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Akan-Mashū NP, Hokkaido
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This is a stage performance, not an actual bear-sending ceremony. The local Ainu organization says it was created to convey the rare iomante ritual’s atmosphere and spirit through song, dance and fire.
Iomante means “sending it off.” In Ainu understanding, a bear is a kamuy visiting the human world with gifts of meat and fur; the rite thanks its spirit and sends it back to the world of kamuy.
Fire is more than stage scenery: Ainu prayers first address Apefuchi Kamuy, the fire kamuy, asking for the prayer to be carried to the deity it is meant for. The glowing hearth has a sacred role.
In 2021, the show was remade as Akan Yukar “Poem of the Fire Kamuy.” It draws on kamuy-voiced oina, including stories preserved by Ainu storyteller Yae Shitaku and passed on by her granddaughter, Tomoko Taira.
The festival’s home, Ikor, opened in 2012 as Japan’s first theater dedicated to Ainu dance. Its unusual stage includes both a fire pit and an artificial stream.
The theater’s name, Ikor, means “treasure” in Ainu. Its local organization connects that word with stories passed down through generations and expressed in traditional song and dance.
