unconscious discovered by Freud, and called it the "universal unconscious." He also believed that images and events that commonly appear in dreams, myths, fairy tales, and works of art are produced by the workings of the "universal unconscious," which he called "archetypes" and tried to classify into several basic types, such as "persona," "shadow," "anima," "animus," "Great Mother," "self," and others, and that they help humans to achieve psychological growth while maintaining a relationship with the depths of the unconscious.

For example, myths and fairy tales from all over the world commonly contain stories of heroes who slay monsters and obtain beautiful women and treasures, similar to the myth of Susanoo, who slayed Yamata no Orochi, obtained the sword Kusanagi from its tail, and married Kushinadahime, who had saved his life. According to Jungian psychologists, in the process of psychological growth, all humans need to make their consciousness, which is in a state of being almost buried in the unconscious as a child, independent and establish a "self" that can be clearly distinguished from others at its center. However, at this stage, the function of the "Great Mother archetype," which had been experienced up until then as acting exclusively as a "good mother" and as the force that gives birth to, nourishes, protects, and raises children, is suddenly experienced as a powerful and terrifying "Great Mother Swallowing," like a mythical monster that swallows everything, preventing children from leaving their parents and hindering the ego's independence from the unconscious. In other words, in the process of psychological growth from childhood to adulthood, every human being must face the intense function of the "Great Mother Swallowing" archetype, which unconsciously tries to bury and swallow the ego and not let it go, and must confront and overcome it in order to acquire their own ego. It is only by going through this process that humans can finally meet the "anima," the ideal female image within themselves, and receive its help, and it is explained that this is expressed in many myths and fairy tales by the incident in which a hero (= ego) defeats a monster, rescues a beautiful woman (= anima), and marries her. According to Jung, the function of such "archetypes" is universal to all human beings, so it should be found in the depths of the psyche of modern people, who at first glance appear to be rationalists who have no mythology and live completely unrelated to such things. In fact, Jungian psychologists point out that events that have meanings exactly equivalent to the adventures of mythical heroes, in which a monster representing the "swallowing Great Mother" is defeated and a beautiful woman, who is none other than the "anima," often appear in the dreams of modern people. For example, according to Kawai Hayao, a representative Jungian psychologist in Japan, a man in his 30s dreamed that while he was trying to rescue a woman from a swamp with a net, she was swallowed by a shark with sharp teeth and a large mouth, and he then desperately pulled the shark, which was resisting stubbornly, to land, despite the danger. Needless to say, if we interpret this dream in a Jungian way, it seems to indicate that the man who saw it had not yet been able to fully free himself from the spell of the "swallowing great mother" despite his age, but that he has finally achieved this and is about to achieve a relationship with the "anima."

Thus, according to Jung, even modern people who believe that they do not believe in myths and do not live according to them, in order to psychologically grow into full-fledged adults, each person must confront and overcome the "swallowing great mother," a difficult task that is exactly equivalent to the slaying of the Susanoo serpent in the myth. Jung calls this the need for psychological "mother-killing." As long as a person is unable to "mother-kill," he will not be able to psychologically wean himself from the archetypal mother image that operates in his unconscious, no matter how old he is, and will continue to have the psychology of an irresponsible child who is not fully aware of his own limitations and responsibilities and cannot live a down-to-earth, solid life. Jung named this state the "eternal boy." According to Jung, the need to have and live myths, which have been inseparable from human culture since ancient times, has never disappeared even for modern people who at first glance appear to have completely lost myth and are living unrelated to it, and so even in modern culture myths continue to have important meanings that relate to the very foundations of our lives and function in ways that are often not clearly visible to the eye. In other words, since humans are incapable of living any other way than by living myths, modern people unconsciously create various forms of myths and continue to live in accordance with them.

"Establishing the ego and separation from parents and mother"

■Monotheism/Polytheism/Animism
・Monotheism
A religion in which one deity is the only one who exists and is established and believed to be the supreme god. In addition to monotheism, the terms monotheism and cult monotheism are related terms. A faith that worships a single deity among the existence of gods is called monotheism. Also, when a certain group (for example, an ethnic group) exclusively worships only one deity while acknowledging the existence of other gods, it is called cult monotheism. However, in monotheism, the existence of other deities is actively rejected and only one absolute God is believed in. All of them originate from a founder (founder) who has a unique religious experience and owe much to his teachings and personality, but they show a monotheistic view of God. A God who transcends humans and the world is believed in and understood as a personal being who performs the work of salvation.
*Representative monotheisms: Judaism, Christianity, Islam

