The Girl Who Caught the Gods — Chiri Yukie’s Last Gift to the Ainu
Chiri Yukie (知里 幸恵), just nineteen, was no scholar by training. She was a young indigenous woman born into two worlds—one that demanded she conform, and another that she couldn’t bear to see disappear. The Ainu, her people, had long been swallowed by Japan’s attempts at assimilation, their language, Ainu-itak, fading to little more than whispers among the old. But those whispers were loud enough for her to hear.
A perfomer in the Shiraoi Ainu Museum wearing a ruunpe, a cotton garment with whirlpool and parenthetical patterns. According to legends, the Ainu believed that patterns on the cuffs and hems of clothes would prevent evil spirits from entering through those openings. Shiraoi, Hokkaido, Japan, 2014. (Photo by Rita Willaert)
The year was 1922, and the streets of Noboribetsu buzzed with the sounds of a rapidly modernizing Japan. Factories were rising, railways stretching out like veins, and yet, in a small village tucked away from the march of progress, a young woman sat hunched over an old notebook. Her fingers moved carefully, translating the words that had never been written down, words that lived only in the fragile breath of her elders. These stories, songs to be precise, were the heartbeat of a culture slipping through the cracks of history. And if she didn’t capture them, they would be gone forever.
The Ainu Shin'yōshū (アイヌ神謡集), which translates to Collected Songs of the Ainu Gods, would be one of the last gifts of a culture gasping for breath, passed down by a young woman who knew all too well that once these songs were gone, they could never be sung again. The day after she finally completed her work, she suddenly passed away from a heart attack at just nineteen years old, making Ainu Shin'yōshū both her first and final contribution to preserving Ainu culture.
The term shin’yō (神謡) in Japanese here refers to kamuy yukar, a type of song traditionally narrated from the perspective of a nature deity. This differs from yukar, which are epic tales about human heroes, and uepeker, which are prose folk stories. Historically, kamuy yukar were sung by women, while yukar were performed by men. However, by the mid-twentieth century, as male bards became scarce, female storytellers began to take on these epics as well. Chiri’s collection features thirteen songs from the perspective of various gods, including deities of the owl, fox, rabbit, young wolf, sea, frog, otter, swamp mussel, and the spirit of damp earth.
Chiri Yukie (date unknown).
“Ainu” Means “Human”
The Ainu, the indigenous people of northern Japan, once thrived as a distinct community inhabiting the northernmost island of Ezo (now known as Hokkaido), parts of Honshu, as well as the Kamchatka Peninsula and the islands of Sakhalin and Kuril in present-day Russia. However, their lives drastically changed with Japan’s rapid modernization and westernization in the late 19th century. As Japan sought to redefine itself as a powerful nation-state, it incorporated colonial practices that included the annexation of Ainu land. By 1869, Ezo was renamed Hokkaido, and the Ainu were systematically stripped of their rights, their lands confiscated, and their culture suppressed. The Japanese government implemented harsh policies, including the Former Aborigines Protection Act of 1899, which banned the practice of Ainu customs and traditions in a concerted effort to assimilate them into mainstream Japanese society. The Ainu were forced into farming, abandoning their traditional hunting and fishing practices. At the same time, Japanese-style education sought to erase their language.
By the 1920s, Ainu-itak, the Ainu language was already critically endangered, with only a small fraction of Ainu children still able to speak it. Today, only around 16,000 people in Japan claim Ainu ancestry, with the number of proficient speakers gravitating towards zero.
