Iomante
Iomante, sometimes written as Iyomante is an Ainu ceremony of Hokkaido and Sakhalin in which a hand-raised brown bear cub is ceremonially killed, under the notion that the soul merely returns to its god-world. The physical body of the bear god is considered merely to be his "disguise", and the pelt and meat harvested are accepted as gifts that the god has left in gratitude for the ceremonious hospitality it received.
The term in some circles is used in the narrow sense of this elaborate ceremony of "sending" fostered animals, as opposed to more general "bear sendings", and the simpler rite performed for the bear or other game animals taken in the wild may be referred to as opunire or hopunire.
The iomante can technically apply to other animals such as owls, foxes, and raccoon dogs for special rites, and the Ainu home does accommodate for setting up the nurusan for these animals.
Nomenclature
The term iomante derives from i + oman + te , thus meaning "to make that go", hence "to send it".Technically, the term can generally apply to any game or prey, such as foxes, raccoon dogs, or owls.
While John Batchelor glossed "iyomande" as "sacrifice", he takes pains to explain this translation superficially transmits less than the meaning the Ainu has given it, noting that it is not "sacrifice to gods, but an offering to the victim himself". The meaning of the sending is better explained below.
Often, or at least in certain areas, the term iomante is reserved strictly to the "sending" that is performed during the special ritual that involves the bear raised in captivity, while the term opunire or hopunire is used for the more informal sending ritual performed on the bear killed at the hunting ground. The term hopunire breaks down into hop 'buttocks' + puni 'to lift something' + re ; hence it means "to cause it to be lifted, or cause it to start off and leave".
In the modern era, iomante generally refers to the sending performed on the brown bear, the only bear native to Hokkaido where the Ainu people were all eventually driven.
Also, when sending rather trivial small creatures, the term iwakte might be use. Although iwakte normally refers to the rite of sending off the soul of broken tools or vessels, the sending of a squirrel or hare may be called an iwakte.
Practice
A bear cub is captured and raised in its pen or cage, until the ceremony of iomante, in which it is ritually killed. However, the "bear god" is merely considered to have returned to his god-world, and his carnal body being merely his outer shell the pelt and meat for food that is harvested is interpreted to be a gift from the bear god in exchange for the ceremonious hospitality it receives at home or in the iomante ceremony.The creature is brought to the center of the village, tied to a post with the rope. The men in the village then take shots at the cub with blunted ceremonial arrows, until the time comes for it to be slaughtered. The bear is skinned, and the meat is distributed amongst the villagers. Its bare skull is dressed in flowery wood-shavings, placed on a pole, which is then dressed up. This "doll" is an object of worship for the villagers. The bear has now been "sent off".
Capture, caging, raising
As winter ends around February, a bear cub is captured from the open field, or having been born during its mother's hibernation. The mother bear is killed, and the cub is brought back to the village to be raised in captivity. In the beginning, it is raised like a human child indoors, and even breast-fed until it teethed. After it is weaned and grows larger, it is moved to a cage barred with logs known as heper-set. It is treated with high-quality food as behooves a guest, practically meals fit for humans. The fostering lasts usually until it reaches 1, 2, or up to 3 years of age.When the bear-sending festival season arrives, it is taken out of its cage. Thus a specialized cord called the heper-tush is dangled from between the log bars, and when the loop snags around the neck, and the bear is bound in tasuki fashion, then the lower logs are dislodged, so that the cub can be led out.
Festival grounds
The festival grounds are typically set up right outside a home. The coaxing of the bear cub out its cage may be conducted before the audience at the festival ground. The woman clap to rhythm raucously but melancholically, singing the 'upopo and dancing the rimse to entertain the bear. After the bear is bound, it is made to wear a ponpakeThe bear cub is brought to the open square, and tethered to a stake driven into the ground. The stake is referred to as a shutu-ni a "club-tree" The tip of the stake is decorated with inau wood-shavings.