Polytheism
A religious system that worships many gods, and the gods in this context generally include spirits and souls. Among polytheisms, a system in which one god is worshipped as the main or supreme god is called monotheism, while a system in which the main god changes due to social or economic circumstances is called alternating theism. E. B. Tylor argues that polytheism emerged after the stage of animism, and evolved from there into monotheism. C. P. Thiele argues that polytheism, a higher natural religion, arose after animism and polytheism, which are inferior natural religions. In contrast to these theories of religious evolution, there is a cultural history school that argues that the original religious form of humanity was monotheism. For the establishment of polytheism, the emergence of ancestor worship, nature worship, hero worship, and even occupational gods and guardian gods for various cultures due to the differentiation of occupations is important. However, the emergence of polytheism is particularly noticeable when ethnic groups are mixed, especially when a wide range of ethnic groups are politically unified. Examples of this are prominent in ancient Egypt, Babylonia, and India.

*Representative polytheisms: Shinto (Japanese mythology), Greek mythology, Norse mythology, Buddhism (relative)

・Animism
[Definition]
This term was created by British anthropologist Tylor from the Latin anima, which means soul. He advocated the theory of animism as the origin of religion, and succinctly defined it as "belief in spiritual beings." In current comparative religion and anthropology, it is generally used as a term to refer to magical religious beliefs and rituals in spirits and souls that are distinct from impersonal magical powers and mystical powers or developed personal gods, as well as the worldview that is based on them. There are also translations such as a view of spirituality, faith in spirits, faith in souls, and animism, but the katakana spelling is usually used.

[Classification]
Dalvira divided animism into three categories: [1] worship of the dead souls of humans and animals, [2] worship of spiritual beings that temporarily attach to specific objects, and [3] worship of spiritual beings that reside in natural objects and control natural phenomena. He called these three categories necromancy, animism, and nature worship. I will now explain in more detail based on his classification.

[Necromancy]
According to Tylor's animism theory, primitive people believe that living things are alive because they have a soul. It is believed that a human soul is not limited to one per person, but can reside in various organs of the body, breath, shadows, etc. Even during life, a soul may temporarily leave the body during sleep and become a stray soul, but after death, it leaves the body completely and remains around the body or cemetery, or goes to a distant land of the dead (mountains, sea, sky, remote islands, etc.). However, there are also cultures that believe that such souls of the dead intervene in the social lives of their descendants and other people while they are alive, giving blessings or administering mystical punishments. These spirits are worshipped by the living, and sacrifices and offerings are made to them, which is how the worship of the dead is established. The phenomenon in which a particular descendant worships only the spirits of their ancestors is called ancestor worship. In addition, in Japan from the Middle Ages onwards, in order to remove the disasters brought about by the spirits of the dead who have left grudges on this world, the belief in the dead spirits became popular, in which the wild spirits were worshiped and transformed into peaceful spirits. Ancestor worship and the belief in the dead spirits, which have become more complicated in ritual, may no longer be called animism, but their basis is animistic worship of the dead. Furthermore, the same principle is applied to the spirits of animals, giving rise to totemism, which worships specific animal species as ancestors, and animal spirit worship in general.

[Spirit worship]
A more independent spiritual entity, distinct from the souls and spirits that are closely linked to a particular individual, is called a spirit. However, the distinction between souls and spirits is not always clear, and for example, in Thailand and Laos, both are meant by the same word, pee. However, the validity of the distinction between the two in the analysis is generally accepted. There are various kinds of spirits, including those associated with animal species such as foxes and snakes, old trees or trees with special shapes and types, natural objects such as mountains, rivers, lakes, and even diseases such as smallpox, and some are more independent and have their own names. Fairies, monsters, and spirits are also considered to be a type of spirit. Some of these spirits have the characteristics of only doing good, while others always do evil, and many are ambiguous and change depending on the situation. Spirits can also temporarily reside in specific objects. If the object is a processed object that brings benefits to its owner, it is sometimes called a fetish. In addition, the phenomenon of possession, such as the Japanese phenomenon of possession, in which a house possessed by a spirit is rumored to have become wealthy and becomes the target of jealousy from those around it, or conversely, the belief that possession of a spirit in the body causes mental and physical illnesses, is seen in many societies around the world. In addition, cases have been reported from Africa where people who have been afflicted with the same disease and recovered from it perform a collective ritual to treat the illness caused by spirit possession, and those who have recovered join the group. The group also functions as a ritual group that worships the possessed spirit. The close relationship between certain magical and religious practitioners and spirits is also important. Some shamans, mediums, and prophets who act as intermediaries between God and humans and convey the will of God to people use their own guardian spirits to make predictions, give oracles, and heal illnesses. Some evil sorcerers also use servant spirits to harm others.