Ainu people worshiping Tokapcup-kamuy, the solar goddess. Her husband is the moon god Kunnecup-kamuy. As part of their ancestral tradition, Ainu women had the custom of getting tattoos on their bodies, including their lips. For the Ainu, the tattoo was perceived as a symbol of beauty, a talisman. Nowadays face tattoos are often temporary, done with makeup. Akan-Mashu National Park, Hokkaido, Japan. (Photo by Peter Thoeny)
A Fast Changing World
The early years of Chiri Yukie’s life were marked by a quiet tension. Born in 1903 in Noboribetsu, Hokkaido, she came into a world where her people were slowly being erased. The Japanese government’s policies had transformed the Ainu homeland into a controlled landscape where their long standing customs were forbidden. Her parents and aunt, like many others, had been forced to adopt Japanese ways, speaking the language and practicing the customs of their colonizers. Her brother Chiri Mashiho (知里 真志保), who later became a prominent Ainu linguist, didn’t learn Ainu-itak until he attended high school. Yet, Chiri Yukie found herself drawn to something older and deeper—the songs her grandmother still sang when no one else was listening.
Her grandmother was one of the few remaining keepers of Ainu oral traditions. It was from her that Chiri learned to speak Ainu-itak and sing the sacred kamuy yukar, the epic songs that spoke of gods, spirits, and the natural world. Her grandmother’s words carried with them a deep sense of loss but also a quiet defiance. As Chiri grew older, the songs became a link to a heritage she felt compelled to save. Despite attending Japanese schools, where her Ainu identity was a source of shame and discrimination, Chiri never let go of the stories her grandmother taught her. Those songs would soon become her life’s work, setting off a cultural revival that no one before her had even imagined.
"Hell Valley" in Noboribetsu, Hokkaido, Northern Japan. Early 20th century. Noboribetsu is the birthplace of Chiri Yukie.
(Noboribetsu International Tourism and Convention Association)
A Collection of Songs
By the time Chiri Yukie was a teenager, she felt the weight of her mission growing heavier. The ancient kamuy yukar were fading, carried only in the memories of a few elders. In 1918, her path crossed with Kindaichi Kyosuke (金田一 京助), a prominent Japanese linguist studying Ainu-itak. Their meeting was a turning point for Chiri. He saw in her both a rare knowledge of the kamuy yukar with the ability to navigate both the Ainu and Japanese worlds. Encouraged by him, she began transcribing these songs with meticulous care, translating them into Japanese while preserving the spirit of Ainu-itak. In 1922, she completed the Ainu Shin’yōshū (Collection of Kamuy Yukar), the first written collection of Ainu songs, ensuring they would not disappear. She was only 19, but her work signaled the beginning of a cultural preservation effort few had imagined possible.
However, not all saw Kindaichi's involvement as purely benevolent. Chiri Yukie's brother, Chiri Mashiho, later challenged the work of Kindaichi and John Batchelor, the British missionary who first recorded Ainu-itak and facilitated the meeting between Kindaichi and Chiri Yukie. Mashiho criticized their anthropological approach, accusing them of distorting Ainu culture for their own academic and colonial purposes. Batchelor, who created the first Ainu-English dictionary, had introduced Christianity to the Ainu while inaccurately representing their traditions. Kindaichi, despite his role in supporting Chiri’s efforts, would later be seen as part of the larger system of Japanese ethnographers who treated the Ainu as relics of a primitive past, rather than as equals.
A group of Ainu in front of Reverent John Batchelor’s home. Displayed in Batchelor’s Ainu of Japan (1892) under the title “Our Ainu Servants”.
Chiri’s work, however, stood apart—it was the first time the Ainu voice was heard through the pen of an Ainu person, faithfully transmitting the songs that had long been misinterpreted. In the foreword of Ainu Shin'yōshū, she writes:
“Long ago, this spacious Hokkaido was our ancestors’ space of freedom. Like innocent children, as they led their happy, leisurely lives embraced by beautiful, great nature. Truly, they were the beloved of nature; how blissful it must have been. [...] That realm of peace has passed; the dream shattered tens of years since, this land rapidly changing with mountains and fields transformed one by one into villages, villages into towns. [...] The few of us Ainu who remain watch wide-eyed with surprise as the world advances. And from those eyes is lost the sparkle of the beautiful souls of the people of old, whose every move and motion were controlled by religious sentiment; our eyes are filled with anxiety, burning with complaints, too dulled and darkened to discern the way ahead so that we have to rely on others’ mercy. A wretched sight. The vanishing—that is our name; what a sad name we bear.”
