Mintuci

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The mintuci (Ainu ミントゥチ; also mintuci kamuy, also transliterated into Japanese as mintsuchi (ミンツチ)) is a water sprite or an aquatic supernatural creature, a half-man-half-beast, told in stories of Ainu mythology and folklore. It is also considered a variant of the kappa and therefore a type of yōkai.

Nomenclature[edit]

The name is mintuci[1][2] (Ainu: ミントゥチ[2]) according to modern Ainu orthography, but it is also commonly spelled mintsuchi (ミンツチ) in folkloric study literature written in Japanese.[1][3][4][a]

Definitions[edit]

The mintuci has been defined as "fabulous animal", purported to be "half human and half animal and to inhabit lakes and rivers" in the Ainu dictionary c. 1900 compiled by British missionary John Batchelor.[6][b] But he also contrived of it as a type of water spirit,[7][c] and stated it was considered by the Ainu to be a type of "koshimpuk" (normalized spelling: kosimpuk, kosimpu [ja]),[9] which is a word glossed as meaning 'fairy' or 'daemon'.[10][11]

Others characterize it as a yōkai, closely akin to the kappa,[12] but still others point out that there are legends peculiar to the Ainu that are attached to the mintuci, not seen in kappa legends.[13]

Etymology[edit]

The Ainu word mintuci is considered to be borrowed from the Japanese word mizuchi (or variants thereof) that are local appellations for the kappa,[14] ultimately deriving from the term mizuchi which signifies a type of dragon.[12][15][d]

However, Batchelor has given a strictly Ainu etymology for mintuci, explaining it as a compound of mimi (or mim) meaning 'flesh' and tumunci (トゥームーンチー) meaning 'devil'.[9]

Synonyms[edit]

According to some Ainu elders, mintuci was a name that people on the Japanese mainland used to refer to kappa,[17][18] and the correct Ainu term was Shiri-sham-ainu (シリシャマイヌ) literally denoting a "mountain-side-person".[17][12] Its bald-headedness and reference to the mountain-side suggests a hypothetical connection to, or conflation with, the generic Japanese mountain deity, the Yama-no-Kami.[12]

The name manifests local variation, and the creature is called mimtuci (ミムトゥチ) in the Chitose dialect[19] and mintoci (ミントチ) in the Ishikari region.[20]

The creature is known by the name hundoci (フンドチ) or slight variants thereof in the Tokachi and Kurshiro regions.[14][5][21][e] It is said to make an occasional grunting noise like "hunn (フンッ)", according to the folklore of the town of Ikeda in the eastern part of the Tokachi Plain, where the hundoci appears the guise of a diminutive old person of indeterminate gender.[12]

The kappa of the Ainu may otherwise be called "mintoci kamuy, nintoci kamuy, or huntoci kamuy". [f][22]

Folklore[edit]

Ishikari River, Hokkaido where some of the mintuci legends are set

The mintuci are reputedly of the height and stature of a 3-year old to a 12 or 13 year-old human,[23][18] and it has a head of hair without a "plate" like the kappa[24][23] (though having fleshy, bald patches on their heads[g][9][4]), and though they may be bald-headed the males and females still can be distinguished, or so it has been told in the tale where the mintuci appears in the Ishikari River.[h][25][12]

Its skin is purplish or reddish, with sea turtle-like texture, and they have either bird-like feet[24][23] or four sets of hooves,[6] with one supposed witness discovering sickle-like footprints.[5][i] There also exists oral tradition that both its arms are attached, so that tugging one arm makes the other become shorter, or pulling on one arm hard enough will cause both arms to be ripped out; however, this curious anatomical lore may not be original, since it is told of the kappa in some regions of Japan.[26][27]

The mintuci are said to hunt people and livestock by dragging them under water, but this prankishness is also a trait frequently ascribed to the kappa, cf. the motif of the kappa komabiki ("the water-imp dragging a horse into the water").[12][8]

People may also become possessed by the mintuci,[12] and women possessed by one may attempt to seduce men.[27] According to a legend circulating in Kushiro, on a foggy nights, a victim may detect what seems to be human presence that has abruptly appeared ahead of him, and trying to engage this entity in conversation will go unanswered; it continues to walk onward until the victim notices the odd bird-like footprints, and just then the mintuci's shadow would vanish and come around from behind, dragging the victim into the water.[18]