[Nature worship]

Furthermore, animism leads to the idea that spirits reside in many natural objects and natural phenomena. In addition to the trees, mountains, rivers, lakes, and marshes mentioned above, this extends to the sun, moon, wind, rain, storms, thunder, rocks, and even the earth and sky. In this way, animism is a worldview that believes that spiritual beings can reside in all things in the universe, including humans. According to Tylor, these spiritual beings develop into deities, which gives rise to polytheism.
*Examples of animism: the beliefs of various indigenous peoples, such as Native Americans (Eskimos), Polynesians (Tahiti, Tonga, Hawaii, etc.), and Ainu.

■Totemism
When a society is divided into several groups and a religious form is observed in which each group has a special relationship with one or more animals, plants, or sometimes artificial objects or parts of animals, it is called totemism. Therefore, totemism does not refer to a specific religion or ideology, but is an analytical concept that refers to a religious form with a certain pattern. Totemism was first formulated in the mid-19th century by Scottish jurist J.F.Maclenan as a concept to anthropologically explain the principles of marriage from an evolutionary standpoint. He is also known as the person who created the terms endogamy and exogamy, but he argued that totemism is deeply related to exogamy - a rule that seeks a marriage partner from outside a specific group. He tried to explain the construction of religion from the principle of kinship composition.
According to Maclenan, people who worship the same totem that you worship are members of the same group, and you cannot choose your marriage partner from there. He believes that the appearance of totem worship of specific objects -- known as fetishism because of the obsession with objects -- in society caused people to break away from the rule of choosing a marriage partner from a specific group, i.e. endogamy, and develop into the more advanced system of exogamy. This is an interesting explanation in theory. Totemism is both a rule for forming a more open society through marriage, and the most primitive religion.
MacLennan's theory, which allows for a unified understanding of the relationship between the "marriage system" that determines the state of society and the "religious form" that determines their ideas, had a major impact on clinical psychology (S. Freud), sociology (E. Durkheim), and ethnology (J. Fraser) in the late 19th century. MacLennan's argument is certainly logical, but since there is no solid evidence that the society on which it is based "evolved" in that way, it is no longer supported by anyone in modern cultural anthropology. MacLennan's idea of ​​explaining the formation of religious phenomena with the principle of kinship formation was forgotten due to the claim that religious phenomena cannot be explained in terms of the evolution of society, but the discussion of the relationship between kinship formation patterns and the principles that maintain religious phenomena remains a major research topic for us.

・What is a totem pole?

#1
The role of the totem pole varies depending on the region and tribe. The most common roles are as follows:

1. A coat of arms to identify tribes, families, and individuals (including ancestors)

2. A record of a story

3. An object of worship (the god itself)

#2
Totem poles are erected by successors to clarify the origins of a particular individual or to commemorate the achievements of the deceased. Totem poles are very personal sculptures, and the statues are the coat of arms of people who are directly related to the totem pole. In other words, the statues on totem poles are equivalent to family crests in Japan and Europe, and by looking at them, you can learn about the family lineage and birth. What is different from Japanese and European family crests is that the number of coats of arms increases with marriages and various important events. Old and new coats of arms are treated with the same care, and are carved together on the totem pole.
Not all totem pole figures were purely personal heraldic symbols; some were carved with characters from family stories. In the Northwest Coast world, the right to tell a story was passed down as a piece of property from one generation to the next, so the carving of a particular story on a totem pole also served as a claim to ancestry.
The heraldic figures on the edge often have stories attached to them about how the animal or statue became a heraldic symbol. These were not carved on the totem pole, but were stories told among family members and recounted at potlatches and other feasts.
The term "totem pole" means a pole bearing a totem. So what is a totem? The Ojibwe people who live in the northeastern part of North America believe that they have a special relationship with certain animals, plants, and other natural objects in the New Year, customs, and rituals, and call these animals and plants Ototeman, which they use as symbols of the group. The word Ototeman was introduced to Europe in the late 18th century as the expression Totam, and later became established as Totem. The system of various relationships between totems and human groups is called Totemism, a phenomenon that is a complex combination of social, magical, and religious elements.
In the second half of the 18th century, white people began to advance along the northwest coast, and as trade became more active, they came into contact with Indian carved pillars. When the white people saw the pillars carved with grotesque and strange images, they mistakenly thought that the statues were Indian religious idols. Therefore, they considered the statues to be Indian totems and called the whole a totem pole, that is, a pole with a totem hanging on it.

However, as we have already seen, it was later discovered that the name totem pole was inappropriate because Northwest Coast Indian carved pillars represent personal origins and are not objects of religious worship. However, even though we know it is inaccurate, the name has already become so deeply rooted that it is impossible to change it now. Therefore, we must use the expression totem pole with this circumstance in mind. For this reason, it should be confirmed that the English word totem pole should be translated as "totem pole" in a single word and that it refers only to Northwest Coast Indian carved pillars. The translations "totem pole" and "totem pole" are not appropriate because they place too much emphasis on the "totem" part.