Ceremonial arrow-shooting and slaying
Then comes the phase in the ceremony where blunted ceremonial arrows referred to as hana ya in Japanese and heper-ay are shot at the bear. These arrows have wooden hooks attached to the tip so that they may penetrate skin but only lightly. The arrowhead is dyed black and carved with intaglio patterns. Also silk-cloth might be tied to it. If the ceremony arrows happen to stick, it is swept off using a bamboo grass switch or broom. This portion lasts till sunset, and since both people and animal are exhausted, the bear is led back to the stake to rest. Slaughter involves crushing it to death by clasping its neck between two or more logs. This killing contraption is called rek-nunpa-ni. If the cub's size has become too unwieldy, an adept elder is chosen to shoot it through the heart with a real arrow. Batchelor witnessed some of the hardiest men engage in drinking the warm blood, apparently to have courage imparted on them. When the slaughter is over, someone shoots an arrow in the sky signaling the end. The girl who had been assigned to raise the bear is known to cry out in grief.The brown bear is then butchered so the meat can eventually be served,.
Offering-place
On the festival grounds, the nusasan is set up where special inau wood-shaving sticks are propped up, and laid out with nikap-umbe. Various offerings from , quiver, sitoki, armor, and sintoko. Also food items such as sito, dried fish, together with ceremonial arrows are bound together inside a rolled-up ornamental mat, so that the god can shoulder it as a take-home gift. Batchelor learned the name of the take-home gifts to be imoka-sike and describes it as strung-up millet cakes.The bear is laid flat, and arrows or quivers filled with dried salmon is hung around the neck, and the ponpake apron is laid atop it. Alcoholic drink is offered in a kip.
Walnut-tossing
In the modern-day iomante, after the bear has been slaughtered, there occurs the event of so-called "walnut-tossing", which is plainly similar to the Japanese custom of conducted as shrines, and this aspect has been regarded as a likely borrowed piece of culture due to contact between the Ainu and Japanese.In the bear-sending performed at, Tokachi Subprefecture, after the bear is slaughtered some men climb atop the cage and throw walnuts and chestnuts to the crowd. And during the ceremony in Suwankotan formerly of Nishibetsu, , after the bear is butchered, the elders throw walnuts and thick cuts of dried salmon, which the people vie with each other to collect. A 1920s book also records the distributing of walnuts and mikan oranges.
A much older record survives in Murakami Shimanojō 's painting Ezo-shima kikan that chestnuts and kibi were distributed.
Overall flow after slaughter
There follows the process of trying to remove the fleshed head from the entire fur-pelt with the head part still attached. That head is then "cleaned". The skull is then taken indoors to have un-memke, after which the skull is moved out through the "window of gods" and affixed to a pole, which propped up in the decorated nusasan area. Now the hopunire of the head is considered complete, and the ceremonial part of the iomante is virtually done as well, with the carousels to follow until the third night.Un-memke
The skull decorating or un-memke is typically performed indoors in front of the altar, but may be performed outdoors at the kamuy-nusa adorned with wood-shavings called inau-kike, inaw-kike in Ainu or kezuri-bana in Japanese. Cavities like the eye-sockets are filled with these shavings, and other decor is made, differing depending on the region.It is noted that some pieces of skin or flesh may remain on the skull which will eventually decay away after it is propped up on display, but as illustrations show, the bear's ears remain attached, and this is deliberately done so in some regions. Thus in the aforementioned Suwankotan hamlet, it had been customary to leave the snout portion beyond the eyes intact on the skull, until this was discontinued due to mercantile reasons of preserving the hide's fetch price. But the custom of keeping the ears intact has remained. Furthermore, a film of subcutaneous connective tissue is crafted into a torii-shaped ribbon, and is then wound in shavings, to form a sike-tar for carrying his takehome gifts back.
The skull is placed in front of the hearth, and here too offerings are made: necklace, shito dumplings, bows, decorated sword, etc. The sapanpe or ritual crown used by the elder may also be offered, and the final farewell prayer kamui-nomi is pronounced. A portion of the foodstuff such as the shito dumplings, the clouded sake, and meshi has been set aside specifically for offerings, and separated from what people are allowed to consume.
When the decorating is done, the skull is moved out through "window of gods" or "spirit window", and affixed securely to the yuk-sapa-o-ni, or keomane-ni.
The skull and pole might then get "dressed up" by having the ponpake cape/apron suspended from the head, or be made to wear a kapar-amip.