Browsing by Author "Frohsin, Molly"

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    The Urgency of Utari: Decolonizing Translation and Preserving Ainu Identity Through the Oral Narratives of Chiri Yukie’s Ainu Shin'yōshū
    (2024) Frohsin, Molly; Schoneveld, Erin
    The Ainu people are an indigenous population of northern Japan and Russia, comprising three subgroups: Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and Kuril Ainu. Following the Meiji Restoration and seizure of Ezo, renamed Hokkaido in 1869, all but the Hokkaido Ainu were ethnically cleansed from their homeland, with Hokkaido Ainu being forcibly assimilated into Japanese culture. Linguistically, Hokkaido Ainu is the only surviving dialect of the Ainu language, classified as endangered by UNESCO. While the extinction and endangerment of Ainu language dialects was, in part, due to linguistic assimilation, no Ainu dialect has ever possessed a formal written language system, rendering Ainu historical information by means other than oral tradition previously challenging. Though Western missionaries and scholars constructed Ainu writing and published Ainu-English dictionaries, they were not entirely accurate and not meant for ease of communication, but rather to succeed in their proselytization of the Ainu people. However, it was oral traditionalist and transcriber Chiri Yukie, a young Ainu woman, who first began publishing the oral narratives and legends of the Ainu gods, or kamui yukar, in written format, in her yukar anthology entitled Ainu Shin’yōshū (Ainu Collection of Mythology). In addition to her Ainu upbringing, Chiri became fluent in Japanese, and published the Ainu Shin’yōshū in both languages. This thesis will examine Chiri’s written preservation of the Ainu language, as well as her incomparable impact on Ainu identity and pride. Although Western figures have attempted to lay claim to their superiority in the Ainu Studies field, their academic merit is hindered both by their misconception of the Ainu as a primitive society and discriminatory remarks made towards the Ainu people, present in their publications. From both an anthropological and social standpoint, it is evident that Chiri’s transcriptions, authentically promoting the heritage of the kamui yukar, are exceptionally valuable products of her short lifetime.