Mythology
There are several myths of Kamuy Fuchi's origins. In the most common, she descends from the heavens, accompanied by Kanna Kamuy, the kamuy of thunder and lightning. In another version, she was born from the fire-producing drill and is the sister of Hash-Inau-uk Kamuy, the goddess of the hunt. A third holds that she is the daughter of an elm tree by the prime originator Kandakoro Kamuy.
Kamuy Fuchi instructed Ainu women in the making of kut (sacred girdles). For this gift she earned the name Iresu Kamuy (People Teacher).
She is one of the most powerful kamuy in Ainu mythology. In one myth, her husband is seduced by Waka-ush Kamuy, the deity of fresh water. Kamuy Fuchi, insulted, challenges her rival to a duel of sorcery, from which she emerges victorious with relative ease. Her chastened husband returns home.
Kamuy Fuchi is a guardian of the home, and also the judge of domestic affairs. Those who pollute a hearth or fail to maintain proper domestic relationships are said to incur her punishment. To aid her in these duties, since she does not leave the hearth, she employs a number of other kamuy, including Mintakoro Kamuy, the guardian of a home's premises, and Rukoro Kamuy, the kamuy of the privy.
In addition to being the center of the Ainu household, the hearth was considered a gateway by means of which humans and kamuy could communicate. It is also the abode of the dead; the Ainu word for ancestor translates as those who dwell in the hearth. Transmigration is a tenet of Ainu mythology, so it was doubly important for the hearth to be kept pure, because the souls of the departed who lived there would be assigned to new bodies in time.
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Famous quotes containing the word mythology:
“In the United States there’s a Puritan ethic and a mythology of success. He who is successful is good. In Latin countries, in Catholic countries, a successful person is a sinner.”
—Umberto Eco (b. 1932)
“One memorable addition to the old mythology is due to this era,—the Christian fable. With what pains, and tears, and blood these centuries have woven this and added it to the mythology of mankind! The new Prometheus. With what miraculous consent, and patience, and persistency has this mythus been stamped on the memory of the race! It would seem as if it were in the progress of our mythology to dethrone Jehovah, and crown Christ in his stead.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I walk out into a nature such as the old prophets and poets, Menu, Moses, Homer, Chaucer, walked in. You may name it America, but it is not America; neither Americus Vespucius, nor Columbus, nor the rest were the discoverers of it. There is a truer account of it in mythology than in any history of America, so called, that I have seen.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)