#3
At the top of a totem pole, a person or animal that is considered to be the ancestor of the clan (a group of people who believe they have the same ancestors) is carved, and is called a "totem." The word "totem" is said to have its origin in the Ojibwa word "ototeman," which means "his relative," or "dodem," which means "a regional group of the same bloodline."

■About the Ainu
In the Ainu language, Ainu means "man," "man," or "father." It seems that later it was positioned as a collective name for the group and the self-designation of the ethnic group. It is thought that the reason for this change in meaning of the word was that Ainu groups were forced to unite beyond their boundaries, especially in response to the invasion by the Japanese people who betrayed the name Shamo (meaning neighbor), or because the Japanese people defined the group as a framework. The Ainu people's residential area extended to present-day Hokkaido, Ainu Mosir (meaning a quiet land inhabited by people) including the northern part of the Ou region, Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, the lower reaches of the Amur River, and the southern tip of the Kamchatka Peninsula, but was forcibly narrowed by the Japanese samurai class and the state. The Ainu people of Sakhalin had an archaic and elegant self-designation of "enchiw" or "enju."

・Kamui
A supernatural being that personifies all natural phenomena other than humans, such as plants, animals, and natural phenomena, among the Ainu people. In other words, they are the components of the world excluding the Ainu (humans). Kamuy are assumed to be the wonders and threats of the natural world that humans do not possess, such as the existence of poison (monkshood) for hunting deer in the natural world, flexible trees for making bows, and large, strong bears in the natural world. For the Ainu, Kamuy are equal neighbors with cultures similar to those of humans, and the Ainu and Kamuy are both mysterious beings. Kamuy live in the Kamuy world called Kamuy Mosir, deep in the mountains or in the heavens, where the Kamuy live in a form that is no different from humans, called "Kamui-ne." Only when the Kamuy descend to Ainu Mosir (the human world), do they wear bear clothing if they are bear Kamuy, or raccoon dog (mujina) Kamuy wear raccoon dog clothing. When they return to Kamuy Mosir, they must take off these clothes. And since it is difficult for them to take off their clothes and masks by themselves, the Ainu help them do so. In other words, the kamuy are stripped of their skin and meat (clothing) to make them lighter. The kamuy are believed to be immortal, and hunting is considered an act of give and take to make it easier for the kamuy who have descended to the human world to return to their own world. However, the clothing (skin and meat) that they leave behind in the human world is a gift from the kamuy to the Ainu, and the Ainu must show due courtesy in return. It was believed that only slaughtering performed with the correct rituals was permissible.

・Representative gods in Ainu mythology
Okikurumi/Hero god and ancestor of humans.
Pekerekamui/Good god.
Enkamuy/Evil god.
Kappachikamuy/God of the mountains. Brown bear.
Repunkamuy/God of the ocean. Killer whale.
Kimunkamuy/Eagle god. Steller's sea eagle.
Kutronkamuy/God of rocky areas. Pika.
Kotankorokamuy/Village god. Blakiston's fish owl.
Sarurunkamuy/God of marshes. Japanese crane.
Kapapukamuy/God of bats.
Yukukorokamuy/Deer god.

・Ainu people and totemism
It is correct to say that "totemism" exists all around the Eurasian continent, but at the same time, it is a bit of a forced conclusion to say that totemism "does not exist at all, even in trace form, on the Eurasian continent." Of course, cultural anthropology does not have a historical perspective, but if we can reconsider totemism itself as a highly developed religion (or faith) and reconstruct its development process, it will be possible to find traces of it in the cultures of the Eurasian continent. "Totemism" refers to the determination of animals and plants as symbolic relationships among kinship groups. Most of them are linked to ancestors, and serve as the object of rituals and the criterion for determining taboos. In particular, they may play an important role in determining marriage partners. In the case of the Ainu, animals such as "brown bears," "northern foxes," and "killer whales" are used as symbolic family crests. They are in contrast to the plant family crests that are common in Japan, but at the same time, they can be considered the same as European family crests. However, the difference is that in the case of the Ainu, family crests that represent animals are symbolized, while in Japan and Europe, the beauty of the shapes of the animals and plants is stylized to represent kinship groups. In other words, the relationship is reversed. In other words, one could say that "animals and plants are no longer gods." In the case of Japan and Europe, it is unclear when this relationship was reversed, but the reason that Ainu family crests and god crests are symbolized is to avoid direct expression of sacred things, which is often observed in other cultures as well. In any case, I think there is no problem in considering it as a deformed or transformed form of totemism. It is not clear exactly why the Ainu people do not use characters, but this "sacredness" is probably one of the problems. It can be inferred that because "crests as sacred symbols" there is a limit to the "spread of information sharing" that characters are originally symbols, and it becomes difficult to use characters as tools. It can also be considered that this became possible to use as a tool when they "stopped being gods." In other words, the Ainu did not "not know how to write" or because they were "uncivilized," but rather because their "religion or faith" and "writing" were in conflict with each other, and writing itself negated their "religion or faith," which is why they continued to reject it.

