3月3日(日)13時~
親子で紡ぐ日本の美
心を彩る、外国の親子向け書道ワークショップ
March 3rd (Sunday) 13:00~
Weaving the Beauty of Japan Together as a Family
Calligraphy Workshop for Foreign Parents and Children, Adding Color to the Heart.
二歳児から参加可 外国人留学生歓迎!
We welcome participants from two years old and extend a warm welcome to international students!
https://human-connect-hyogo.org/iwill/wadoushinraku/
Korpokkur (or Korbokkur) – ‘People under the butterbur leaves’
Korpokkur are the tribes of dwarfs in folklore of the Ainu people of the northern Japanese islands, meaning 'people under the butterbur leaves'.
The Ainu believe that the korpokkur were the people who lived in the Ainu's land before the Ainu themselves lived there. They were short of stature, agile, and skilled at fishing. They lived in pits with roofs made from butterbur leaves.
Long ago, the korpokkur were on good terms with the Ainu, and would send them deer, fish, and other game and exchange goods with them. The little people hated to be seen, however, so they would stealthily make their deliveries under the cover of night.
One day, a young Ainu man decided he wanted to see a korpokkur for himself, so he waited in ambush by the window where their gifts were usually left. When a korpokkur came to place something there, the young man grabbed it by the hand and dragged it inside. It turned out to be a beautiful korpokkur woman with a tattoo on the back of her hand (the tattooing of Ainu women is said to be based on this). She was so enraged at the young man's rudeness that her people have not been seen since. Their pits, pottery, and stone implements, the Ainu believe, still remain scattered about the landscape.
[History of Ainu]
The Ainu are an indigenous people from Sakhalin in the north to the Kuril Islands and Kamchatka Peninsula in the north-east and around the northern Japanese archipelago, especially in Hokkaido. The Ainu have long had an economic zone around the Sea of Okhotsk region.
They worshipped bears and wolves, as well as gods embodied in the elements of nature, such as water, fire and wind.
Ainu is the Ainu language for 'human' and is believed to have originally meant 'human' as a concept as opposed to 'kamui' (a designation referring to nature based on the spirit that everything in nature has a heart).
The Ainu people were conquered and their land confiscated by neighbouring Japan and Russia between the 15th and 18th centuries. Later, in the 19th century, forced them to convert, apply their customs and belong. During the Soviet era, hundreds of Ainu were executed or forcibly relocated. Today, the population and the Ainu language are in decline and there are revival efforts for their traditional culture.