Ainu

The Ainu religion is the animist belief of the Ainu of Hokkaidō, Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. Everything in nature has a kamuy, a spirit or god. Among the most important are Kamuy-huci, the hearth goddess; Kim-un-kamuy, god of bears and mountains; and Ae-oyna-kamuy, a culture hero who taught the Ainu weaving and carving.

The Ainu have no professional priests; the village chief conducts the rites, which include libations of sake, prayers and offerings of inau, willow sticks with wooden shavings attached. Bears were believed to bring their hide and meat to humans as a gift from the mountain god.

Burials and houses at Ainu settlements of the thirteenth to seventeenth centuries follow these beliefs. After the Matsumae Domain sent an expedition to Sakhalin in 1635, Japanese traders came into closer contact with the Ainu.