■Examples of myth types/various stories that can be used as motifs
Worldview/backbone related
- Creation myths—the origin of the universe
★The creation myth
The myth of the origin of the universe is a myth that tells the story of the beginning of the world to the formation of nature, but the universe is of course different from the scientific image of the universe that we recognize today, and is generally perceived as a mixture of two realms, heaven and earth. In these myths of the origin of the universe, it is often said that the world began when heaven and earth were separated, and for that reason, they are often called the creation myths.

#The creation myth/creation type

This is a form in which the creator god creates the world in some way from a world of nothingness (or the initial state). It can be further broadly divided into two types. The first is a form in which the creator god creates the world alone, and the second is a form in which the creator god (the supreme god, the heavenly god, etc.) creates the world with the cooperation of one or more gods. The cooperation is sometimes the first human or hero who is deified, or sometimes the enemy of the creator god, but in the latter case, the world (or land, etc.) is said to have been born as a result of the conflict between the two gods.

#Creation myth/Evolution type
A creation myth in which the universe developed spontaneously from a certain primordial substance or germ without the intervention (will, command, action, etc.) of the creator god. This type also includes the cosmic egg-laying type, which says that the world and all things were born spontaneously from an egg filled with the seeds of matter, and the world giant myth (in the case of a corpse, the corpse-birth type), which says that the heavens and the earth were born from the body (corpse) of a primordial being (god, hero, animal, etc.).

#Creation myth/Evolutionary type/Cosmic egg-laying type
A creation myth that says the universe and all things originated from an egg. It is also called the cosmic egg (mundane egg) myth or the cosmic egg-laying myth.

#Creation myth/Evolutionary type/Primitive chaos type
A myth that says that there was a chaotic state at the beginning of this world, from which the current world was created. It is combined with various creation myths (cosmic origin myths). The state of chaos is sometimes represented by emptiness, mist, eggs, etc., and in the case of eggs, it is classified as the cosmic egg-laying type.

・Separation myth
A myth that says that heaven and earth were united in ancient times, or were much closer than they are now, but were separated by a certain event. Heaven and earth are often deified as Father God and Mother Goddess, but in that case it is the Father Earth Mother type, and the separation of heaven and earth is spoken of as the final stage. Also, many of these myths have the Heavenly Father and Earth Mother Goddesses giving birth to gods (gods who represent all things) and then being torn apart by their children and getting divorced.

- Creation myths - Land origin myths (myths about how land was created)
#Land origin myths/diving type
This is a land origin myth that says that in the beginning, there was an ocean, and gods, heroes, or animals (especially birds) dived into the ocean to get soil, and land was born from that soil. There are cases where the creator god creates land from the soil on the ocean floor himself, cases where the creator god commands other gods, demons, heroes, birds, etc. to dive into the ocean, and cases where land is born during the process of conflict between gods and demons.

#Land origin myth/creation type
A land origin myth in which the gods of heaven send birds and other creatures to throw soil and stones into the sea to create islands. In local folklore, this is sometimes called island creation (country creation) with soil from heaven. This differs from the diving type, in which land is created from soil retrieved by diving into the sea, only in the origin of the soil (heaven or sea), and since birds often play an important role in both, these two are considered to be of the same mythological form.

#Land origin myth/island fishing type
A land origin myth in which a god or hero fishes up an island from the sea as if fishing a fish. This is also called the fishing type.

#Land origin myth/ocean churning type
A creation myth in which a god churns the primordial ocean with a rod-shaped object, which gives birth to the land, gods, the sun, the moon, and all other things.

#Land origin myth/island creation type
A land origin myth in which the islands that make up the land were born from the intercourse of a male and female god, in other words, the gods gave birth to the islands.

・Creation myth - Heavenly Father/Earth Mother type
One of the forms of myth that expresses the creation of the universe. It is a deification of the dualistic concepts of "heaven" and "earth." In general, "heaven" is the male principle (heavenly father) and "earth" is the female principle (earth mother), and the two gods are considered to be a married couple. It is said that all things, or gods that symbolize all things, were born from the union of these two gods.

