Chiri Mashiho's Performative Translations of Ainu Oral Narratives

Abstract

This paper analyses ‘Karafuto Ainu no setsuwa’[The Tales of Karafuto-Ainu], a collection of Japanese translations of Ainu narratives by the Ainu-Japanese linguist and ethnologist Chiri Mashiho. Most of the material for Chiri's translations came from a collection of Ainu folktales, entitled ‘Materials for the Study of the Ainu Language and Folklore’ (1912), compiled by Polish scholar Bronislaw Pilsudski. The paper argues that Chiri and Pilsudski had unique life experiences that affected their views of the Ainu culture, and by reading Chiri's text against that of Pilsudski's, the author demonstrates how Chiri responded to the challenge of keeping alive the performative qualities of the oral Ainu tradition and thereby created a unique style of translation.