Iomante

Common card · No. 424960

Iomante (Japanese: イオマンテ), sometimes written as Iyomante (Japanese: イヨマンテ) is an Ainu ceremony of Hokkaido and Sakhalin in which a hand-raised brown bear cub is ceremonially killed, under the belief that the soul merely returns to its god-world (kamuy mosir). The physical body of the bear god is considered merely to be his "disguise" (hopunire), 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 (hand-raised bear cubs), as opposed to more general "bear sendings" (熊送り, kumaokuri), 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 (e.g. Blakiston's fish owl or shima fukurō), foxes, and raccoon dogs for special rites, and the Ainu home (chise) does accommodate for...

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