An Ainu ceremony known as Iyomante, in which people shoot arrows at a brown bear cub regarded as a god. It’s based on the belief that sending the bear’s spirits back to the divine world will ...

The bears were being kept at the Ainu Cultural Museum when they came to ... a better long-term future for them all." The Ussuri brown bear, also known as the black grizzly, can weigh up to 86 ...

Find out the basis for such beliefs, along with what Hokkaido's Ainu have traditionally thought about the crane, the bear, the flying squirrel, and a host of other creatures. The excerpts below ...

The Ainu people regard numerous things in nature as "Kamuy," for instance, they call bears "Kim-un-Kamuy." The story tells of a former Japanese soldier seeking gold that's said to be hidden in ...

One Ainu group is petitioning the force and the ... 1 to be displayed on the vertical tail wings of its aircraft. It features a brown bear’s head, a bird’s feathers and an arabesque design ...