★Other
・Flood caused by conflict between mountains and sea
A motif in which a flood occurs due to the conflict between the two major realms of mountains and sea. In general, it is expressed as a conflict between the gods (spirits) of sea, water, rivers, and moisture and the gods (spirits) of mountains, land, dryness, and fire.

・Motif of division of the three worlds
A motif in which the universe, land, and territory are divided and ruled by three people.
#1 Greek myth
After defeating the Titans, Zeus became the king of the gods in place of his father, Cronus. Zeus and his three brothers then drew lots and decided that Zeus would rule the sky, Poseidon the sea, and Hades the underworld.

He commanded them to worship him.

#3 Myth of Tonga Island in Polynesia

The ancestral god Tauflonua, nearing death, divided the universe into thirds, giving rule over the land of Plotu, this world, and the sky to three brothers, Havea Hiokure, Maui, and Tanaloa, respectively.

・Flood-type brother-sister ancestor myth

A myth in which humanity is wiped out by a great flood that occurred in the beginning, and a pair of brothers and sisters who miraculously survive marry and become the ancestors of humanity. Flood myths like Noah's Ark in the Old Testament are found all over the world, but this one is unique in that a brother and sister become the ancestors of humanity.

・Flood-type brother-sister ancestor myth/conflict cause type

Among flood-type brother-sister ancestor myths, this is a type in which a flood occurs due to a conflict between the upper thunder god and the lower earth god (mythical early man, ancestor), and the thunder god is generally the cause of rain and floods. In Valk's classification, it is called the cosmic struggle type, the cosmic conflict flood type, etc. The siblings survive the flood by being taught by the god of thunder and the hermit who had treated them kindly in the past, by hiding in gourds and baskets. The siblings may be an earth god and his sister, the earth god's children, or a pair of people of unknown origin.

・All things born from a corpse/World Titan type
This is a myth in which the world was created from the body or corpse of a Titan, a primeval being. In the case of a corpse, this falls under the corpse rebirth type. Since all things arise from each part of the Titan's body, it is also called the Titan dismemberment myth.

Elements that connect gods, humans, and Pokémon
・Flood-type brother and sister ancestor myth/Failed birth type
In the flood-type brother and sister ancestor myth, the brother and sister give birth to crippled children such as melons, gourds, and lumps of meat, as well as animals. It is also called the failed birth type.

・Flood-type brother and sister ancestor myth/Aquatic animal type

Among the flood-type brother-sister ancestor myths, this is an element in which the brother and sister give birth to aquatic creatures in particular. Usually, they give birth to aquatic animals the first and second time, and humans the third time.

-Flood-type brother-sister ancestor myth/struggle cause type
Among the flood-type brother-sister ancestor myths, this is a type in which a flood occurs due to a conflict between the upper thunder god and the lower earth god (mythical early man, ancestor), and in most cases the thunder god is the cause of rain and floods. In Valk's classification, this is called the cosmic struggle type or the cosmic struggle flood type.

-Animals play an active role/solar eclipse myth/animal rescue type
A solar eclipse myth in which the sun, trapped by an evil god, is rescued by gods, heroes, animals, etc., and the world becomes bright again.

Story/episode
-Heroic tale/Perseus-Andromeda type
A heroic myth in which a hero defeats a monster and rescues a captured maiden. Although it varies by region, generally speaking, the people of a certain region are plagued by dragons, snakes, or monsters, and are forced to make regular human sacrifices (usually virgins). When the king's daughter is finally sacrificed, a young man (hero) appears and rescues her, and is rewarded with a princess.

・Forms of marriage and divine marriage
Myths in which the father of the girl or the girl herself gives the man a task, test, or trial, and the man marries the girl if he solves it.

・Myths in which animals play an important role/Animals crossing a river
An animal myth in which a cunning land animal such as a deer or monkey tricks a stupid aquatic animal and crosses a river to the other side. Folktales and old tales: They often have a strong entertainment element, but they can be thought to have originally arisen from the conflict between the concepts of water and land.

・Marriage: A form of divine marriage/Mersina type
A myth about a man who intermarries with a dragon-snake woman, especially the daughter of the king of the water world, and breaks the taboo of not looking, sees her true form, and they break up. Their children or grandchildren often become the founders of dynasties, nations, clans, and lineages, and are often told as dynasty origin myths (founding myths).

・Visiting a foreign land: The lost fish hook type

A tale of visiting a foreign land, such as visiting the land of animals in pursuit of a lost fishing hook or hunting gear. There are two main types: the southern marine type, in which a man borrows fishing gear such as a fishing hook from an acquaintance or parent or sibling, but the fish steals it, and the owner demands that the man return it. The mountain and land types, in which an animal such as a boar escapes with a spear or spearhead stuck in its body, and the man goes to the underworld in search of the hunting gear.

