Abstract

Living in the World of the Ainus tells us the story of two lives whose destinies cross on in the island of Hokkaido. A young woman who embarks herself on a journey to the far North to quest for the meaning for her life, and an older woman raised by an adoptive Ainu mother after being handed to her by the biological family. From her she learned not only the long and vanishing culture of the Ainu people, but also his unwritten language. Thanks to this encounter, the author recorded and documented the traditions of the original settlers of the island, and their language which was on the verge of disappearing due to the influence of the large settlement of Japanese people who brought with them and imposed their own foreign language.

Author’s Information

Kano Kayabe was born in Kyoto in 1924. She graduated at the Women University of Tokyo after leaving her literary studies at Kyoto University. She joined a Publishing House and meanwhile contributed to support the Labor movements and Union struggles like that of the coal miners in northern Kyushu. In 1962 she left everything behind and moved to Hokkaido where she did part time jobs in the cities of Abashiri and Obihiro. In 1973 se moved back to Kyoto where she starts to participate in the Society for the Study of the Science of Thought. She passed away in 2007.