Benefactor or menace[edit]

Although the mintuci is generally considered an "evil dispositioned" type of fabulous aquatic creature, reputed to "disembowel and devour human beings when they catch them", there are also benevolent types called pirika mintuci (lit. "good mintuci") which inhabit the mountains according to John Batchelor.[6]

It is not strictly just the mountain type which assists humans (bringing bounty of the mountain, i.e., luck of hunting), because the aquatic mintuci are also known to help (bestow bounties of the waters, i.e., luck in fishing), and there are also dangerous consequences when the mountain mintuci is crossed, as detailed below:

As the mintuci is a deity which controls the fish, it may bring luck to fishermen, but at a price, because as long as it is present it will be responsible for an increase in deaths by drowning.[28][12] In an anecdote set in the Ishikari region, the mintuci allowed a bountiful catch of fish, but it was sure to take several lives each year, so that the people begged it to move elsewhere to the town of Shizunai in Hidaka (now incorporated into the town of Shinhidaka, Hokkaido), and as a result, the drownings ceased, but the fish catch plummeted afterwards.[24] In another tale, a mintuci became the adopted husband and came to live with the bride's family in the hamlet of Chikabumi in Asahikawa, and he brought about a rich harvest of fish, but was discovered to be the cause of increased drownings in the rivers, so was expelled, and thereafter it moved to Shibichari River (in town of Shizunai).[29] The prosperity of Asahikawa and Saru River was attributed to the mintuci's protection.[12]

The mintuci also blesses the hunter, rewarding him with game in plenitude according to folk tradition.[12] According to one piece of lore, the chieftain of the mintuci is called mintuci-tono,[j] and he is a bearer of bow and arrows, known to aid humans in need, or giving the gift of bow and arrows, but in return demands offering of sake or hei type ornaments, and people are obliged to comply.[5] But the ornament in question should not be the inaw usually offered to the gods, but a more simplified version.[5][k]

The mintuci is thought capable of transforming into a youth and becoming an adopted husband at a home with only daughters, bringing about fortune and luck of the hunt, but once the village incurs his wrath, he will depart, absconding with the community's food spirit, causing famine.[24] There are tales of the mintuci acting as guardians for humans in Asahikawa and Saru River areas.[12] In one tale set in Saru River, a mintuci who helped the chieftain carry his load demanded a banquet afterwards, rewarding his hosts with a golden tobacco case (金の煙草入) said to be an amulet of protection from night raids. When another village attacked, those who participated in providing hospitality to the spirit were intact, but those who failed to come to the gathering all lost their lives.[5] The motif of the golden tobacco case amulet as a gift also occurs in a variant tale entitled "Kappa no hanashi" where the benefactor is the kappa-deity or nintoci kamuy.[32]

Origin tale[edit]

According to one origin myth,[34] long ago during the epoch when the god Okikurumi descended on earth and ruled over the Ainu (human) world, there came far from the sea the smallpox divinity known to the Ainu as Patum-kamui (パツムカムイ), and many succumbed to disease. Okikurmi then created a set of 61 Chishinap-kamui (Ti-sinap-kamuy[36][l]) made by braiding mugworts[m] into a cross shape, breathing life into them to fight the smallpox divinity/demon. All but one of the puppets drowned and grand general who remained managed to defeat the smallpox demon.[4] The puppets that drowned thereafter became the mintuci kamuy, helping people in case of illness or adversity.[39][12][40]

A (less mythologized) and historical folk tradition blames the arrival of the pox to Japanese traders and their merchant ships.[43] According to tradition, the Smallpox Deity (smallpox demon) sneaked onto the bezaisen boats [ja] which the Japanese sailed into Hokkaido to establish trade relations with the Ainu during the Edo period. A smallpox outbreak killed many Ainu.[12] And this led to the custom of creating the weed dolls for protection from this disease, namely, the Ti-sinap-kamuy was not invented by a god, but by the Ainu people.[44][45] In fact, the literal meaning of Ti-sinap-kamuy is 'god whom we bundled/bound'.[37]

Explanatory notes[edit]