What She Left Behind
Chiri Yukie’s life was tragically short, but her legacy would shape the future of an entire people. The collection of kamuy yukar she had painstakingly transcribed became a beacon of Ainu pride, a reminder that their voices still had the power to be heard.
After Chiri’s untimely death at the age of 19, her work continued to inspire others. The book she left behind became a foundational text for those fighting to preserve and revive Ainu culture. In the years following its publication, it sparked a renewed interest in Ainu traditions, both among scholars and within the Ainu community itself. Her younger brother, Mashiho, would take up the mantle, becoming a fierce advocate for Ainu rights and an influential figure in the academic world. Through him, and through others who followed, Chiri’s spirit lived on. Chiri Yukie became a symbol of resilience, a figure who stood against the forces of erasure with nothing but her pen and her determination. Her work laid the groundwork for the Ainu cultural revival that continues to this day, proving that even in the face of overwhelming odds, a single voice can ignite a movement. The songs she preserved are now sung once more, as living testaments to the enduring strength of the Ainu people.
An Ainu craftsman in Nibutani, Hokkaido, Japan, 2014.
(Photo by Robert Kroos)
An Ongoing Struggle
Although Chiri Yukie’s work laid the foundation for the preservation of Ainu culture, the struggle for Ainu rights continues even today. For much of the 20th century, the Ainu people remained marginalized within Japanese society, fighting for recognition and the reclamation of their heritage. Legal recognition for the Ainu came only recently, with the Japanese government officially acknowledging them as an indigenous people in 2008, a significant victory for the Ainu community. Yet, despite this progress, the Ainu still face challenges in fully protecting their cultural identity.
Efforts to revive Ainu-itak and traditions have taken root, with various programs focusing on education, language preservation, and cultural revitalization. In Hokkaido, the ancestral land of the Ainu, government officials now answer the phone with "Irankarapte," an Ainu greeting. Activists like Kayano Shigeru (萱野 茂), Sekine Maya (関根摩耶), and Sekine Maki (関根真紀) tirelessly advocated for Ainu rights, pushing for greater inclusion in education, political representation, and the preservation of their cultural heritage. Kayano Shigeru, a politician and one of the last native Ainu speakers, was a leading figure until his passing in 2006. Maya Sekine, a radio presenter, Ainu-itak teacher, and YouTuber, continues to raise awareness. Maki Sekine, an artisan and activist, is dedicated to protecting Ainu culture and traditions. Together, their efforts have been crucial in advancing the cause of the Ainu people. The Ainu Policy Promotion Act of 2019 further provided a legal framework to protect and promote Ainu culture.
Recent decades have seen immense progress in the protections and reclamation of Ainu heritage, but the community continues to struggle against centuries of assimilation and erasure.
Edited by
Anthony Burger, Perla Camacho-Cedillo, Aline Tranchant, Konstantinos-Chery Krikelis
Cite this Article
Nauendorff, Marvin. 2024. "The Girl Who Caught the Gods—Chiri Yukie’s Last Gift to the Ainu." Linguaphile Magazine, August 21, 2024. https://www.linguaphilemagazine.org/editorial/chiri-yukie/
Further Reading
Jude Isabella, "The Untold Story of Japan's First People," SAPIENS, October 25, 2017.
This article explores the history of the Ainu and their struggle against prejudice and cultural erasure. It also highlights their ongoing efforts to revive their heritage and reclaim their identity.
Michael Hoffman, "To Bird, a Savage. To Chiri, Alive and Aglow," The Japan Times, January 21, 2024.
This article reflects on Chiri Yukie contrasting the views of outsiders who saw the Ainu as "savages" with her own deep understanding and reverence for her culture.
RECENT
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