HOUSE AND BURIAL ORIENTATIONS OF THE HOKKAIDO AINU, INDIGENOUS HUNTER-GATHERS OF NORTHERN JAPAN

Abstract

In the northern-most Island of the Japanese archipelago, Hokkaido, there live indigenous hunter-gathers

known as the Ainu. Among the Hokkaido Ainu, each nuclear family lived in a house, called chise. Each

chise contained a sacred window, rorun-puyar (or kamuy puyara) at the opposite side of the entrance and the

skull of a ritually killed bear during the Iomante (sacred bear ritual) would be carried into the house through

this window. Previous ethnographic research has suggested that the sacred window was facing east, but re

gional variation in the direction of the window has also been observed. Among 1,034 burials from the Pre

Modern Ainu Period (circa. 13 to 17 century), there is a strong tendency for burials to be oriented toward the

east, but in this case too local variation exists. The orientations of houses and burials seem to have been de

cided based on several other factors, such as river orientation, land slope, and various others. Ainu villages

were typically arranged along a river and the river’s upstream movement towards a sacred mountain was

just as important as the eastward orientation noted above. Thus, we need to develop a more integrated view

of the ways Ainu understand nature and orientation in order to increase our comprehension of these ques

tions.