  1. ^ The romanization mintsūchi[?] (ミンツゥチ) is also attested in a Taisho-era paper.[5]
  2. ^ Batchelor (2nd ed., 1905) romanized as mintuchi, but modern standard romanization of the Ainu is mintuci as stated.
  3. ^ Prof. Ishikawa makes the problematic claim, directly quoting from Batchelor's "glossaries" (dictionary) and (mis)translating "fabulous animal" as "spiritual being" (霊物). This is more accurately translated by Takamisawa as "legendary animal" (伝説上の動物).[8] Prof. Ishikawa's claim can still be justified however, since Batchelor's dictionary adds that mintuci is a type of "mermaid",[6] and elsewhere he is seen applying "mermaid" as the English shortand for pe-boso-koshimpuk (sic.),[9] where koshimp[uk] means 'fairy/demon' (viz. infra); Batchelor also explains mintuci to be the Ainu name for a "water nymph",[9] and a nymph is of course commonly seen as a spirit or minor deity.
  4. ^ While Takamisawa links mintuci with the mizuchi dragon, the source she invokes (Sakurai) only connects mizushi, medochi etc., (local Japanese terms for kappa, not the Ainu term) with the mizuchi dragon. The hypothesis that the northeastern name medochi for a kappa derived from the mizuchi dragon was already anticipated by Kumagusu Minakata in his essay concerning the year of the snake (1917), which was an installment in his zodiacal series Jūnishi kō.[16]
  5. ^ Known as hunduci (フンヅゥチ) among the Ainu of Fushikobetsu (伏古別, now Obihiro).[5]
  6. ^ Here quoting the examples given by Genzō Sarashina [ja] in his notes to his collected tale "kappa wo yaita hai [The ashes of a burnt-up kappa]", but in this particular tale, it is the fiendish creature mosir-sinnaysam [ja] which is labeled as a kappa as a shorthand name.
  7. ^ This fleshy head gave rise to its name, meaning "flesh[y] devil" according to Batchelor.
  8. ^ This description of a bald kappa (nintoci kamuy) of Ishikari River occurs in the tale where a youth from the kotan (village) of Chikapuni [ja] sets out to journey the way downstream this river to Yūbetsu. The kappa predicts that the Yūbetsu people will be loth to comply with the youth's mission (return of a loaned treasure), and will persuade him to embark on a perilous search for the eggs of the giant bird huri kamuy [ja], but the youth is protected by a small bag amulet and succeeds in winning its feather.
  9. ^ Discovered by a person named Itonbiya from the hamlet of Nioi (荷負, now a district or aza within the town of Biratori, Hokkaido), who found the sickle-like prints at a spot named Abushi (also within Biratori).
  10. ^ Normalized as ミントゥチトノ, though the original paper gives ミンツゥチトノ.
  11. ^ The motif of requiring a more meagre inaw (Ainu: nitne inaw, translated "hard inaw"Ōtani (2016), p. 71 also translatable as "shabby inaw"[30]) is also recorded in the oral tale recited by Ms. Ueda.[31]
  12. ^ These are otherwise known as noya-imos-kamuy (ノヤイモシカムイ, lit. 'mugwort magic-imbued god[s]').[37]
  13. ^ In Japanese writers refer to the Japanese plant name yomogi but this generally implies Artemesia princeps, when the Ainu refers to the noya as in (noya-kamuy), the word noya without any qualification is assumed to designate a different plant whose Japanese nameis ezo-yomogi or ōyomogi, A. montana.[38]

References[edit]

