Koro-pok-guru
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koropokkuru (コロポックル), also written Koro-pok-kuru, korobokkuru, or koropokkur, are a race of small people in Ainu folklore. The name is traditionally analysed as a tripartite compound of kor or koro ("butterbur plant"), pok ("under, below"), and kur or kuru ("person") and interpreted to mean "people below the leaves of the butterbur plant" in the Ainu language.
The Ainu believe that the koro-pok-guru were the people who lived in the Ainu's land before the Ainu themselves lived there. They were short of stature, agile, and skilled at fishing. They lived in pits with roofs made from butterbur leaves.
Long ago, the koro-pok-guru were on good terms with the Ainu, and would send them deer, fish, and other game and exchange goods with them. The little people hated to be seen, however, so they would stealthily make their deliveries under cover of night.
One day, a young Ainu man decided he wanted to see a koro-pok-guru for himself, so he waited in ambush by the window where their gifts were usually left. When a koro-pok-guru came to place something there, the young man grabbed it by the hand and dragged it inside. It turned out to be a beautiful koro-pok-guru woman, who was so enraged at the young man's rudeness that her people have not been seen since. Their pits, pottery, and stone implements, the Ainu believe, still remain scattered about the landscape.
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[edit] Scientific possibilities
It has been suggested that this myth points to an actual neolithic people who existed separately from the Ainu, and may even have been examples of Homo floresiensis, the so-called "hobbit" hominid. Evidence cited for this has included pit dwellings which differ from Ainu dwellings, and pottery which does not fit in with what is known of Ainu culture.[1]
[edit] In popular culture
- In the manga Shaman King the koropokkur ("minutians" in the English version) are depicted as a race of tiny spirit creatures which are influential to the background of the teenage Ainu shaman Horohoro. A particular koropokkur—named Kororo (Corey, in English)—accompanies Horohoro as his guardian spirit.
- They appear as playable race Koborokuru in Shadowrun, in the Shadowrun Companion: Beyond the Shadows rulebook.[2]
- "Koropokkuru"「コロポックル」is also the Official Fan Club name of the Japanese band Kra.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.cryptomundo.com/homo-floresiensis/koropokkuru/
- ^ Shadowrun Kompendium. Fantasy Productions. 1997. p. 38. ISBN 3890647316.
[edit] External links
- LoveToKnow Article on AINU – A text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica which includes a somewhat different interpretation of the koro-pok-guru.