・Solar Eclipse Myth/Animal Rescue Type
A solar eclipse myth in which the sun, imprisoned by an evil god, is rescued by a god, hero, or animal, and the world becomes bright again. It is sometimes called the hidden sun or stolen sun, as the sun did not hide of its own accord, but was hidden by someone.

■About Sumerian/Babylonian myths, considered classics of many myths
・Sumerian myth
A myth by the Sumerians, who established civilization in Mesopotamia and used cuneiform writing. Later, the Akkadians (Assyrians, Babylonians) and Hittites also adopted these gods, but with different names. The Sumerian religion is considered the source of inspiration for many modern religions. The Sumerians worshipped Dingirs or gods, each associated with a different city. The religious importance of the gods often increased or decreased with the political power of the associated cities. According to legend, the Dingirs created humans from clay to serve them. The Dingirs often expressed their anger and frustration through earthquakes. The main point of Sumerian religion is the emphasis that all of humanity is at the mercy of the gods. The Sumerian afterlife included a descent into a terrible hell to spend eternity in misery.

- Creation myth

At the beginning of the world, the heavens and the earth were born as twins, followed by the heavenly god An and the gods Anunnaki. Then, from the mother goddess, the goddesses were born. Heaven and earth were separated, and the rivers Idiguna (Tigris) and Bulanun (Euphrates) were created on the earth, with many canals dug around them. After the shape of the world was set, the gods created humans to carry out their work in their place.
Babylonian mythology, which was heavily influenced by Sumerian civilization, has very similar gods and stories. However, there are subtle discrepancies in the legends and the personalities of the gods, and it is interesting to see the changes in thinking between countries. In Babylonian mythology, the role of King, who steals the tablet of divine will, is played by a wind demon named Zu. Also, the role of the god Marduk, who takes the tablet back, is played by Ningirsu.

- Representative gods and their roles

Anunnaki: A group of gods in the sky.
An: Father god in the sky. Babylonian Anu.
Ki: Mother god in the sky.
Enlil: God of wind and storms. Semitic supreme god Bel. (meaning Lord)
Nannar: God of the moon. Also known as Nanna. Babylonian Sin.
Utu: God of the sun. Babylonian Shamash.
Inanna: God of Venus. Goddess of love. Babylonian Ishtar.
Enki: God of earth and water. Also known as Ea. Worshipped in the city of Eridu.
Dum-di-Abnoz: God of plants. Babylonian Tammuz. (meaning True Child of Water)
Ningirsu: God of war. Son of Enlil. Corresponds to Marduk in Babylonian mythology.
Nergal: God of disease and war. Also known as Erlagal in Babylonia.
Ningal: wife of the moon god Nannar. Means great woman.

Adad: god of storms.

Nabu: god of prophecy and writing.

Ashnan: gave humans fields and grasslands, and gave them tools to cultivate them.

Ramga: two gods of craftsmanship. The first humans were created from his blood.

Aruru: goddess who can create things from clay. Later created Enkidu.

Nidava: goddess who protects humans. Provided grain and taught knowledge and learning.

Anurregalla: first human male.

Annegaral: first human female.

In ancient Sumerian mythology, gods with two horns on their heads appeared from the sky and the sea.

The sky gods ruled the sky and rain, and the sea gods ruled the sea, earth, and rivers. One day, the sky gods came down from the sky to rule the earth. As a result, a long battle broke out between the sky gods and the earth gods on earth. The heavenly gods won the battle, and the defeated earthly gods left for the east. The heavenly gods appeared before mankind and ruled over the heavens and the earth.

*The heavenly gods are known as bull gods, and the sea gods are known as snake (dragon) gods, and myths like the above exist all over the world. In Christianity, there is a story about an angel who rebelled against God, and in Japan, there is a story about Amatsukami and Kunitsukami. And, on the border of Sumer, bulls are worshipped as gods in the west, and dragons are worshipped as gods in the east. Yahweh and Zeus in the west had two horns like a bull, and are said to be bull gods. There is also a legend that western heroes such as Alexander had two horns.

■Babylonian mythology

Babylonian (Akkadian) mythology inherited the mythology of the Sumerians, who opened civilization to Mesopotamia and used cuneiform writing.