Citations
  1. ^ a b Kanematsu (1985).
  2. ^ a b Ainu mukei bunka denshō hozonkai, ed. (1983). Ainu no minwa アイヌの民話. Vol. 1. p. 27.
  3. ^ Takamisawa (1995), p. 358.
  4. ^ a b c Spevakovsky, Alexander Borisovich [in Russian] (1988). Dukhi, oborotni, demony i bozhestva aynov: religioznyye vozzreniya v traditsionnom aynskom obshchestve Духи, оборотни, демоны и божества айнов: религиозные воззрения в традиционном айнском обществе [Spirits, werewolves, demons and deities of the Ainu: religious beliefs in traditional Ainu society] (in Russian). Nauka. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Yoshida, Iwao [in Japanese] (1914), "Ainu no yōkai setsuwa (zoku)" アイヌの妖怪説話 (續), Jinruigaku zasshi, the Journal of the Anthropological Society of Nippon, 29 (10), The Anthropological Society of Nippon: 405–407, doi:10.1537/ase1911.29.397
  6. ^ a b c d Batchelor, John (1905) [1889]. An Ainu-English-Japanese Dictionary アイヌ・英・和辭典 (2nd ed.). Methodist Publishing House. pp. 265–266.
  7. ^ Ishikawa (1985), p. 250.
  8. ^ a b Takamisawa (1995), p. 359.
  9. ^ a b c d e Batchelor (1901), p. 545.
  10. ^ kosimpu: 'fairy' (Japanese: yōsei)Kayano, Shigeru (1996), Ainu-go jiten アイヌ語辞典, Sanseido, p. 237, ISBN 9784385170503
  11. ^ kosimpu: 'daemon' (Japanese: yōma)Chiri, Mashiho (1936), "Bunrui Ainu-go jiten" 分類アイヌ語辞典, Jōmin bunka kenkyū (68): 143–144
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Murakami, Kenji [in Japanese] (2005). Nihon yōkai daijiten 日本妖怪大事典. Kwai books (in Japanese). Tōkyō: Kadokawa Shoten. pp. 317–318. ISBN 4-04-883926-8. OCLC 64576243.
  13. ^ Ishikawa (1985), pp. 250–251.
  14. ^ a b Yazaki, Haruna; et al. (Graduate School of Letters, Hokkaido University) (2013), "Kappa denshō kara miru Ainu-go mintuci to Nihon-go mizuchi no kankeisei" 河童伝承からみるアイヌ語「ミントゥチ」と日本語「ミヅチ」の関係性, 2013 nendo dai-2 kai kenkyūkai happyō yōshi [Presentation summary of the 2nd Meeting of the Graduate School of Letters, FY2013], pp. 405–407, doi:10.1537/ase1911.29.397
  15. ^ Takamisawa (1995), p. 359 quotes Mitsuru Sakurai: "加賀、能登方面でミズシ (That whichi is called mizushi in the Kaga Province and Noto Peninsula regions) .. ".
  16. ^ Minakata, Kumagusu (1917), "Jūnishi kō (4): hebi ni kansuru minzoku to densetsu" 十二支考(4):蛇に関する民俗と伝説, Taiyō Aozora bunko No.2536; —— (1973). "Hebi ni kansuru minzoku to densetsu" 蛇に関する民俗と伝説. In Iikura, Shohei [in Japanese] (ed.). Jūnishi kō 1 十二支考 1. Toyo bunko 215. Heibonsha. p. 231. ISBN 9784582802153.
  17. ^ a b Kindaichi (1914), p. 23.
  18. ^ a b c Mizuki, Shigeru (2004). Mujara1: Kantō, Hokkaido, Okinawa hen 妖鬼化 1 関東・北海道・沖縄編. Softgarage. p. 126. ISBN 978-4-86133-004-9.
  19. ^ Nakagawa, Hiroshi [in Japanese] (1995), Ainu go Chitose hōgen jiten アイヌ語千歳方言辞典, Sōfūkan, p. 126, ISBN 4-88323-078-3
  20. ^ Kanematsu (1985), pp. 120, 127.
  21. ^ Kanematsu (1985), p. 127.
  22. ^ Sarashina, Genzō [in Japanese] (1963), "Kappa wo yaita hai" 河童を焼いた灰 [The ashes of a burnt-up kappa], Ainu minwashū アイヌ民話集, Kita shobō, pp. 58–59
  23. ^ a b c Ishikawa (1985), p. 255.
  24. ^ a b c d Kusano, Takumi; Tobe, Tamio [in Japanese] (1994). Nihon yōkai hakubutsukan 日本妖怪博物館 (in Japanese). Tōkyō: Shinkigensha. p. 109. ISBN 4-88317-240-6.
  25. ^ Sarashina (1971) "Ishikari-gawa no kappa 石狩川の河童 [The kappa of Ishikari River]", Ainu densetsushū, pp. 312–313, as told by the woman Munsasima Kawamura (川村ムイサシマッ, ad. munnuye 'sweep', the "n" before "s" is pronounced "y") of Chikapuni [ja].
