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You all better listen up next time and behave better next Japanese club because we will be finishing up the mythology of Japan...so you all better prepared to listen...Anyway here is today's notes:

The Ainu people= the remnants of a Stone Age Asiatic people who lived in Japan utnil the islands were invaded by Mongoloid people.

The Ainu people had no system of writing, no political organization beyond their small village, no domesticated farm animals or system of agriculture, and no bronze, or iron metal work of their own.
They wre left to their own devices

They remained like that until 1670.
200 years later the Japanese began a concerted effort to settle on Hokkaido--the Aido were living there.

The Japanese cleared the land of forests and wild animals, and set up permanent fishing nets
Ainu men became migrant farmer--alcoholism and disease ravaged their society.

In early 20th century, the Ainu wre still living on Hokkaido
1920s and 1930s they tried to record the Ainu tradition
1940s--adults could speak both Japanese and Ainu
1955--barely fewere than twenty Ainu could speak Ainu

Kotan Utunnai is particularly important among the literary works acquired from the Ainu.
this story reflected the wars of the Ainu also known as the Yaunkur (people of the land) against the Repunkur also known as the Okhotsk (people of the sea), who lived on the northern coast of Hokkaido.
it's an adventure story about a human with godlike powers

This epic is to show how similar human beings are to one another, even when sparated by hundred of years and by different cultures.

Character's of the story:
nameless narrator: main character

older sister: she saves and rears the narrator

Kamui-otopush: narrator's older brother

Dangling Nose: evil Repunkur warrior

Shipish-un-kur: heroic ruler of Shipish

Shipish-un-mat: heroic sister of Shipish-un-kur; ally of narrator

anyway I'll be reading the epic story of this tale