The bear festival and the world of inau in Hokkaido as described by Matsuda Denjūrō 1799–1800 (Based on “Tales of the Northern Barbarians”)

The  Manuscript  by  Matsuda  Denjūrō  松田伝十郎  (1769–1843)  "Tales  of  the  Northern Barbarians" (" Hokuidan ,”  北夷談) is a valuable source on the history of Russian-Japanese relations, the development by the Japanese of the northern territories inhabited by the Ainu, relations and barter between them and the Japanese. The written source consists of seven notebooks. We used the manuscript that is kept in the National Archives of Japan ( Kokuritsu K ōbunshokan,  国立公文書館), established in 1971. The material is posted on the official website of the archive. The time of its creation falls on the first years of the Bunsei  文政 era, which lasted from 1818 to 1831. It describes the events from 1799 to 1822 in chronological order, i.e., the events that occurred during the 24 years of Matsuda's service in the lands of the Ainu. The manuscript is written in cursive (Japanese: "grass writing," sōsho 草書). The second half of the first book of the "Stories" deals with the bear festival and the world of  inau . The text is accompanied by numerous sketches. Matsuda was probably one of the first who briefly described the festival and various inau , cult objects of the Ainu. For comparison with the statements of the Japanese official, the opinions of authoritative Russian researchers on these topics are used. The illustrations in the manuscript are of great value. They provide additional information that is missing from the text itself. Matsuda’s descriptions refer to November   – December 1799. The “Hokuidan ” manuscript has not yet been translated into any of the European languages, with the exception of Russian. The author of this article provides translations of fragments of the written source in the chapters of published collective monographs [Klimov 2020, pp. 214–254; Klimov 2021, pp. 277–334; Klimov 2022, pp. 151–170]. The translation was carried out from the published text of the Japanese manuscript in the ten-volume series of written monuments titled Collection of Historical Materials About the Life of the Common People of Japan (Nihon shomin seikatsu shiryō shūsei  日本庶民生活史料集成) in the fourth volume [Matsuda 1969, pp. 77–175]. In addition to this series, the "Stories" were published in Old Japanese in the fifth volume of a six-volume series of written monuments called Library: Northern Gate (Hokumon sōsho 北門叢書), published in 1972.

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