  26. ^ Ōshima, Tatehiko [in Japanese]; Sonoda, Minoru [in Japanese]; Tamamuro, Fumio [in Japanese] (2001), Nihon no shinbutsu no jiten 日本の神仏の辞典, Taishūkan shoten, p. 1236, ISBN 9784469012682
  27. ^ a b Kusano, Takumi; Shibuya, Yūji (1997). Gensō dōbutsu jiten 幻想動物事典 (in Japanese). Tōkyō: Shinkigensha. p. 299. ISBN 4-88317-283-X. OCLC 675909434.
  28. ^ Ishikawa (1985), p. 251.
  29. ^ Ishikawa (1985), p. 251 apud Ainu densetsushū.
  30. ^ Ueda, Toshi (2014), "4. Usagi no hozumi" 4. ウサギの穂摘み (PDF), Ueda Toshi no minwa 2 上田トシの民話 ２ [A hare's (grain-)gathering], Ainu Museum, p. 97 1996年9月28日採録。
  31. ^ Untitled prose tale (uwepeker) in Ainu language, told by Ms. Toshi Ueda (上田トシ, 1912–2005) of Penakori in the town of Biratori, Saru District. Ōtani (2016), summary pp. 57–5; text and opposing translation pp. 60–73.
  32. ^ Sarashina, Genzō [in Japanese]; Andō, Mikio [in Japanese] (1977), "Kappa no hanashi" 河童の話, Hokkaidō no densetsu 北海道の伝説, Nihon no densetsu 17, Kadokawa, pp. 202–204 Brief summary: Ōtani (2016), p. 59.
  33. ^ Fujita, Mamoru (1995), "Kikin wo shudai to suru Ainu no shinyō: ningen to kamui no sekai no taishōsei, kigen no tankyū, katari no jiyū" 飢饉を主題とするアイヌの神謡 - 人間とカムイの世界の対称性、起原の探究、語りの自由 -, in Nakagawa, HIroshi [in Japanese] (ed.), Chiba daigaku daigakuin jinbun shkaikagaku kenkyūka project report 千葉大学大学院人文社会科学研究科研究プロジェクト報告書 (PDF), p. 67, n9
  34. ^ Miura (2002), p. 119 specifies this as an origin tale (kigen tan); cited by Fujita.[33]
  35. ^ Kindaichi (1914), p. 24.
  36. ^ Normalized spelling. "Chi-shinap-kamui" is the romanization that Kindaichi used.[35]
  37. ^ a b Kayano, Shigeru (2003), Itsutsu no shinzō wo motta kami: Ainu no kamizukuri to okuri 五つの心臓を持った神: アイヌの神作りと送り, Komine shoten, p. 262, ISBN 9784338081443
  38. ^ Sarashina, Genzō [in Japanese] (1982), Ainu bungaku no nazo アイヌ文学の謎, Ainu kankei chosakushū 7, Miyama shōbō, p. 153
  39. ^ Kindaichi (1914), p. 24; summarized in Ishikawa (1985), p. 257.
  40. ^ Morozov, I. A. [in Russian] (2011). Fenomen kukly v tradit︠s︡ionnoĭ i sovremennoĭ kulʹture : krosskulʹturnoe issledovanie ideologii antropomorfizma Феномен куклы в традиционной и современной культуре. Кросскультурное исследование идеологии антропоморфизма (PDF). Moskwa: Indrik. ISBN 978-5-91674-114-8. OCLC 711737736. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  41. ^ Inada, Kōji [in Japanese]; Ozawa, Toshio [in Japanese], eds. (1989), Nihon mukashibanashi tsūkan: Hokkaido (Ainu minzoku) 日本昔話通観: 北海道(アイヌ民族), vol. 1, Dōhōsha, pp. 164, 901, ISBN 9784810406177
  42. ^ Hirayama, Hiroto [in Japanese] (1996), Ainu shi wo mitsumete アイヌ史を見つめて, Hokkaido shuppan kikaku center, p. 453, ISBN 9784832896024
  43. ^ There is historical basis to this, as it has been pointed out, that the bezaisen [ja] boats habitually forced the crewmen who presented with smallpox symptoms off board and abandoned them on Ainu territory, which led to epidemics. (Nihon mukashibanashi tsūkan, 1, tale 46).[41][42] Although this commentary is on the smallpox deity, and does not touch on the mintuci per se.
  44. ^ Tada, Katsumi [in Japanese] (1990). Gensō sekai no jūnin tachi IV nihon-hen 幻想世界の住人たち IV 日本編. Truth in fantasy. Tōkyō: Shinkigensha. p. 117. ISBN 4-915146-44-8. OCLC 673449350.
  45. ^ Ishikawa (1985), p. 257.
Bibliography
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