・Creation myth (Enuma Elish)

Before the heavens and the earth had no names, that is, before the world had a clear shape, there existed the god Apsu (fresh water), Munmu (life force in the form of mist), and the goddess Tiamat (salt water). In the primordial world, Apsu and Tiamat (fresh water and salt water) mixed together and the gods began to be born. Eventually, the new gods increased in number and became noisy, so Apsu and Munmu decided to punish them. However, Ea put them to sleep first, killed Apsu, and imprisoned Munmu. Tiamat was angry and decided to fight the new gods, who were her descendants. Marduk, the commander of the new gods, released the wind at Tiamat. As Tiamat swallowed the wind, her stomach swelled up, and when an arrow was shot into it, her stomach burst, the arrow hit her heart, and she collapsed. The battle of the gods ended with the victory of the new gods, and Marduk began to create the world using Tiamat's body. He split her body in two and used the upper half to create the heavens. Tiamat is a saltwater god and contains a lot of water, so Marduk placed guards to watch over her to prevent heavy rains. Next, he built the great temple of the heavens, E-Shara, here, and had the three great gods Anu, Enlil, and Ea live in suitable places. That is, the heavens, the sky (air), and Apsu (heavenly water). He created mountains from Tiamat's head and made the rivers Bulanun (Euphrates) and Idiglat (Tigris) flow from her eyes. He created a particularly large mountain from her breasts, so that water would spring forth. He tied her tail to the "knot" in the sky, and created the earth from her lower body.

-Myth of the Creation of Mankind
At first, there were no laborers in the heavens, and the gods themselves were engaged in labor. However, the work was hard, and eventually the gods rebelled against Enlil. The ringleaders of the rebellion were Enlil's sons. Enlil reported this to the heavenly god Anu, who sympathized with the rebels and decided to create humans to work in place of the gods. The god Ve-Ira was killed, and Mami (Entu) kneaded his flesh, earth, and clay, which was then taken by the childbirth goddess Belet-Ili, and seven pairs of humans, male and female, were born. The humans multiplied, built temples for the gods, and cultivated the land. However, the humans grew too many and became noisy, so the gods decided to destroy them by causing a great flood.
Enki gave wisdom to the human Atra-Hasis (the wise one), and helped him build a boat (protector of life). As planned, the other humans were swept away by the flood and returned to the earth. When the gods found out about Enki's actions, they protested, but Enki said that it was his duty to help the human, and so they left. The gods, who had destroyed the humans with a flood, were not willing to work again, so they asked Enlil to create new humans. Thus, the human population continued to increase.

-Gilgamesh Epic (King of the Sumerian city-state of Uruk around 2600 BC)
Gilgamesh was one-third human and two-thirds divine. He was a tyrant, so the troubled people appealed to Anu, the god of heaven. Anu called the goddess Aruru and ordered her to create someone to fight Gilgamesh. Aruru threw the mud down to the ground, created Enkidu, and lowered him to the ground. A hunter saw Enkidu, who looked so savage that if he was given a woman, he would become a little more human, so he approached a prostitute. Enkidu's strength weakened after six days of intercourse with the woman, and the hunter told the woman to bring him to Uruk. Gilgamesh had a dream in which a star fell towards him, and when he asked his mother, Ninsun, he was told that it was a sign that someone who would oppose Gilgamesh would appear soon. Gilgamesh learned that a man named Enkidu had appeared in the castle, and the two of them left the castle and fought with all their might. Eventually, a friendship as two heroes blossomed between the two. Gilgamesh and Enkidu went to defeat the monster Humbaba with their swords and axes.
After defeating the raging Humbaba in the forest, the two returned to the castle, and when Gilgamesh washed himself up and got ready, Ishtar appeared, impressed by his splendor, and asked him to become her husband. She said that if he would become her husband, she would give him anything he wanted, but Gilgamesh refused. Ishtar became angry and asked her father, the god of heaven, Anu, to drop the Bull of Heaven to Uruk. Anu had no choice but to send the Bull of Heaven to Uruk. Gilgamesh and Enkidu fought together, and Enkidu defeated the Bull of Heaven, but according to the law of God, anyone who killed the Bull of Heaven was to die. Enkidu was afflicted by illness according to the law and died twelve days later. Gilgamesh shed tears as he watched his friend die. Gilgamesh wept and said to Enkidu, "My friend, who has been with me through the days of adventure and the days of hardship, may you live forever." Gilgamesh knew the sadness of death and decided to go on a journey in search of eternal life. First, he got permission from the Scorpion tribe of Mount Marsh and passed through a dark cave to a paradise-like world. As he was traveling in search of eternal life, many people advised him to return to his own country and live with his wife and children rather than traveling in search of eternal life that he might not be able to obtain. Gilgamesh then met Utnapishtim (Noah) and asked him why he had been granted eternal life, but Utnapishtim could not answer.
Gilgamesh was disappointed that he did not know the secret of eternal life, and when he tried to return home, Utnapishtim's wife told him the location of the herb of youth. Gilgamesh picked the herb from the sea and set off on his way home, but while he was bathing, a snake ate the herb. Disappointed and sad, he decided to return to his country where his wife and children were waiting for him.