The Ainos of Japan. , 481 



The Rearing of Bears and the Worship of 

 toshitsune by the alnos of japan. 



By D. P. Penhallow, B.Sc, F.R.S.C 



Professor of Botany, McGill University, Montreal. 



Griffis, 1 in speaking of the Aino worship says : — " The}^ 

 worship the spirit of Yoshitsune, a Japanese hero, who is 

 supposed to have lived among them in the twelfth century, 

 and who taught them some of the arts of Japanese civiliza- 

 tion." This is a statement which one frequently meets 

 with in the modern literature of Japan ; and it is also so 

 often met with by those who are resident in northern 

 Japan, that there appears to be some reason for its general 

 currency, more substantial than that of mere fable. Yoshit- 

 sune, the son of Yoshituno, was born in 1159, and while 

 yet a babe in his mother's arms, was saved by her from 

 the vengeance of his father's assassins. He lived to become 

 the ideal of chivalrous and knightly valor, to all future 

 generations of those who aspired to military fame. Becom- 

 ing the leading general in the army of his elder brother 

 Yoritomo, his success in gaining a victory over the Tiara so 

 aroused the jealousy of the latter, that his execution was 

 ordered upon very slender grounds. According to some 

 accounts, after escaping toward the north of Honshiu, 

 Yoshitsune found further escape impossible, and committed 

 hara-kiri. Another account relates that he escaped to the 

 Island of Yeso, where he ruled undisturbed for a time. 

 While yet another version, derived from the Chinese, ident- 

 ifies him with Genghis Khan. It is in connection with 

 the second version that the account of his reign over the 

 Ainos, and the worship of his spirit by them is associated. 

 That there is, therefore, considerable uncertainty as to the 

 actual manner and time of his death is evident, and to those 

 who have studied the Ainos, his worship by them has also 

 always been surrounded by very grave doubts. It is, there- 

 fore, a pleasure to produce testimony obtained by Mr. John 

 Batch el or, which seems to throw a great deal of light upon 

 the true nature of the relations existing between this 



1 Mikados Empire, 34. 



