SIETAR Japan, Kansai Chapter, November 2007   “Experiential Cosmology beyond Language and Ethnicity through Oral Literature and Music”

Presenter:    Ms. Aki Nagane

Date:              November 11 ( Sunday), 2:00pm-4:00pm

Place:         Takatsuki Shiritsu Shogai Gakushu Center

               (10 minutes walk from JR Takatsuki station or Hankyu

               Takatsukishi station),  Tel:  072-674-7700

              http://www.city.takatsuki.osaka.jp/bunka/manabi

Fee:          500yen for members and students, 1.000yen for non-members

Lnguage:     Japanese

 

Description of the Presentation

   Only one hundred years and some decades have passed since most of the residents in Hokkaido came to be predominantly made up of those who do not have faith in Ainu gods.  Just dating back to four generations ago, there was a world where people prayed to their gods.  It was not very far from the present.  An Ainu fuchi, an old lady who was born in the Meji Era, introduced me to her (Ainu) world through Ainu stories.  If you immerse  yourself in the story telling, even if you can not understand the language, you might experience some of the cosmology behind the stories.”

(She will tell a story in Ainu language and play the Mukkuri instrument.)

Profile of the Presenter

Born and raised in Chitose, Hokkaido, she started to get involved with Ainu culture in 1993, the special year for International Indigenous People.

It was at this time that she attended an Ainu language course and encountered mukkuri, an Ainu musical instrument.  Under the instruction of Phillpe Dalle, a famous mukkuri player living in Switzerland, she learned mukkukri and became the winner of the fourth Mukkuri competition in Hokkaido in 1999.  Ms. Nagane published her first book about how to play mukkuri in 2000.  Her first solo album titled “Monola” came out in 2001.  She moved to Kyoto in 2004 to pursue other interests.  Since then she has been active as both a mukkuri player and a coordinator of Ainu culture activities.